UPS Worldship Integration and .net

Question

Are there any UPS WorldShip integration APIS or Libraries out there for .net? I've been tasked with integrating our Sample Order application (A VB.Net/SQL Server app) with UPS, and having it write .xml files for the auto import feature though serialization has gotten my foot in the door- but some of the more advanced shipment options such as international customs options are completely undocumented.

How did you get UPS integration up and running? Did you have any 3rd party help doing it? Is there a better location for documentation I'm just missing?

EDIT: What I'm trying to do is create new shipments based on order data in my database and then update those orders with the tracking number the shipment received from UPS. The orders have the shipping method designated, 2nd Day Air, Ground, or International. About 50% of the orders are international.

Answer 1

Check here:
http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/bussol/offering/technology/alliances/technology_tools.html

Look at the NexxStatus and ShipRush products at the bottom. Hopefully between those you'll be able to find something.

Answer 2

We found that InterShipper has a VERY easy integration tool to FEDEx, UPS, USPS, DHL. It is all based upon a RESTfull API. The response is a simple XML. It returns rates, labels, and billing information for the major carriers.

http://www.intershipper.com/

This is just a suggestion.

Answer 3

It seems that the 3rd party libraries are nice, but technically not required.

Here's what your really need:

1. UPS Account
2. UPS Account Number
3. UPS Access Key

Then download their developer kit: see folder: Rating PACKAGE\PACKAGE Web Services\Code Samples\Rate\Dot Net\RateWSSample\RateWSSample

Answer 4

I found the small dotnetshipping library by Ryan LaNeve to be helpful in getting started with UPS integration.

Granted, this is more geared towards using their Rates & Service Selection service, as opposed to WorldShip. Might be worth a look though...

Answer 5

What are you specifically trying to do with UPS integration? Get shipping costs? Get tracking information? If you have a specific question, please post and maybe I can help.

http://www.ups.com/e_comm_access/gettools_index?loc=en_US

Download the documentation. There is a zip file with XML integration that has all the fields you need.

Answer 6

The shiprush SDK can be really useful for making shipping labels. It does UPS, postal, and FedEx.