XML Shipping Rate API FAQ
Use our XML shipping rate request and response Web services calls to integrate shipping rates, from Shipwire warehouses to your buyers, directly into your e-commerce applications. This means instant quotes automatically from the warehouse closest to each customer!
What is difference between the Rate and Response DTD’s?
The “Rate” DTD is for your application to request a shipping rate. the “Reponse” DTD is what Shipwire will respond with.
How does International Shipping work?
We are going to answer this by looking at valid shipping methods that can be used. In OrderList.dtd schema there is the example:
Example: <Shipping>1D</Shipping>
Example: <Shipping>2D</Shipping>
Example: <Shipping>GD</Shipping>
Example: <Shipping>FT</Shipping>
Example: <Shipping>INTL</Shipping>
These are all the possible codes; however, further explanation is warrented.
A given order can be either domestic (shipping warehouse and customer are in the same country) or international (shipping warehouse and customer are in different countries).
“GD”, “2D”, “1D” and “FT” are domestic shipping methods.
“INTL” is currently the only international shipping method. Generally, the “INTL” option returned by our API will be the cheapest service that meets the merchant’s preferences/expectations (e.g. with respect to insurability). While merchants can manually choose a faster international service in our application, we do not yet support discrete international service levels through the rating API.
We decide the optimal warehouse on a per-order basis. Since the shopping cart won’t know ahead of time whether the optimal shipping warehouse for an order will be domestic or international, you should be prepared to show any of the above shipping method options for an order.
Can you show a code example for a Rate Request?
Here is a simple Rating Request PHP example:
$account_email = ‘email@address.com’; // SW account email
$account_password = ‘password’; // SW account password
// gather ship-to address data
$address_street1 = ‘address1′;
$address_street2 = ‘ address2′;
$address_city = ‘city’;
$address_region = ‘state’; // use 2 letter ISO code when possible
$address_country = ‘country’; // Use ISO 2 letter code
$address_postcode = ‘postal_code’;
// loop through cart items
$items = $requestVar->all_items;
$item_xml = ”;
$num = 1;
if (count($items) > 0) {
foreach ($items as $item) {
$item_xml .= ‘<Item num=”‘ . $num++ . ‘”>’;
$item_xml .= ‘<Code>’ . htmlentities($item->sku) . ‘</Code>’;
$item_xml .= ‘<Quantity>’ . htmlentities($item->qty) . ‘</Quantity>’;
$item_xml .= ‘</Item>’;
}
}
$xml = ‘
<RateRequest>
<EmailAddress><![CDATA[' . $account_email . ']]></EmailAddress>
<Password><![CDATA[' . $account_password . ']]></Password>
<Order id=”quote123″>
<Warehouse>00</Warehouse>
<AddressInfo type=”ship”>
<Address1><![CDATA[' . htmlentities($address_street1) . ']]></Address1>
<Address2><![CDATA[' . htmlentities($address_street2) . ']]></Address2>
<City><![CDATA[' . htmlentities($address_city) . ']]></City>
<State><![CDATA[' . htmlentities($address_region) . ']]></State>
<Country><![CDATA[' . htmlentities($address_country) . ']]></Country>
<Zip><![CDATA[' . htmlentities($address_postcode) . ']]></Zip>
</AddressInfo>
‘ . $item_xml . ‘
</Order>
</RateRequest>’;
$xml_request_encoded = (“RateRequestXML=” . $xml);
$xml_submit_url = “https://api.shipwire.com/exec/RateServices.php”;
$session = curl_init();
curl_setopt($session, CURLOPT_URL, $xml_submit_url);
curl_setopt($session, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($session, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(“Content-type”,”application/x-www-form-urlencoded”));
curl_setopt($session, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $xml_request_encoded);
curl_setopt($session, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
curl_setopt($session, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($session, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
curl_setopt($session, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 360);
$response = curl_exec($session);
How many rates will Shipwire respond with?
When you use the shipping rate API to request a shipping rate your system will tell Shipwire that you want a rate for a specific shipping method (ID, 2D, GD…). Shipwire will respond with only 1 shipping rate. This shipping rate will be the match after Shipwire looks up the shipping rates with the carriers and the shipping preferences of the merchant.
How to send a rate request to Shipwire?
The shipping rate API is the best way to accomplish this. So you are in the right place.
What should we send across in the referrer field?
You can ignore this and still submit a valid API request.
How should my address Country and State/Province information be provided?
For best results the Country address information must be provided using the proper two letter ISO Country Code. In addition when possible the proper State or Province abbriviation should be used as well.
What is the merchant has multiple fulfillment centers?
Shipwire returns shipping rates today for products in our warehouses that we have a matching SKU for. Some merchants may carry the same product with Shipwire and in their own warehouse. As of today we don’t pass shipping rates for non-Shipwire held products. We know this is a complex situation so let us know your concerns by e-mailing your thoughts to: partner (at) shipwire (dot) com.
To work around this issue please consider the following:
- Can you give the merchant the ability to choose a shipping rate mechanism by product ID/SKU ID? This method will allow even the most complex multi-vendor/shipper merchant to be able to display rates for products they ship from their home warehouse; include Shipwire rates; and, potentially put in rates for other options (example a drop shipped product that they flat rate bill)
- Potentially coach the merchant to keep their Shipwire fulfilled product/SKU ID’s distinct from their self-fulfilled products.