Using Shipper 3 with Alternative Label Generators

This is a work in progress...as I learn more from customers and my own experiments, I will post it here.

Shipper 3 is designed to use ShipRush to generate labels for UPS, FedEx, USPS, and Endicia. Some customers have asked if they can use alternatives such as UPS WorldShip. The answer is a definite maybe. Shipper 3 does store the order and package information in a database. So it seems like you should be able to read and write to that database from UPS WorldShip.

To be honest, I don't even have UPS WorldShip installed right now. I did of course when I was working on Shipper 1, but now that Shipper 3 has replaced Shipper 1--I have abandoned UPS WorldShip and its ilk. The upshot is that this is all theoretical and completely un-supported. It may cause your computer to catch fire (not really).

Still here? Then here is what I would do:

First, make the data available to UPS WorldShip.

UPS WorldShip (and FedEx Ship Manager and Endicia Galaxy) all use ODBC to access external data. So the first step is to make the Shipper 3 database accessible via ODBC. There are 2 ways to do this:

1. Add an ODBC driver for SQLite (Shipper 3's native database format) and then define an ODBC Data Source Name.
2. Configure Shipper 3 to use one of the database formats that you already have an ODBC driver for, and then define an ODBC Data Source Name.

It looks like this site has an ODBC driver for SQLite. I have never, ever, used it and have nothing good or bad to say about it. If you try it, feel free to send me your impressions.

If you would prefer to use one of the ODBC drivers that come with Windows, then you will need to configure Shipper 3 to use the corresponding database. To do that that you will need to change the database connection string in a file called Shipper3.exe.config. The config file is in the directory where you installed Shipper 3. The file is XML which you can edit with Notepad. There are some comments in there with sample database connection strings for Microsoft SQL Server. Shipper 3 can use any one of about 20 different database file and server formats.

Once you have the ODBC driver, create a new Data Source Name using Control Panel > Adminstrative Tools > Data Sources. There are about 100,000 sites on the internet that describe how to create a Data Source Name. Please refer to one of those if you need help.

Second, Read the Unshipped Package Data

Shipper 3 stores Package data across several tables. You will need to join the data when you read the unshipped package data. For example, here is a sample SQL query that joins data from the Package, Order, Item, and Address tables (note that PackageStatus = 0 selects the Unshipped packages):

SELECT Package.Oid, 
       [Order].OrderNumber, 
       Address.City, 
       Address.Company, 
       Address.Country, 
       Address.Email, 
       Address.LastName, 
       Address.Line1,
       Address.Line2,
       Address.Phone,
       Address.PostalCode,
       Address.Region,
       Address.Residential,
       SUM(Item.Weight) AS Weight
FROM   Package INNER JOIN [Order] ON Package.[Order] = [Order].Oid
       INNER JOIN Address ON Package.Destination = Address.Oid
       INNER JOIN Item ON Package.Oid = Item.Package
WHERE  (PackageStatus = 0)

Third, Write the Ship Date and Tracking Number

After you have printed the labels, you should write the ship date and tracking number back into the Packages table, and set the PackageStatus = 1 (labeled). Refresh the Packages view in Shipper to see your changes and then send the tracking information back to your store.

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