RE: Examples wanted for accessing FedEx or UPS server API's from RPGLE

Jeff

Scott Klement's HTTPAPIR4 and the examples are all you need - this is a
good piece of software, is robust, and helps us enormously. Follow the
install instructions to build the HTTPAPIR4 and EXPAT service programs +
unpack the example code. Then if you follow the examples you will get
there. The key to this is to start small and work up. Follow the
examples and watch what the responses are in debug. Once you get this
working, move across to what you need to actually apply it to in small
steps. Pick on the SOAP method with the smallest number of parameters
first. All the SOAP methods I've come across give some form of error
code and error message, which at least allows you to connect to the
service you are trying to use and will give you a response like - 'this
entity hasn't been registered' which at least lets you know you've
connected to a service and it's responded. So if you start with
something that voids a shipment using a tracking reference - generally
only needs the tracking ref as a parameter, even if you haven't created
the shipment in the first place it should still give you a response like
- sorry shipment not registered.

We gained experience with simple SOAP request/responses like 'Tell me
what stock you have of this item' - only requires the item code, which
lets us know whether to place an order with this supplier, and then
worked up to things like 'create shipment' (which I believe is what you
are aiming to do) with loads of parameters.

Suggest you will need to go via a proxy server to go out to the Internet
to protect your I series from miscreants in the outside world, but all
you need for this is to add a TCP/IP Host table entry via command CFGTCP
and option 10. Then make sure you do a callp http_setproxy to set the
proxy server DNS name and all will be fine and dandy.

For the XML stuff I use a file containing an XML template for the XML
needed for a particular web service and put some identifiers in the XML
to know where a data value needs to be substituted. Then for a
particular request having substituted the variable parameters in the XML
map we pass this to http_url_post_xml procedure. If you follow the
examples for the response you will see that it breaks the response into
a series of 'field' and 'fieldvalue' response pairs which allow you to
set values for internal database fields.

Hope this helps

Dave


-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jeff Young
Sent: 17 January 2014 18:07
To: RPG programming on the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries)
Subject: Re: Examples wanted for accessing FedEx or UPS server API's
from RPGLE

Thanks Trevor,
I have downloaded the documentation, but since I am not familiar with
creating SOAP requests, or creating the XML to send to the API and
parsing the results, I was hoping for some pointers.

I have received some very useful suggestions so far, including using
Scott Klement's HTTPAPI and some 3rd party provider and am exploring all
of them.

More suggestions are always appreciated.

Jeff Young
Sr. Programmer Analyst


On Fri, Jan 17, 2014 at 12:56 PM, Briggs, Trevor (TBriggs2) <
TBriggs2@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Jeff,

I'm looking at doing something similar with UPS and their Developer
Kit site has a lot of information and some sample code:
https://www.ups.com/upsdeveloperkit?loc=en_US.

You have to register in order to download their developer kit
information, but it's free.

Trevor Briggs
Analyst/Programmer
Lincare, Inc.
(727) 431-1246
TBriggs2@xxxxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jeff Young
Sent: Friday, January 17, 2014 11:59 AM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i / System i
Subject: Examples wanted for accessing FedEx or UPS server API's from
RPGLE

All,
I have a client that needs to be able (using the FedEx or UPS API's)
to send shipment information to the server and receive back rate
information.

From what I have read so far, this can be done using SOAP/XML/WSDL or

HTTP
Post over SSL.

Does anyone have some sample code that I can use as a base for adding
to my existing programs?

I have a basic understanding of XML and HTTP, but no experience in
translating XML using RPGLE.

All help or suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Jeff Young
Sr. Programmer Analyst
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