Structured Solutions Blog

Shipper 3.0 Release Candidate 2

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:40:00 GMT

Shipper 3.0 is a high velocity shipment processor for ecommerce websites.

Today I am happy to announce the second release candidate (version 3.0.3160.19301) with support for StoreFront 7.2, BV Commerce 5.3, and AbleCommerce 7 on the back end; and UPS, USPS, FedEx, Endicia, and DHL on the front end.

Shipper 3.0 delivers...

Print labels directly from Shipper. Shipper 3.0 uses ShipRush by Z-Firm to print the labels. ShipRush is the same shipping component built into QuickBooks.
Support multiple carriers. All you need is ShipRush (which you may already have) to support UPS, USPS, FedEx, Endicia and DHL.
Support multiple websites. Each copy of Shipper can process shipments from multiple websites at the same time. You can easily setup filters to avoid processing the same shipment twice.
Print reports, packing slips, and emails. Shipper 3.0 includes a powerful drag-and-drop report writer so you can easily build custom reports and emails.
Automatically print reports or send emails. Shipper 3.0 performs the actions you define each time you download an order.
Support for more back-ends. Shipping Agents are available for AbleCommerce 7, BV Commerce 5, and StoreFront 7. Even better, the Shipping Agent source code is open source. That means you are free to modify the existing agents or create your own.

Changes in RC2

Added support for ShipRush for Endicia.
Fixed a bug that did not send the country code to ShipRush (so ShipRush always defaulted to United States).
Added support for simple emails (i.e. no report selected).
Added a step to the New Website Wizard to download todays orders.

Installation

The Shipper 3.0 system has 2 parts:

Shipper, a Windows desktop application to manage orders.
Shipping Agent, an open source web service for your website to connect Shipper 3.0 with your ecommerce system.

Installing Shipper 3.0

Download Shipper 3.0 RC2
Unzip the download.
You will also need any flavor of ShipRush 6 installed on the same computer. If you do not already have ShipRush installed, I suggest ShipRush for USPS or ShipRush for DHL since both are free. See www.shiprush.com for more information.
Run Setup.exe to to install Shipper 3.0 on your desktop computer.

Installing Shipping Agent 3.0

Download Shipping Agent 3.0 RC2 for your platform. If you don't have a compatible ecommerce website, ShippingAgentMock.exe contains the files for a Mock Shipping Agent. The mock agent works with any .NET 2.0 web site.
Run the installer to extract the Shipping Agent files.
Copy the extracted Shipping Agent files to your website as described in the readme.txt file.

Getting Started

Launch Shipper 3.0. If this is a new install, the New Website Wizard will start.
When you are prompted for the Agent URL, enter the URL to ShippingAgent.asmx on your website. For example, http://company.com/agents/shippingagent.asmx.
When you are prompted for the Agent Serial Number, leave the field blank.
After the wizard is finished, Shipper 3.0 will appear.
To print a shipping label, select a shipment and then click on Print Shipping Label button.
After the label is printed, click on Upload Shipment button to send the tracking information back to your store.

Stuff Might Change...If you want it to...

Although the feature set for 3.0 is fixed (new features will go in Shipper 3.1), there is still time to affect how the existing features are implemented. I am counting on you to tell me how to make Shipper 3.0 the best possible shipping tool for your business. Here are some suggestions for things to think about while you kick the tires:

The quick start above does not even touch on processing rules (which allow you to automatically assign services, print documents, and even upload completed orders). Can you find the rules? If not, what would help you discover them?
Right now ShipRush is a separate install because some (most?) people have some flavor of ShipRush already. Do you already have ShipRush? Would you like to download ShipRush and Shipper at the same time? Would you like the option of buying ShipRush at the same time with Shipper?
The integrated report writer has a lot of features. Is it overwhelming? I have included 2 sample reports. Do they help give you ideas of what is possible and how to do it? Will you use the report writer?
In this release candidate, the Shipping Agent is implemented as a SOAP service. If you are considering your own Shipping Agent, would a REST interface be easier to implement?

Feedback

Please send your feedback to support@structured-solutions.net. I will try to respond to each comment or question within a day. Thank you for taking a look.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipping Agent 3.0 Open Source

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:14:00 GMT

The Shipper 3.0 system has 2 components:

Shipper - A desktop application which performs all the heavy lifting.
Shipping Agent - A web service which provides the interface between Shipper and your order collection system (such as your ecommerce website).

Here's the cool news...Shipping Agent is open sourced! That means you can modify the source code I wrote, or write your own and then do anything you want with it (including charging for it if you want).

You will find all of the source code and the actual open source license on CodePlex:

http://www.codeplex.com/ShippingAgent

That is also where I will be publishing the Shipping Agents that I write. Visit the project page on CodePlex and then click on the Downloads link to download the latest release for your store.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipper 3.0 Release Candidate 1

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:20:00 GMT

Shipper 3.0 is a high velocity shipment processor for ecommerce websites.

Today I am happy to announce the first release candidate with support for StoreFront 7.2, BV Commerce 5.3, and AbleCommerce 7 on the back end; and UPS, USPS, FedEx, Endicia, and DHL on the front end.

Download

Shipper 3.0 delivers...

Print labels directly from Shipper. Shipper 3.0 uses ShipRush by Z-Firm to print the labels. ShipRush is the same shipping component built into QuickBooks.
Support multiple carriers. All you need is ShipRush (which you may already have) to support UPS, USPS, FedEx, Endicia and DHL.
Support multiple websites. Each copy of Shipper can process shipments from multiple websites at the same time. You can easily setup filters to avoid processing the same shipment twice.
Print reports, packing slips, and emails. Shipper 3.0 includes a powerful drag-and-drop report writer so you can easily build custom reports and emails.
Automatically print reports or send emails. Shipper 3.0 performs the actions you define each time you download an order.
Support for more back-ends. Shipping Agents are available for AbleCommerce 7, BV Commerce 5, and StoreFront 7. Even better, the Shipping Agent source code is open source. That means you are free to modify the existing agents or create your own.

Download

Installing Shipper 3.0

The Shipper 3.0 system has 2 components: Shipper 3.0, which is installed on your desktop computer; and a Shipping Agent, which is installed on your website. The download includes both components.

Unzip the download
You will also need any flavor of ShipRush 6 installed on the same computer. If you do not already have ShipRush installed, I suggest ShipRush for USPS or ShipRush for DHL since both are free. See www.shiprush.com for more information.
Run Setup.exe to to install Shipper 3.0 on your desktop computer.
Run the appropriate ShippingAgent.exe to extract the Shipping Agent files for your ecommerce software. If you don't have a compatible ecommerce website, ShippingAgentMock.exe contains the files for a Mock Shipping Agent. The mock agent works with any .NET 2.0 web site.
Copy the extracted Shipping Agent files to your website.

Getting Started

Launch Shipper 3.0. If this is a new install, the New Website Wizard will start.
When you are prompted for the Agent URL, enter the URL to agents/ShippingAgent.asmx on your website. For example, http://company.com/agents/shippingagent.asmx.
When you are prompted for the Agent Serial Number, leave the field blank.
After the wizard is finished, Shipper 3.0 will appear.
Click on the Download New Orders button to download all of the orders in your store that have pending shipments.
Select a shipment and then click on Print Shipping Label button.
After the label is printed, click on Upload Shipment button.

Stuff Might Change...If you want it to...

The quick start above does not even touch on processing rules (which allow you to automatically assign services, print documents, and even upload completed orders). Can you find the rules? If not, what would help you discover them?
Right now ShipRush is a separate install because some (most?) people have some flavor of ShipRush already. Do you already have ShipRush? Would you like to download ShipRush and Shipper at the same time? Would you like the option of buying ShipRush at the same time with Shipper?
The integrated report writer has a lot of features. Is it overwhelming? I have included 2 sample reports. Do they help give you ideas of what is possible and how to do it? Will you use the report writer?
In this release candidate, the Shipping Agent is implemented as a SOAP service. If you are considering your own Shipping Agent, would a REST interface be easier to implement?

Feedback

Please send your feedback to support@structured-solutions.net. I will try to respond to each comment or question within a day. Thank you for taking a look.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipper 3.0 Beta 5

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:29:00 GMT

Shipper 3.0 beta 5 is now available for testing.

Download

Please see the beta 1 announcement for an overview of Shipper 3.0.

What's New in Beta 5

Added item manufacturer to information that is downloaded from store.
Added ability to download the current item inventory so you can check the inventory before you start picking a shipment.

Installing Shipper 3.0 and Shipper Agent

Unzip the download
You will also need any flavor of ShipRush 6 installed on the same computer. If you do not already have ShipRush installed, I suggest ShipRush for USPS or ShipRush for DHL since both are free. See www.shiprush.com for more information.
Run Setup.exe to to install the pre-requisites (.NET 2.0) and Shipper 3.0 on your desktop computer.
Run the appropriate ShipperAgent.exe to extract the Shipper Agent files for your ecommerce software. ShipperAgentMock.exe contains the files for a Mock Shipper Agent. The mock agent works with any .NET 2.0 web site (you don't even need an ecommerce backend). Shipper Agent is installed on the target website. Copy the files in the bin directory of the website. Then copy the agent directory to your website.

The Beta Phase

During the beta phase, I will publish a new build of Shipper 3.0 each week that bugs are identified and fixed. I will also add some new features during the beta phase. Once 2 weeks have passed without a bug being identified, I will freeze the features and publish a release candidate.

The Release Candidate Phase

During the release candidate phase, I will only publish a new release candidate if bugs are identified and fixed. No new features will be added. When 2 weeks have passed without a bug being identified, I will pubish the final build of release 3.0.

I expect to publish a new release (3.1, 3.2, etc) 3 or 4 times each year. Each release will go through a similar beta/release candidate/final build phase.

Thank you for taking the time to look at Shipper. If you have any comments or questions, please send them to support@structured-solutions.net. At the risk of sounding like a cliche, with your help we can create a better solution.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipper 3.0 Beta 4

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:01:00 GMT

Shipper 3.0 beta 4 is now available for testing.

Download

Please see the beta 1 announcement for more details about Shipper 3.0.

What's New in Beta 3

New Shipper Agent for BV Commerce 5 SP3 or higher.
Removed Line 3 from addresses (ShipRush does not support Line 3).
Combined item Variant Name, Wrap Name, and Wrap Message into a single Description.

Installing Shipper 3.0 and Shipper Agent

Unzip the download
You will also need any flavor of ShipRush 6 installed on the same computer. If you do not already have ShipRush installed, I suggest ShipRush for USPS or ShipRush for DHL since both are free. See www.shiprush.com for more information.
Run Setup.exe to to install the pre-requisites (.NET 2.0) and Shipper 3.0 on your desktop computer.
Run the appropriate ShipperAgent.exe to extract the Shipper Agent files for your ecommerce software. ShipperAgentMock.exe contains the files for a Mock Shipper Agent. The mock agent works with any .NET 2.0 web site (you don't even need an ecommerce backend). Shipper Agent is installed on the target website. Copy the files in the bin directory of the website. Then copy the agent directory to your website.

Thank you for taking the time to look at Shipper 3.0. If you have any comments or questions, please send them to support@structured-solutions.net. At the risk of sounding like a cliche, with your help we can create a better solution.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipper 3.0 Beta 3

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:29:00 GMT

Shipper 3.0 beta 3 is now available for testing.

Download

If you'd like to know more about Shipper 3.0, please see the beta 1 announcement.

What's New in Beta 3

The Shipper 3.0 client application is now digitially signed so that Vista users do not see "unknown publisher" messages.
Exposed the address and name summary formats as templates in Shipper Settings. See Tools > Shipper Settings. These affect how customer names and shipping addresses are displayed.
The order status in Shipper is now updated after a shipment is uploaded.
Added first and last name to the customer record.
Added vendors.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipper 3.0 Beta 2

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:23:00 GMT

Shipper 3.0 beta 2 is now available for testing.

Download

If you'd like to know more about Shipper 3.0, please see the beta 1 announcement.

What's New in Beta 2

Changed the pre-requisite from .NET 3.5 to .NET 2.0. The .NET 2.0 installer is much smaller, so the initial install--even on a computer without any .NET installed--should be much faster.
Made changes to accomodate Vista.
Fixed a bug that prevented the tracking information from being recorded after printing the label.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipper 3.0 Beta 1

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:30:00 GMT

Shipper 3.0 is a high velocity shipment processor for ecommerce websites.

To prepare for this post, I took a look back at the Shipper timeline:

Shipper for UPS 1.0 was released on July 7, 2004. As you might guess from the name, it only supported UPS and one backend.
Shipper 1.1 came out almost a year later on June 23, 2005. Most importantly, it was redesigned to support additional backends.
Shipper 1.2 came out later that same year on October 10, 2005 with support for both UPS and FedEx.
Shipper 1.3 was released just a month later on November 27, 2005 with support for Endicia.
There were several incremental versions of Shipper 1.3 adding various features such as support for DHL and more backends, until Shipper 1.4 was released on October 18, 2007.

You wanted more. Shipper 3.0 delivers it.

You wanted to print labels directly from Shipper. Now you can. Shipper 3.0 uses ShipRush by Z-Firm to print the labels. ShipRush is the same shipping component built into QuickBooks.
You wanted better support for multiple carriers. Shipper 3.0 no longer requires a separate program for each carrier. Now all you need is ShipRush (which you may already have). One program to learn instead of 4 and almost instant startup.
You wanted better reports, packing slips, and emails. Shipper 3.0 includes a powerful drag-and-drop report writer. Now you can easily build custom reports and emails.
You wanted faster performance with high volume websites. Shipper 3.0 downloads new orders almost instantly and uses block downloading to eliminate errors even if there are 1000's of orders.
You wanted better control over which carrier services to use. Shipper 3.0 allows you to define custom rules based on any shipment field.
You wanted to control which fields were updated in the store. Shipper 3.0 allows you to pick the fields that are updated.
You wanted to automatically print reports or send emails when you printed a label. Now you can. Shipper 3.0 allows you to define actions to perform when the shipment is first downloaded or when the label is printed.
You wanted support for more back-ends. The Shipper 3.0 Agent will be available for soon for AbleCommerce, BV Commerce, and StoreFront. But the really big news is that the source code for Shipper 3.0 Agent will be open sourced. That means you will be free to modify the existing implementations to work with your customized backend, or even create a compatible agent for any other backend.

Today I am happy to announce that the first public beta of Shipper 3.0 is available for testing.

Download

Installing Shipper 3.0 and Shipper Agent

Unzip the download to find 4 files:

Setup.exe and Shipper3.msi for for Shipper 3.0. Run setup .exe to install the pre-requisites (.NET 3.5) and Shipper 3.0 on your desktop computer. You will also need any flavor of ShipRush 6 installed on the same computer. If you do not already have ShipRush installed, I suggest ShipRush for USPS or ShipRush for DHL since both are free. See www.shiprush.com for more information.

ShipperAgentAbleCommerce.exe contains the files for Shipper Agent for AbleCommerce 7. They work with AbleCommerce 7 RC1 and above. ShipperAgentMock.exe contains the files for a Mock Shipper Agent. They work with any .NET 2.0 web site (you don't even need an ecommerce backend).

Shipper Agent is installed on the target website. Copy the files in the bin directory to the bin directory of the website. Then copy the agent directory to your website.

Note: Unlike Shipper Service 1.x, Shipper Agent does not include any built-in security. To protect Shipper Agent from unauthorized access you will need to protect the agent directory with basic authentication. Since basic authentication passes the username and password in clear text, you should also use https in the Shipper Agent URL to encrypt them.

Getting Started

Launch Shipper 3.0.
Click on Websites.
Click on New.
Enter the name of your website and the URL to Shipper Agent (i.e. https://www.company.com/agent).
If you have protected the agent directory with basic authentication, enter the server username and password.
Click on Save and Close.
Click on Shipments.
Click on Download New Orders.
Select a shipment and then click on Print Shipping Label.
After the label is printed, click on Upload Shipment.

Stuff Might Change...if you want them to

There is still plenty of time to many aspects of Shipper 3.0 and I am counting on you to tell me what you want. Here are some suggestions for things to think about while you kick the tires:

The quick start above does not even touch on processing rules (which allow you to automatically assign services, print documents, and even upload completed orders). Are the features in Shipper 3.0 discoverable? If not, what would help you discover them?
Right now ShipRush is a separate install because some (most?) people have some flavor of ShipRush already. Did you? Were you able to find the ShipRush downloads? What would make the ShipRush install easier?
The integrated report writer has a lot of features. Is it overwhelming? I have included 2 sample reports. Do they help give you ideas of what is possible and how to do it? Will you use the report writer?
In this beta, Shipper Agent is implemented as a SOAP service. I have been debating whether to switch to a more REST-like service. If you are considering your own Shipper Agent, would one or the other be easier?

Feedback

Please send your feedback to support@structured-solutions.net. I will try to respond to each comment or question within a day. Thank you for taking a look.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipping Rate Rule Providers 2.7.2

Tue, 20 May 2008 18:50:00 GMT

Shipping Rate Rule Providers version 2.7.2 are now available for BVC5 SP3.2 and above. This new build includes 2 rule enhancements:

Support for Customer Inputs

You can now check customer inputs. For example put all of the items that require a monogram into a separate package using a rule like, "When Items Inputs is greater than 'Monogram='".

Support for all Type Properties including Multiple Choice

Earlier versions only examined Text and Currency Type Properties. This build supports all Type Properties, including Multiple Choice. For example you can select all the items with Choice A using a rule like, "When Items Custom Property 'My Choice' equals 'Choice A', ...".

The new builds are available on the downloads page. The DHL Providers for BVC5 SP3.2 and above have also been updated to include the new features.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipper 1.4.9 with support for Galaxy Ship 5.3

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:03:00 GMT

Shipper 1.4.9 is now available to download. This version includes support for Endicia Galaxy Ship 5.3, which supports the USPS changes that went into effect today (May 12, 2008).

How do I install the update?

Download the installer and run it. The installer will update your copy of Shipper to version 1.4.9.

How do I import shipments into Galaxy Ship?

Select the Shipper profile, then enter the order number or shipment ID (whichever one you selected in Shipper), and then click on Retrieve Order.

Will I loose my configuration?

No. The installer will migrate your configuration to the new version.

Do I need to update Shipper Service on my website?

If your website has Shipper Service 1.4.7 or earlier, then you will also need to update Shipper Service. Please see the downloads page to download the most recent version of Shipper Service for your website.

Is there are charge for this update?

No. But this is the last free update for Shipper. After this there will be a charge.

If you have any other questions, please send them to support@structured-solutions.net.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Zuckerberg is no Ballmer

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 08:36:00 GMT

Last week Guy Kawaski interviewed Steve Ballmer (Microsoft) at Mix08. On Saturday, Sarah Lacy interviewed Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) at SXSW.

In both interviews the interviewer was chatty, spoke about their own relationship with the interviewee, rambled a few times, asked some easy questions, asked some hard questions, and generally did a good job. Both interviews were about 60 minutes long and both ended with a short Q&A from the audience.

Sarah was vilified (and here, here, and here). Guy was praised (and here).

Was the reaction to Sarah unfair? Undoubtably. Was it sexist? Probably...at least a bit. But it mostly comes from imaturity...Mark's.

Mark Zuckerberg did not treat it as an interview. He was the guest, but he was disrepectful to his host the entire time. He kept looking away from Sarah to address the audience directly for long periods of time (often spouting inane platitudes). Steve spoke to Guy answering his questions without sounding like he was giving a speach.

Mark gave Sarah blank stares and repeatedly made comments to undermine Sarah's role. Steve stayed 100% engaged and never said anything to undermine Guy.

After the show Sarah was supportive of Mark, and wrote off the audience reaction to an impedence mismatch between the technical nature of the SXSW conference and the high level nature of interviewing a CEO. That's kind of her, but the Guy/Ballmer interview was in exactly the same conditions.

I have 2 pieces of advice for Sarah:

Interview an adult next time.
Take a play from Guy's playbook and establish the host/guest relationship right away (about 2 minutes into the interview Guy tells Steve that if the interview goes well he will invite Steve back to the next Mix conference).

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

How to log errors to FogBugz using log4net

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 09:20:00 GMT

Here's how I using log4net and BugzScout to send logging events to FogBugz.

BugzScoutAppender for log4net

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

I wish I could think of bon mots like this

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 04:50:00 GMT

"Which also means when you're using Rails and OS X, you're using the platform of choice for douchebags."

- Jeff Atwood on Coding Horror

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Jakob Nielsen: Amazon No Longer the Role Model for E-Commerce Design

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 19:35:00 GMT

Because my products work with a variety of platforms, I participate in several e-commerce forums. Inevitably a post appears every few months with a lament that package X does not have some feature that Amazon has.

Since July 2005, well known researcher Jakob Nielsen has been advising against copying Amazon. Here's why...

Amazon: No Longer the Role Model for E-Commerce Design

Many design elements work for Amazon.com mainly because of its status as the world's largest and most established e-commerce site. Normal sites should not copy Amazon's design.

If you read the piece, you'll see that Mr. Nielsen does not through out the baby with the bath water. There are several Amazon features worth emulating, ranging from the easily used login system to their excellent fulfillment process.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

CSI: .NET

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:03:00 GMT

Tess Ferrandez is an Escalation Engieer at Microsoft. Her blog is essentially CSI: .NET. If you enjoy the Jerry Bruckheimer series, you may like Tess' blog.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipper 1.4 Compatible with UPS WorldShip 10

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 22:40:00 GMT

UPS released UPS WorldShip 2008 version 10 in January. I'm pleased to say that that Shipper 1.4 is compatible with UPS WorldShip 8.0, 9.0, and now 10.0. You can download UPS WorldShip 2008 Version 10.0 from here.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Is Test Driven Development Effective

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 08:42:00 GMT

Yesterday Phil Haack and Jacob Proffitt reviewed "On the Effectivenes of Test-first Approach to Programming" by National Research Canada and published in the Proceedings of the IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 31(1), January 2005.

The test-first approach is often called Test Driven Development, in that the tests are written first and then "drive" the development. This approach is often encouraged in agile programming environments.

Phil posted first. After explaining his own intuition that TDD is a beneficial approach, Pill cited various sections of the report, including the abstract, that support the benefits of the test-first or TDD method.

Jacob posted after reading Phil's analysis. After explaining his own scepticism with reports like this (including his suspicion of confirmation bias), Jacob cited several sections of the report that seemed to show the opposite of what Phil and even the report abtract claimed.

Jacob made some interesting observations:

The control group (non-TDD or "Test Last") had higher quality in every dimension—they had higher floor, ceiling, mean, and median quality.
The control group produced higher quality with consistently fewer tests.
Quality was better correlated to number of tests for the TDD group (an interesting point of differentiation that I'm not sure the authors caught).
The control group's productivity was highly predictable as a function of number of tests and had a stronger correlation than the TDD group.

I have experimented with "test first", but found it frustrating. I always ended up just "faking" some tests so I could get on with the programming (Git 'Er Done). Then writing tests after to confirm that I met the requirements. This seems to correlate with Jacob's experience.

Both Jacob and Phil end their analyses with a call for more research. Me too.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

What Can You Do With FedEx Shipping?

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 08:48:00 GMT

What can you do with FedEx Shipper?

See a list of all the pending shipments in your store and create FedEx shipping labels for any one of them with 2 clicks.
Create a FedEx shipping label for a Christmas present unrelated to your store.
Create pre-filled customs forms for international and APO shipments.
Create and use a list of common box sizes.
Pick a future shipping date.
See a list of all the packages you have sent (including the Christmas presents).
Search the history using just about anything you remember--the order number, the recipient's name, street address, city name...
Display the tracking information with 1 click.
Reprint the label with 1 click.
Void the package with 1 click.
Print the End-Of-Day report with 1 click.
Display the label in your browser, or print it directly on your Windows printer, or both.
Print directly to your Zebra compatible label printer.
Give your customer service people view permission so they can see the shipped and unshipped packages, but cannot change them.
Give your shipping people edit permission so they can ship and void packages, but cannot access other parts of store's administration.

You can do all of this and more with just 2 simple web pages.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

What Can You Do With USPS Shipping?

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 08:21:00 GMT

What can you do with USPS Shipper?

See a list of all the pending shipments in your store and create USPS mailing labels with postage for any one of them with 2 clicks.
Create a USPS mailing label with postage for a Christmas present unrelated to your store.
Create pre-filled customs forms for international and APO shipments.
Create and use a list of common box sizes.
Pick a future postmark date up to 90 days ahead.
See a list of all the packages you have sent (including the Christmas presents).
Search the history using just about anything you remember--the order number, the recipient's name, street address, city name...
Display the tracking information with 1 click.
Reprint the label with 1 click.
Void the package with 1 click (you will need to submit a refund form for the postage separately).
Display the label in your browser, or print it directly on your Windows printer, or both.
Print directly to your Zebra compatible label printer.
Give your customer service people view permission so they can see the shipped and unshipped packages, but cannot change them.
Give your shipping people edit permission so they can ship and void packages, but cannot access other parts of store's administration.

You can do all of this and more with just 2 simple web pages.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

So what are USPS Shipping and FedEx Shipping?

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 04:20:00 GMT

So what are USPS Shipping and FedEx Shipping?

Boring names for 2 very useful products.
USPS Shipping creates USPS mailing labels with postage.
FedEx Shipping creates FedEx shipping labels.
Both are tightly integrated with your store data.
They are web-based.
You install them by copying some files to your website.

That's it! I swear...no files to backup, edit, or anything.

Just copy the files to your web site.

They are easy to use with all the shiny stuff you expect.
You can create a label with 2 clicks...don't blink!

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

USPS and FedEx Shipping Update

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 04:02:00 GMT

I completed a few more features this week for the integrated USPS and FedEx Shipping products. Both products now support ad hoc labels so you can ship packages that are not related to any order. The standalone packages and labels are tracked in the History in case you need to reprint a label or answer a customer service question.

A new label printer program for Windows is also complete. This is primarily so you can print your labels on Zebra compatible printers. But there are a few nice features for "normal" labels too. For example, you can tell it to print labels in landscape and make 2 copies.

The last big change (from my perspective) is the removal of the ShipOrders.aspx page. This page replaced the page with the same name written by BV Software. Even though I spent a lot of time on that page, I was always uneasy about including it. It was the only piece that could potentially break your website (if you removed my software from the site without replacing ShipOrder.aspx, the page would break and you would not be able to process any shipments in BVC5). By removing it from the package, I have a very clean line between my product and BVC5.

Besides...who needs it? The two pages that come with USPS and FedEx Shipping are more powerful and easier to use anyway!

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

USPS Shipping Beta 2

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 20:13:00 GMT

USPS Shipping for BVC5 has been updated to include history and a box editor, both of which you can see in the FedEx Shipping Beta screencasts.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

FedEx Shipping Beta

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:30:00 GMT

This first public release of FedEx Shipping for BVC5 is now available. You can download it from here. If you don't want to install beta software (and who could blame you), here are some videos:

Walkthrough

Box Editor

Features Included

Completely integrated with the BVC5 order system.
History view with easy search.
Box editor so you can create and use a list of custom dimensions.

To be done

Add better security so History can be used by customer service reps without exposing shipping or account details
Add end-of-day
Incorporate feedback

Release Notes

This build only connects to the FedEx test servers (using my test account), so you can not use the resulting labels on actual packages.
This software will replace the ShipOrder page supplied by BV Software. Please make a backup copy before you install this software as described in the installation instructions.
This is beta software.
Do not install it on a production site.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

SignIn Control for StoreFront 7 is now available

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:03:00 GMT

I just posted the new SignIn Control for StoreFront 7,

Product page

In addition to adding support for merchant bundles in the offline cart, I rewrote the 3 samples to integrate better with the new StoreFront 7 templates.

You can download the software from here (it will run in trial mode for 45 days or until you copy a license file to the web site),

Download

A copy of the documentation is online here,

Documentation

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

USPS Shipping Screencasts

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 06:18:00 GMT

I plan on making a few or more screencasts demonstrating various USPS Shipping features. They will be collected here.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

USPS Shipping for BVC5 Beta 1

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 02:04:00 GMT

USPS Shipping adds integrated USPS postage printing to BVC5 SP2 or higher (works with SP3). Although this beta version should not break any existing BVC5 features, I do not recommend installing it on a production site.

Download | Screencasts

Installation Notes

Make sure you have a backup copy of BVAdmin\Orders\ShipOrder.aspx and ShipOrder.aspx.vb before you copy the USPS Shipping files to your web site.
Do not store the backup copies of ShipOrder.aspx and ShipOrder.aspx.vb on your web site...this will seriously confuse the server and you will not be able to ship any orders.
Copy the USPS Shipping files to your web site as described in the installation instructions in the download.
Load the USPS Shipping Plug-in page to enter your Account Number and Pass Phrase (see the Beta Release Notes below).

Beta Release Notes

During the beta test, you can use any 6 digit number as your account number and anything you like as your pass phrase.
During the beta test, you are connected to test postage server. You cannot use the postage to mail real stuff.
USPS Shipping will try to store label images and files in the /images/USPS/ directory of your site. Make sure that the identity running your web site has permission to create this directory (or create it yourself), and permission to Modify the files in the directory.
Only image formats are useful in this release. Although you can request the label printer formats (EPL2, etc), and they are saved correctly on the server, they are not sent to your label printer.

Getting Started

USPS Shipping basically consists of 2 pages. You should start on the USPS Shipping Plug-in page:

BV Admin > Plug-ins > USPS Shipping displays a list of all the pending shipments in your store. Use the filters to fine tune the list. Click on the box icon to display the Print Postage page for a shipment.

Print Postage does what it says and marks the package shipped. You can also reach the Print Postage page from BV Admin > Orders > Order > Shipping by selecting US Postal Service and then clicking on the Ship By Carrier button.

Feedback

I would especially like feedback on the following areas:

How useful was the list of pending shipments on the plug-in page? Did you use it to process shipments? Did it include the information you need?
Is the Print Postage page organized in a useful way? Did you need to visit the From / To or Customs tabs very often?
I rewrote the BV Admin > Orders > Order page so support USPS Shipping (and FedEx Shipping soon). Was the new format easier or harder to use?

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipper Service for StoreFront 7.0 Released

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 19:43:00 GMT

Shipper Service for StoreFront 7.0 is now available for production use. There is also a corresponding new build of Shipper that is aware of StoreFront 7.0.

Purchase a Shipper Starter Kit for StoreFront 7.0

Download Shipper and Shipper Service for StoreFront 7.0.

Release Notes

Use a StoreFront 7.0 Administrator account to login to the Shipper Service Configuration Page (to retrieve the serial number). The Administrator account must have a role with permission to access "Customers", "Orders", and "Manage Administrators".
Also use a StoreFront 7.0 Administrator account when you connect Shipper to Shipper Service. However, this administrator account only needs permission to access to "Customers" and "Orders".

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipper Service for StoreFront 7.0 Release Candidate

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 19:38:00 GMT

The first release candidate of Shipper Service for StoreFront 7.0 is now available for download. There is also a corresponding release candidate of Shipper that is aware of StoreFront 7.0.

Shipper Service for StoreFront 7.0
Shipper

Release Notes

Use a StoreFront 7.0 Administrator account to login to the Shipper Service Configuration Page (to retrieve the serial number). The Administrator account must have a role with permission to access "Customers", "Orders", and "Manage Administrators".
Also use a StoreFront 7.0 Administrator account when you connect Shipper to Shipper Service. However, this administrator account only needs access to "Customers" and "Orders".

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipper 1.4.8 RTW

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:31:00 GMT

Shipper and Shipper Service 1.4.8 have been released for download. Please see the Release Candidate announcement and the Release Notes for details.

Support for UPS WorldShip 9 for Vista.
Better communication between Shipper and Shipper Service (this release requires that you update both Shipper and Shipper Service).
Lots of bugs fixed.

If you are running an older version of Shipper and run into one of the bugs that are fixed in this release, you will see a message about downloading the latest release.

This is a free update (this marks 4 years of free updates!).

Downloads

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Amazon's "One-Click" Patent Rejected

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 08:21:00 GMT

igdmlgd's request to re-examine Amazon's "One-Click" patent resulted in USPTO rejecting most of the claims.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipping Rate Provider Suite 2.6 RTW

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:01:00 GMT

The Shipping Rate Provider Suite 2.6 has been released for download. The product called "Shipping Rate Provider Suite" is now called "Shipping Rate Rule Providers" (because that is what it was). From now on I will use the word sutie to refer to all the shipping rate provider products that share common features like packaging rules and Google Checkout support.

All of these products are now available:

I am also making a new service available if you would like me to create shipping method for you using the providers in the suite. Please send an email to support@structured-solutions.net before you buy to make sure what you have in mind is possible.

New Canada Post Shipping Rate Provider

The new Canada Post provider supports every Canada Post Sell Online feature, including optimized packaging. If you choose to, you can let Canada Post determine the optimum way to pack the items in each order to minimum empty space in your boxes. The packages that Canada Post calculates are pulled back into BVC5 as suggested packages, for use by your shipping department.

To use the Canada Post provider, you will need a Retailer ID, which you can obtain from the Canada Post Sell Online group as described in, "How to setup a Canada Post shipping method for BVC5".

Rule Provider Enhancements

Both the Order Rule and Package Rule providers now have the ability to compare anything-to-anything. This means you can compare any property to any other property, including rates from other shipping methods. For example, you can create a shipping cost rule that picks the least expensive rate for an order like this:

If the rate from "USPS Priority Mail" is less than the rate from "USPS Parcel Post", cost = the rate from "USPS Priority Mail".
For all other orders, cost = the rate from "USPS Parcel Post".

Try it free for 45 days!

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

.NET Google Checkout API updated to support carrier calculated shipping

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 18:42:00 GMT

Today Google announced that all the features in the September 7, 2007 and September 20, 2007 schemas are now supported in the .NET Google Checkout API. One of the imported new features is carrier calculated shipping.

With carrier calculated shipping, Google will contact FedEx, UPS, and/or USPS directly instead of calling back to your store to retrieve those rates. You will need to change your code to use the new elements in the checkout request. The simple.aspx (use View Source to see the code) and private-data.aspx samples show how to use the new elements.

I noticed that their USPS support does not include international rates, so you will still need to callback to your store for those.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipping Rate Providers 2.6 Release Candidate 2

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:50:00 GMT

The Shipping Rate Provider Suite is changing. The plug-in part, including postal codes support, is now free. The old suite is now called Rule Providers. Here are the new products for BVC5:

Free Shipping Rate Provider Plug-in (download)
Rule Providers (download)
DHL Providers (download)
Canada Post Provider (download)

If all you want is the postal code support, download the free plug-in. All of the add-on provider packages include the plug-in. The article, "Postal Code Validator for BVC5" demonstrates one way to use the postal code support.

A Release Candidate is nearly ready for production use. I am not aware of any bugs, but I might change wording or make minor tweaks before final release.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

SpamBayes failed me but Cloudmark is working great

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:46:00 GMT

About 2 months ago I started using Cloudmark to control the amount of email spam I see. Before that I used SpamBayes (because it was free), but even after 2 years of training, I was still seeing about 200 spam messages every...single...day. I felt like I was loosing a battle.

Since I started using Cloudmark, I only see about 2-10 spam messages each day...yippee! I'm sure it is partly due to better algorithms, but the coolest feature is that when I flag those 2-10 messages as spam, the whole Cloudmark community benefits. We all help each other make Cloudmark better and better each day. I like that.

Here are my statistics for the last 2 months. I've only had to identify 323 emails as spam/phishing (a lot of the spam was actually phishing...but I was lazy and just clicked the Block button which defaults to spam).

All of the Cloudmark links include my referral code. I hope you don't mind...I really do like Cloudmark, and I would also like the free month of service if you like Cloudmark too. Thanks!

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipper 1.4.8 Release Candidate 1

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 19:08:00 GMT

New builds of both Shipper and Shipper Service are now available. These builds improve the reliability of communication between your shipping computer and your web site.

Once a month or so, I see a flurry 5-10 automated error reports that a message going from Shipper Service back to Shipper is corrupted. Normally Shipper will just try again. But in these cases, the error occurs over and over for several minutes. Although I have never been able to reproduce the problem in testing, I suspect it has to do with the way the messages are being compressed. So I have tweaked the compression scheme and I hope this spells the end of this particular message.

Change to Shipper Service for BVC5

The other significant change only affects Shipper Service for BVC5. Starting with release 1.4.8, the carrier information that is downloaded from the store will include both the carrier name and the name of the shipping method that the customer selected. For example, let's say that you have 2 shipping methods called FedEx Standard and FedEx Expedited, and that both methods are identical except that FedEx Expedited includes a $10 surcharge to provide expedited handling.

In previous versions of Shipper Service for BVC5, only the carrier and service would have been downloaded regardless of which shipping method was selected, and the shipping department would not know if they should expedite the handling or not. In this version of Shipper Service for BVC5, both the carrier and shipping method name are included:

Old:	FedEx / Ground
New:	FedEx (FedEx Expedited) / Ground

Note that this will break any Shipper service assignments that depend on the old shipment carrier text. You will need to update the service assignments (Tools > Options > More Settings > Service Assignemnts) or simply re-assign the services (Edit > Prepare Shipment > save the assignment).

Downloads

With this release, I have also brought all the component versions back into sync (at 1.4.8) and configured Shipper 1.4.8 so that it requires Shipper Service 1.4.8 or above. This means that if you install this release candidate, you will need to install both Shipper and Shipper Service for your store.

Shipper
Shipper Service for StoreFront
Shipper Service for BVC2004
Shipper Service for BVC5
Shipper Service for BVC5 SP2

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipping Rate Provider Suite 2.6 Release Candidate 1

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:28:00 GMT

Shipping Rate Provider Suite version 2.6 is now available for testing. Although I am not aware of any problems, I do not recommend using this on a production site. This version works with BVC5 SP2.

Download

There are 3 new features in this version: better support for Google Checkout, additional properties you can test, and the ability to compare properties.

Better Support for Google Checkout

If you have used Google Checkout, you have probably been bit by the 3 second rule. During checkout, Google will ask your web site how much to charge for shipping. If your site does not respond within 3 seconds, Google will use the default values. Unfortunately, some carriers frequently take 1 or 2 seconds, so if your store supports more than one carrier or more than one service level from a single carrier, your site will consistently fail to respond within 3 seconds.

One way to work around this problem is to offer Google Checkout customers different, and faster, shipping options. This version of the Shipping Rate Provider Suite adds two new checkboxes called "Visible to BVC5 Checkout" and "Visible to Google Checkout" to each shipping method that you define. If you check "Visible to BVC5 Checkout", the shipping method will appear to customers that use any one of the BVC5 checkout themes. If you check "Visible to Google Checkout", the shipping method will appear to customers that use Google Checkout. If you uncheck either option, the shipping method will not appear during the corresponding checkout.

For example, if you define two shipping methods called "USPS Priority Mail" and "USPS Parcel Post", you can both appear during BVC5 checkout, but only offer "USPS Priority Mail" during Google Checkout. By fine tuning the methods that appear during Google Checkout, you can ensure that you are not hit by the 3 second rule.

Additional Properties You Can Test

Joe Arbogast (www.birdsafestore.com) asked if he could using the packaging rules to create separate packages for items that are backordered. So version 2.6 now includes 3 new item properties that you can include in your tests:

Inventory Available: If inventory is enabled, this is the number of items available.
Inventory Enabled: If inventory is enabled, this is 1, otherwise this is 0.
Inventory Low Point: If inventory is enabled, this is the inventory low point for the item.

Using these new properties, you can separate backordered items into there own packages using a rule like this:

While Items Inventory Enabled = 1 and Items Inventory Available = 0.

I also added 2 new order properties that you test:

Distance in Miles: If you have loaded the postal codes for both your store and the shipping address, this is the distance in miles from your store to the shipping address.
Hour of Day: This is the hour (including partial hour) that the order is placed. For example, if the order is placed at 1:30pm, this property is 13.5.

Ability to Compare Properties

Prior to version 2.6, rules could test a property value against a fixed limit. For example,

If Rate From "USPS Priority Mail" > 8.25, Cost = 8.25.

Starting with version 2.6, rules can compare properties. For example, USPS Priority Mail is sometimes lower than Parcel Post. If you only want to display the lower cost service, you can use shipping cost rules like this:

When Rate From "USPS Priority Mail" < Rate From "USPS Parcel Post", Cost = Rate From "USPS Priority Mail".
For all other packages, Cost = Rate From "USPS Parcel Post".

You can still build your rules using a smooth point-and-click interface. For example, this video shows how easily the two rules above are created.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Article on customizing Shipper Service

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 19:16:00 GMT

Customizing Shipper Service

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipper Service for BVC5 SP2 Version 1.4.6 Released

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 01:53:00 GMT

Version 1.4.6 of Shipper Service for BVC5 SP2 is available for production use. Correctly updates orders that have been processed by a third party such as Google Checkout.

If you are upgrading from an earlier 1.4 build, just copy the new bin files to your web site.

download

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipping Rate Provider Suite 2.5.3 Released

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:33:00 GMT

Shipping Rate Provider Suite version 2.5.3 is now available. This release includes the following changes:

Logical "and" comparisons are made before "or" comparisons.
Suggested packages for wrapped providers (i.e. US Postal Service) will have the correct weight.

download

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipping Rate Provider Suite 2.5.2 Released

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 19:05:00 GMT

Shipping Rate Provider Suite version 2.5.2 is now available. This update includes support for both "and" and "or" conditions within Packaging and Shipping Cost rules. For example,

Download

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipping Rate Provider Suite 2.5 Released

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 17:41:00 GMT

Shipping Rate Provider Suite 2.5 is now avilable for production use. The big changes from version 2.0 include:

The number of calculators has been reduced from 6 down to 2: Order Rules and Package Rules without loosing any features. This makes it much easier to create sophisticated cost calculations without custom programming. As their names imply, use Order Rules when you want to calculate the shipping cost based on an order property (such as sub total). Use Package Rules for everything else. Of course you can still combine them for more complicated calculations.
All of the providers now include packaging rules so that you can implement packaging based on your own business practices. The packaging is carried all the way through the checkout to order processing as Suggested Packages so your shipping department knows exactly how to package the order.
A standalone Postal Code Support library is now included which you can use to load and manage postal code lists. The Shipping Rate Provider Suite uses this library to calculate the shipping distance between any two addresses on earth (if you load the appropriate postal code data). The Shipping Rate Provider Suite includes over 42000 US postal codes.
InstallSuite.aspx is no longer used to finish the installation. Installation and other management tasks are now performed using the "Shipping Rate Provider Suite" plugiin (BV Admin > Plug-Ins).

Please see the updated Samples for ideas on how to implement your own cost calculations.

Migrating from Earlier Versions

Complete the following steps before you update to version 2.5:

The shipping methods that you created with version 2.0 and earlier are not compatible with version 2.5. I recommend that you take a screen shot of each shipping method so that you can re-produce quickly using version 2.5.
Use the InstallSuite.aspx page from your current version to Remove the current providers. If you skip this step, send me your Taskloader.Custom.vb file so that I can manually remove the code that is no longer needed.

After installing version 2.5, you can delete the unused editors by deleting the following directories:

BVModules\Shipping\Item Router\
BVModules\Shipping\Item Rules\
BVModules\Shipping\Package Router\
BVModules\Shipping\Order Router\

You can also delete BVModules\Shipping\InstallSuite.aspx.

Please see the Release Notes for details about breaking changes.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Web Development Tools

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 17:56:00 GMT

John Hrvatin (MS Program Manager for Internet Explorer) posted a list of lightweight web development tools for Internet Explorer. He missed Firebug Lite, but otherwise caught the ones I use plus many more.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipping Rate Provider Suite Version 2.5 Beta 2

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 21:28:00 GMT

The second beta of Version 2.5 is now available for testing. The big changes from version 2.0 include:

The number of calculators has been reduced from 6 down to 2: Order Rules and Package Rules. As their names imply, use Order Rules when you want to calculate the shipping cost based on the entire order (such as subtotal). Use Package Rules for everything else. Of course you can still combine them for more complicated calculations.
Package Rules (and the DHL providers) now include a much more flexible packaging scheme so you can break up your order into exactly the right packages.
A standalone Postal Code Support library is now included which you can use to load and manage postal code lists. The Shipping Rate Provider Suite uses this library to calculate the distance between points.
InstallSuite.aspx is no longer used to finish the installation. Installation and other management tasks are now performed using the "Shipping Rate Provider Suite" plugin (BV Admin > Plug-Ins).

If you have version 2.0 (or eariler) installed, please use the InstallSuite.aspx page from your current version to Remove the current providers before you install version 2.5. If you skip this step, send me your Taskloader.Custom.vb file so that I can manually remove the code that is no longer needed.

Also if you have version 2.0 (or earlier) installed, you can delete the unused editors by deleting the following directories:

BVModules\Shipping\Item Router\
BVModules\Shipping\Item Rules\
BVModules\Shipping\Package Router\
BVModules\Shipping\Order Router\

You can also delete BVModules\Shipping\InstallSuite.aspx.

You can download the beta version from here,

Shipping Rate Provider Suite 2.5

Please let me know what you think. I plan on making a few minor changes before final release, so there is still time to lobby for your pet feature.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Sample ShippingProvider for BVC5

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 18:53:00 GMT

The "How to Create a BVC5 Shipping Provider" article includes a sample ShippingProvider that only supports tracking.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipping Rate Provider Suite Version 2.5 Beta

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 21:43:00 GMT

I am very excited to make version 2.5 available for testing. There are 3 big changes in this version:

The number of calculators has been reduced from 6 down to 2: Order Rules and Package Rules. As their names imply, use Order Rules when you want to calculate the shipping cost based on the entire order (such as subtotal). Use Package Rules for everything else. Of course you can still combine them for more complicated calculations.
Package Rules (and the DHL providers) now include a much more flexible packaging scheme so you can break up your order into exactly the right packages.
A standalone Postal Code Support library is now included which you can use to load and manage postal code lists. The Shipping Rate Provider Suite uses this library to calculate the distance between points.

You can download the beta version from here,

Shipping Rate Provider Suite 2.5

Please let me know what you think. I plan on making a few minor changes before final release, so there is still time to lobby for your pet feature.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipper 1.4.7 for Galaxy Ship 5.1

Tue, 15 May 2007 18:11:00 GMT

Shipper 1.4.7 is now available for download. This free update is compatible with Endicia Galaxy Ship 5.1.11 which, in turn, is compatible with the new USPS rates and services that started on May 14, 2007.

If Galaxy Ship is not installed

If you are installing Galaxy Ship for the first time, you must run Galaxy Ship once to finish the installation. You will be prompted to setup the connection between Galaxy Ship and the Shipper database. Since this is handled for you by Shipper you can cancel the database setup. Please close Galaxy Ship before running Shipper 1.4.7 for the first time.

If Galaxy Ship is already installed

Please close Galaxy Ship before running Shipper 1.4.7 for the first time.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Testing Google Checkout in BVC5

Tue, 01 May 2007 15:00:00 GMT

I do all of my development and testing on computers here in the shop. Recently I wanted to make sure that the BVC5 implementation of Google Checkout and my Shipping Rate Provider Suite played well together. The tricky part was that Google Checkout makes several callbacks to BVC5 web site during the checkout process (and after), so I had to make my workstation available over the internet to Google. These are the steps I used to enable Google Checkout test mode on my local workstation.

The first step is to find the internet address and hostname of your internet connection. This will used to form the callback URL. As you can see in the diagram above I connect to the internet through a router which is connected to a broadband modem (comcast). To find the internet IP address I used the router's configuration web page. To find the hostname I used nslookup:

C:\>nslookup 24.22.112.211
Name: c-24-22-112-211.hsd1.or.comcast.net

Now we need the IP address of the computer running BVC5. I used the ipconfig command:

C:\>ipconfig
Windows IP Configuration

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 172.16.0.4
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 172.16.0.1

Next we need to tell the router to forward HTTP traffic to this computer. In my router, this is called port forwarding:

Now a request from Google to http://c-24-22-112-211.hsd1.or.comcast.net/store/googlenotify.aspx will be forwarded to my computer. Unfortunately a request from my own computer to this same URL will fail because my router does not support internal routing. To fix that I added a host record to the c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file so local requests to the same URL are sent to the loopback adapter:

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 c-24-22-112-211.hsd1.or.comcast.net

OK...the networking changes are done. It's time to configure Google Checkout. First create two test accounts; one for your test customer and one for the test merchant. This will be a little easier if you use two different browsers such as Internet Explorer for the customer and FireFox for the merchant.

On the merchant Integration page enter the callback URL (ie. http://c-24-22-112-211.hsd1.or.comcast.net/store/googlenotify.aspx), select XML as the callback method, and uncheck the option to digitally sign the XML. Click on the Save button but leave the Integration page open so you can copy the vendor ID and merchant key.

Now open the admin pages of your local BVC5 site. On the Options > Site Settings > Security page enter the external URL as the Secure Site Root, check Use SSL and click on the Save Changes button. For example,

Secure Site Root: http://c-24-22-112-211.hsd1.or.comcast.net/store/

On the Options > Site Settings > Payment page check Google Checkout and then click on the Save Changes button. Now click on the Edit button next to Google Checkout, enter the Merchant ID (Google calls this the Vendor ID on the Merchant Integration Page), the Merchant Key and select the Test Google Checkout Environment. After filling out the remaining items on this page, click on the Save Changes button.

That's it. To use Google Checkout click on the Google Checkout button when you reach the shopping cart page, sign in as the test customer and place the order. To manage the orders, sign in as the test merchant and visit the order Inbox. I find it easier to use two different browsers: Internet Explorer when I place an order as the test customer, and FireFox when I manage the orders as the test merchant.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Froogle Feed Version 1.7

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 20:48:00 GMT

Froogle Feed version 1.7 is now available. This new version includes support for multiple custom fields and optional feed compression.

Current owners can download this free update from the original order details page on this site. Login to Your Account to reach the order details.

You can also download the free trial version from the Downloads page.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipping Rate Provider Suite Version 2

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 20:42:00 GMT

click for full image

I am very pleased to announce that Version 2 of the Shipping Rate Provider Suite is now available. Although this version is compatible with BVC5 SP2, that is not the big news. The best new feature in Version 2 is a flexible packaging system that splits your order into suggested packages you can ship. You can even assign the packaging weight and box dimensions. And the packaging is carried all the way through the checkout process so your shipping deparment will see exactly how to pack the order.

The Shipping Rate Provider Suite calculates custom shipping costs without custom programming. This is the most complete real-time shipping cost calculation feature available anywhere for any ecommerce package. Download the free trial now.

Here are some of the new features:

Split the order into packages based on any package or product property (i.e. weight, count, product type, etc.)
Assign packaging weight to packages. For example, add 1 pound to every package to account for the box and packaging.
Assign box dimensions to packages. This means you can "pre-pack" the shipment into common box sizes. The box dimensions are displayed on the Shipping page so your shipping department knows exactly how to pack the order.
Use the new order Day of Week property to customize your shipping offers on certain days of the week. For example, you could offer Saturday Delivery on Thursday and Friday.
Use the new package Length + Girth property to avoid carrier surcharges for oversized packages.

There are also two new samples showing how to use the new features:

Amazon Shipping Sample - Create 4 shipping methods to emulate Amazon.com's shipping options.
Wine Cellar Sample - Combines wine into 6 bottles per case before retrieving 2 separate carrier rates.

Version 2 is a free update for all current license owners. You can download the new version using the trial download link or from the downloads page.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipper Service for BVC5 1.4.4 Compatible with SP1 and SP2

Sat, 21 Apr 2007 03:47:00 GMT

Shipper Service for BVC5 version 1.4.4 is now available. This build is compatible with BVC5 SP1 and SP2. You can download this free update from the downloads page.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

YUI AutoComplete + Anthem = AutoSearch

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 01:10:00 GMT

Anthem.NET is an Ajax library for ASP.NET applications. AutoComplete is part of the Yahoo User Interface library for creating sophisticated DHTML and Ajax applications. What happens if you mash them together? How about YuiAutoComplete?

YuiAutoComplete is an ASP.NET server control that generates the HTML and javascript necessary to create a YUI AutoComplete control. This short article describes how I used YuiAutoComplete to create an auto search widget for an ecommerce site. As the customer starts typing in the box YuiAutoComplete will display matching products. If the customer selects one of the products from the list, YuiAutoComplete will redirect the browser to the product detail page.

Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames.

First I added the Anthem and AnthemExtensions assemblies to my web site. Anthem and AnthemExtensions are the two assemblies that you get when you build Anthem.NET solution.

Then I created a user control to encapsulate the widget.

<div class="container">
    <asp:TextBox ID="AutoSearchField" runat="server" CssClass="textbox" />
    <AnthemExtensions:YuiAutoComplete id="AutoSearchWidget" runat="server" 
        AutoCallBack="true"
        CssClass="results" 
        FormatResult="formatResult" 
        OnSearch="AutoSearch_Search" 
        OnSelectedItemChanged="AutoSearch_SelectedItemChanged"
        TextBox="AutoSearchField">
    </AnthemExtensions:YuiAutoComplete>
</div>

Next I wrote 3 functions: formatResult, AutoSearch_Search, and AutoSearch_SelectedItemChanged.

YUI AutoComplete will use the OnSearch event handler on the server to retrieve search results. The actual call is made using an Anthem callback. In this example AutoSearch_Search performs a catalog search for the search term and returns the SKU, Product Name, and product detail page URL.

    [Anthem.Method]
    public string[][] AutoSearch_Search(string query)
    {
        ProductSearchCriteria criteria = new ProductSearchCriteria();
        criteria.Keyword = query;

        Collection<ProductSearchResultGroup> groups = InternalProduct.SearchByComplexPhrase(criteria,
            SessionManager.GetCurrentUserId(), false, this.AutoSearchWidget.MaxResultsDisplayed);

        ArrayList result = new ArrayList();
        if (groups.Count > 0)
        {
            foreach (ProductSearchResultGroup group in groups)
            {
                foreach (Product product in group.Products)
                {
                    string url = BVSoftware.Bvc5.Core.Utilities.UrlRewriter.BuildUrlForProduct(product, 
                        Request);
                    result.Add(new string[] { product.Sku, product.ProductName, url });
                }
            }
        }

        return (string[][])result.ToArray(typeof(string[]));
    }

YUI AutoComplete will use the client side FormatResult function to format the search results. In this example formatResult displays the SKU and Product Name in the search results list. Note that even though I don't show the product URL, YUI AutoComplete keep track of it.

    function formatResult(item, query) {
        return item[0] + ' (' + item[1] + ')';
    }

AutoSearch_SelectedItemChanged is another server side method that is called (via Anthem callback) when the customer selects one of the results. In this example the method redirects the browser to the product detail page URL.

    protected void AutoSearch_SelectedItemChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        string url = this.AutoSearchWidget.SelectedItem.Split(',')[2];
        Response.Redirect(url);
    }

Source: AutoSearch.zip

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipper 1.4.4 Release

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 21:10:00 GMT

Shipper 1.4.3 introduced a fix to correct an error when preparing shipments for UPS WorldShip when the shipment included instructions with multiple lines. Unfortunately, the fix caused another problem if the instructions were very long (longer than 255 characters). Shipper 1.4.4 includes a fix for long instructions.

This is a free update. You can download the latest build of Shipper from the downloads page.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

CSO List of Top 5 Data Breaches of 2005

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 20:03:00 GMT

In Data Drains, CSO lists the top 5 data breaches in 2006. Together they could affect over 35 million people.

A lot of online merchants that talk to me want to store credit card numbers and sometimes even the security code. My advice is always the same...don't do it!

No matter what technology you put in place, the weakest link will always be people. The largest breach, at the Veterans Affairs Department, occurred when a laptop was stolen from an employee's home. No software can stop that.

For up to date information, keep an eye on the Attrition.org Data Loss Archive and Database.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Froogle Feed 1.6 Released

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 16:51:00 GMT

Froogle Feed 1.6 is now available. This version includes support for the required attributes for all products announced by Google Base in February 2007.

Current owners can download a copy of Froogle Feed 1.6 from your account. Select View Past Orders, then display the order details and click on the downloads link. If the downloads link does not appear, please send an email to support@structured-solutions.net with the order number.

If you were testing this release, you do not need to install this build...it is the same one you were testing. Thank you!

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Froogle Feed Support for New Product Upload Requirements

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 18:14:00 GMT

The Google Base Team have announced new product upload requirements for Froogle Merchants.

Google's FAQ
Google's Attribute Requirement Page

Google will no longer list items that do not meet the minimal number of attributes by the end of February 2007. I will release an update to Froogle Feed that includes the required attributes for all products before the end of February. The update will not include support for item type specific attributes.

Please see Google's Attribute Requirement Page for a list of the required attributes for all products and the item type specific attributes.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipper Service for StoreFront Update

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 22:30:00 GMT

This free update to Shipper Service for StoreFront will use the Inventory SKU value for the Item Code field if it is assigned. If no SKU is assigned or if inventory is not tracked, then the ProductCode field will still be used.

You can download version 1.4.0.2 from the downloads page.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipping Rate Provider Suite for BVC5 Updated

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 21:22:00 GMT

The Package Router and Package Rule calculators in the Shipper Rate Provider Suite for BVC5 now include access to all the combined properties of the items in the package. For example, you can have a rule such as "When the combined product categories contain the string 'laser', the cost =...". This rule would apply when any of the items in the package contain the string 'laser'.

You can reference any item property including custom product properties that you define in BVC5. Numeric properties are added together. For example, Combined Item Value would calculate the total value of all items in the package.

This free update is available on the downloads page.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

A New Way to Move Your Database

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 16:43:00 GMT

Sometimes you need to move your database:

You created your store locally, now you are ready to show the world
You run your store on webhost4life, and now you are ready for a "real" host

Whatever your reason, the options you had were:

You or your old host detach the database and send the files to your new host, then have your new host attach the database.
You or your old host take a full backup and send the backup to your new host, then have your new host restore the backup.
You write a complicated DTS job to copy the data from one database to another.

All of these options require a lot of coordination between hosts or some pretty sophisticated database work when the DTS job fails.

Now there is a new option: Microsoft SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard 1.0

This free product will produce a script that completely recreates the database. Just take a snapshot of the current database, then run the script on the new server. Boom...you got your database. There is even a web service that shared hosts (Resposio, Applied Innovation, StoreFront Hosting, ...) can install that eliminates the second step.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipper 1.4.1 is Released

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 20:16:00 GMT

Shipper 1.4.1 is now available. This build is compatible with UPS WorldShip 9.0. It also corrects several minor bugs. This is a free update to any version of Shipper 1.x. Please read the release notes carefully if you are updating a build older than 1.4.0.

Download

UPDATE: A few people have reported a problem running Shipper 1.4 if they were updating an earlier version. To be safe, I recommend using Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs to remove earlier versions of Shipper before you install Shipper 1.4.

Shipper 1.4 is compatible with both UPS WorldShip 8.0 and 9.0 so you can install and test Shipper 1.4 (and Shipper Service 1.4 on your web site) before you install UPS WorldShip 9.0.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Shipper and UPS WorldShip 9.0 Status

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 18:21:00 GMT

Shipper 1.4 is being testing for compatibility with UPS WorldShip 9.0. I will post a note when the testing is complete. So far no issues have been identified here, but one person wrote in to say that Shipper did not recognize her copy of WorldShip 9.0. You may want to hold off installing WorldShip 9.0 until the testing is complete.

Update: Shipper 1.4.1 has been released.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Domain transfer part II: sfaddons.com

Sat, 23 Dec 2006 22:56:00 GMT

I have been operating 3 domains for several months: sfaddons.com with components for StoreFront 6 by LaGarde, Inc.; bvcaddons.com with components for BV Commerce 2004 by BV Software, LLC, and structured-solutions.net with everything.

All three domains are now consolidated into structured-solutions.net. All of the accounts and orders from sfaddons.com have been transferred to structured-solutions.net and sfaddons.com is now just an alias.

Order numbers overlapped between sfaddons and the existing orders in structured-solutions.net, so I shifted the order numbers into an unused range by adding 4000. For example, if the order number was 1001 on sfaddons.com, it is now 5001 on structured-solutions.net.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Domain transfer part I: bvcaddons.com

Sat, 23 Dec 2006 22:49:00 GMT

All three domains are now consolidated into structured-solutions.net. All of the accounts and orders from bvcaddons.com have been transferred to structured-solutions.net and bvcaddons.com is now just an alias.

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.

Making the case for a shared (EV) SSL certificate

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 22:10:00 GMT

Although shared SSL certificates have often been poo-pooed, a shared EV SSL certficate may be the only option for many small businesses.

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/12/21/extended-validation-ev-ssl-and-small-businesses.aspx

Structured Solutions
Software to help you build a better store.