USPS Fix In The Works

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FredM
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USPS Fix In The Works

Post by FredM » Mon Jan 03, 2011 1:36 pm

We are well aware of the USPS issue currently happening. A fix is being worked on. We will have it available as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.

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Re: USPS Fix In The Works

Post by jmestep » Mon Jan 03, 2011 2:01 pm

Thanks!. I've been trying, but USPS has made it a lot harder this time.
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compunerdy
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Re: USPS Fix In The Works

Post by compunerdy » Mon Jan 03, 2011 7:01 pm

I know you are probably working on a fix that will keep this from happening in the future or maybe waiting for usps to fix the issue??

Either way can you provide a quick if even dirty fix so we can get back to selling?

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NC Software
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Re: USPS Fix In The Works

Post by NC Software » Mon Jan 03, 2011 7:08 pm

I hope AC will build in a system to where whatever needs to be updated can be polled and updated automatically like Stamps.com and other services that update their tables via web services, etc.
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Re: USPS Fix In The Works

Post by CGrouse » Mon Jan 03, 2011 7:10 pm

Any chance of an ETA ? Are you talking another day or week?

Thanks

Chris

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Re: USPS Fix In The Works

Post by slinglings » Mon Jan 03, 2011 10:35 pm

Good God! So I guess this is why we didn't get any orders today. I certainly hope ablecommerce is working around the clock to fix this. This kind of problem is unnacceptable. In the meantime, all our customers get free shipping I guess. :(

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Michael Ward
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Re: USPS Fix In The Works

Post by Michael Ward » Tue Jan 04, 2011 12:16 am

Hello
Sorry about this everyone. It would be nice if USPS could settle on one name for there shipping options and stick with them.

The following patches are available for download and the instruction are in the ReadMe. The patches have only been briefly tested and are not fully supported until the full testing cycle is done.

For AbleCommerce 7.0 through AbleCommerce 7.0.2 download this file.

ftp://ftp.ablecommerce.com/patches/Comm ... b14320.zip


For AbleCommerce 7.0.3 through AbleCommerce 7.0.6 download this file.

ftp://ftp.ablecommerce.com/patches/Comm ... b14320.zip

Thanks
Thank you for your support

Michael Ward
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NC Software
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Re: USPS Fix In The Works

Post by NC Software » Tue Jan 04, 2011 10:07 am

AC,

I'm not sure what is getting updated but it would be nice in a future version if this could be a dynamic/auto update to the product. Please consider your architecture as to what is in the binary vs. what is in the database and if there is any way that a check can be made over a set interval to a AC update service that auto-updates a store, or notifies the merchants an update is available in the top right of the admin where they can click the action button to apply the update.

The notification system as you have it now is not the greatest. You don't use e-mail to notify us of these situations and if you're depending on us seeing the RSS feed in the Dashboard, keep in mind that 1) the widget could be removed, 2) the widget is outside the scrollable view of most screen sizes, 3) it's only on the dashboard. An admin section such as the top right of the header so it appears in all headers for critical notifications would be something to consider.

Thanks for attacking this issue, however, after the smoke dissipates, please have a group hug and ask how this can be avoided in the future.

Thx
Neal Culiner
NC Software, Inc.

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Re: USPS Fix In The Works

Post by speedythinker » Tue Jan 04, 2011 11:10 am

It works now after patch installed. I didn't know that the USPS was down since 1/1. and I believed that I lost about $500 for last couple days as many customer dropped the basket! UPS charged mini $10.x for anything less than 1lb compare to $4.x by USPS 1st mail. :evil:
My business is 80% relying on USPS.

Anyway, good to know that the patch is working and stop my bleeding...

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Re: USPS Fix In The Works

Post by Shopping Cart Admin » Tue Jan 04, 2011 11:12 am

Hello All,

Here's a link to the help site with information on the fixes and downloads.

http://help.ablecommerce.com/upgrades/a ... s_2011.htm
Thanks for your support

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Re: USPS Fix In The Works

Post by speedythinker » Tue Jan 04, 2011 11:36 am

:( Glad that patch works and abandoned Basket is dropping... Scary!!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not asking for compensation, I posted the image because I want to let folks from Able know that it's very serious when something isn't work the way it should. $500 lost was just the lowest estimate and it could be worst.


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Re: USPS Fix In The Works

Post by slinglings » Tue Jan 04, 2011 9:37 pm

Got this error when running the script page:

Server Error in '/' Application.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Compilation Error
Description: An error occurred during the compilation of a resource required to service this request. Please review the following specific error details and modify your source code appropriately.

Compiler Error Message: CS0234: The type or namespace name 'Data' does not exist in the namespace 'CommerceBuilder' (are you missing an assembly reference?)

Source Error:



Line 1: <%@ Page Language="C#" %>
Line 2: <%@ Import Namespace="CommerceBuilder.Common" %>
Line 3: <%@ Import Namespace="CommerceBuilder.Data" %>
Line 4: <%@ Import Namespace="System.Data" %>
Line 5: <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">


Source File: c:\inetpub\wwwroot\attachedtobaby.com\wwwroot\install\PatchUSPS.aspx Line: 3

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Re: USPS Fix In The Works

Post by slinglings » Tue Jan 04, 2011 9:45 pm

I ran the sql manually and it seems to be working now.

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Re: USPS Fix In The Works

Post by jmestep » Wed Jan 05, 2011 5:52 am

That error might have had to do with the build of Able you are running. The older builds did not have a CommerceBuilder.Data.
It looks like Able needs to take the line out of the page for 7.0.0-7.0.2
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Re: USPS Fix In The Works

Post by GrfxDan » Thu Jan 06, 2011 11:32 am

I'm running two (2) AbleCommerce websites, one is running AC 5.5 (I know, I know, I need to upgrade) and one is running AC 7.0.3 - I thought it was worth mentioning that my AC 5.5 website never stopped displaying USPS rates this year or last year. My AC 7.0.3 site had issues both times, requiring fixes to be implemented.

I sincerely hope that when the dust settles AbleCommerce will take the time to come up with a PERMENANT FIX to this problem so that the next time USPS rates change we don't all loose 2-3 days of sales while waiting for yet another emergency fix. It was understandable when it happened the first time (last year). It was unfortunate that it happened a second time (a few days ago). It will be UNFORGIVABLE if this happens a third time.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE release a PERMENANT fix for this problem BEFORE the next USPS rate change.

Just my 2 cents. Anyone else agree?
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Re: USPS Fix In The Works

Post by NC Software » Thu Jan 06, 2011 11:35 am

Why hasn't an e-mail gone out to all customers notifying them of this critical issue that requires a patch? If AC thinks people 1) know of the issue, and 2) read the RSS feed in the Dashboard, that is a huge failure on AC's part. I would hope for an e-mail to notify me of emergency actions required to keep a store running without issue.
Neal Culiner
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GrfxDan
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Re: USPS Fix In The Works

Post by GrfxDan » Thu Jan 06, 2011 12:05 pm

NC Software wrote:I would hope for an e-mail to notify me of emergency actions required to keep a store running without issue.
I would agree 100%. I learned of the issue when I noticed my sales plummeted for the past few days and started digging around to find out why. Would have been nice if AC would have notified me of the problem. At least then I could have setup Fixed Price shipping rules to substitute while the fix was being made. Instead I just lost 2-3 days of sales. That's unacceptable!
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Logan Rhodehamel
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Re: USPS Fix In The Works

Post by Logan Rhodehamel » Fri Jan 07, 2011 1:19 pm

USPS presents a challenge for us because unlike other shipping gateways, they do not provide a unique code or ID to associate with each of their supported services. The response message we get from them does have an integer based ID, but they do not use a unique ID for each of the services. Sometimes they use the same ID, like First Class Envelope and First Class Package would both have an ID of 0, because it's first class service.

So the only way we can filter out the services is to match by name. When USPS decided to alter the names, it caused a situation where we did not recognize the services configured.

The first time it happened, we received notification ahead of it. We were lulled into a false sense of security - the alert said the API wasn't going to change and there would be no impact. What concerns me more is for this second instance, I didn't receive any alerts about the pending change. Last year we didn't realize this was going to be a recurring thing. So after producing the patch I went to USPS and looked for some sort of alert list. I found none, so I signed up again for USPS web tools hoping maybe that will put me into some sort of announcement group.

Now that the patch is produced, we've moved forward to figuring out how to prevent the problem. One thing we will do is move the service list from our compiled DLL to an external CSV file. This won't stop us from having to release an update, but it will be easier to update the text file than it will be to recompile and redistribute the DLL. I've also set up a reminder in my task calendar for Dec 15 2011, to proactively determine whether USPS intends to release an update. If they try this again, we're going to be ready ahead of time.
Cheers,
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Re: USPS Fix In The Works

Post by Logan Rhodehamel » Fri Jan 07, 2011 1:23 pm

And this is going to get officially published soon, but I won't ask anyone to wait for it. This is a corrected PatchUSPS.aspx file that will work for versions 7.0.0 to 7.0.2. If you do nothing else, do this. It will update the old service names in your database to match what USPS is sending to us now. This will make all the currently configured shipping methods show up again. You have to put this file into the ~/install folder (create if it doesn't exist) and then access it from the browser.
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Re: USPS Fix In The Works

Post by GrfxDan » Fri Jan 07, 2011 1:33 pm

Logan, how does AC5.5 handle the USPS API differently that it doesn't break when the USPS updates rates and changes names?
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Re: USPS Fix In The Works

Post by Logan Rhodehamel » Fri Jan 07, 2011 1:58 pm

AC5 uses an older version of the USPS webtools. In that version, there was a code that was associated with each service. We filter against this code, rather than the method name.

I just saw that USPS updated their online guide for the 2011 updates. They are now to version 4 of the API, original AC7 used version 2, and AC5 uses version 1.

EDIT: I'm not sure what the implications would be of programming against their older API.
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Re: USPS Fix In The Works

Post by NC Software » Thu Jan 13, 2011 2:31 pm

To date there has been no e-mail, twitter post, etc. notifying the customers of this issue, at least that I've observed. Very sorry to see such poor handling of this critical issue for merchants. I hope for much better communication in the future as not many of your customer frequent these forums, only those building stores or devs trolling.

Please review your policies and handling of matters like this.

Thank you.
Neal Culiner
NC Software, Inc.

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