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WebService-Shippo-0.0.21
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/ WebService::Shippo

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Though functional, this software is still in the process of being documented and should, therefore, be considered a work in progress.

NAME

WebService::Shippo - Shippo API Client

VERSION

version 0.0.21

SYNOPIS

Note: though scripts and modules must always use WebService::Shippo; to import the client software, the WebService:: portion of that package namespace may be dropped when subsequently referring to the main package or any of its resource classes. For example, WebService::Shippo::Address and Shippo::Address refer to the same class.

To compel the developer to continue using the WebService:: prefix does seem like an unreasonable form of torture, besides which, it probably doesn't leave much scope for indenting code as some class names would be very long. Use it, or don't use it. It's entirely up to you.

    use strict;
    use LWP::UserAgent;
    use WebService::Shippo;
    
    # If you aren't using a config file or the environment (SHIPPO_TOKEN=...)
    # to supply your API key, you can do so here:
    
    Shippo->api_key('PASTE YOUR AUTH TOKEN HERE')
        unless Shippo->api_key;
    
    # Complete example illustrating the the process of Shipment creation
    # through to label generation.
    #
    # Create a Shipment object:
    
    my $shipment = Shippo::Shipment->create(
        object_purpose => 'PURCHASE',
        address_from   => {
            object_purpose => 'PURCHASE',
            name           => 'Shawn Ippotle',
            company        => 'Shippo',
            street1        => '215 Clayton St.',
            city           => 'San Francisco',
            state          => 'CA',
            zip            => '94117',
            country        => 'US',
            phone          => '+1 555 341 9393',
            email          => 'shippotle@goshippo.com'
        },
        address_to => {
            object_purpose => 'PURCHASE',
            name           => 'Mr Hippo',
            company        => '',
            street1        => 'Broadway 1',
            street2        => '',
            city           => 'New York',
            state          => 'NY',
            zip            => '10007',
            country        => 'US',
            phone          => '+1 555 341 9393',
            email          => 'mrhippo@goshippo.com'
        },
        parcel => {
            length        => '5',
            width         => '5',
            height        => '5',
            distance_unit => 'in',
            weight        => '2',
            mass_unit     => 'lb'
        }
    );
    
    # Retrieve shipping rates and select preferred rate:
    
    my $rates = Shippo::Shipment->get_shipping_rates( $shipment->object_id );
    my $preferred_rate = $rates->item(2);
    
    # Purchase label at the preferred rate:
    
    my $transaction = Shippo::Transaction->create(
        rate            => $preferred_rate->object_id,
        label_file_type => 'PNG',
    );
    
    # Get the shipping label:
    
    my $label_url = Shippo::Transaction->get_shipping_label( $transaction->object_id );
    my $browser   = LWP::UserAgent->new;
    $browser->get( $transaction->label_url, ':content_file' => './sample.png' );
    
    # Print the transaction object...
    
    print "Transaction:\n", $transaction;

    --[content dumped to console]--
    Transaction:
    {
       "commercial_invoice_url" : null,
       "customs_note" : "",
       "label_url" : "https://shippo-delivery-east.s3.amazonaws.com/da2e68fe85f94a9ebca458d9f9d
    2446b.PNG?Signature=BjD2JMQt0ATd5jUWAKm%2B6FHcBPM%3D&Expires=1477323662&AWSAccessKeyId=AKIA
    JGLCC5MYLLWIG42A",
       "messages" : [],
       "metadata" : "",
       "notification_email_from" : false,
       "notification_email_other" : "",
       "notification_email_to" : false,
       "object_created" : "2015-10-25T15:41:01.182Z",
       "object_id" : "da2e68fe85f94a9ebca458d9f9d2446b",
       "object_owner" : "******@*********.***",
       "object_state" : "VALID",
       "object_status" : "SUCCESS",
       "object_updated" : "2015-10-25T15:41:02.494Z",
       "order" : null,
       "pickup_date" : null,
       "rate" : "3c76e81733d7417b9a801ce957f4219d",
       "submission_note" : "",
       "tracking_history" : [],
       "tracking_number" : "9499907123456123456781",
       "tracking_status" : {
          "object_created" : "2015-10-25T15:41:02.451Z",
          "object_id" : "02ce6dbd6d5a48cfb764fdeb0cb6e404",
          "object_updated" : "2015-10-25T15:41:02.451Z",
          "status" : "UNKNOWN",
          "status_date" : null,
          "status_details" : ""
       },
       "tracking_url_provider" : "https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction_input?origTrackN
    um=9499907123456123456781",
       "was_test" : true
    }
    --[end of content]--

The sample code in this synopsis produced the following label:

DESCRIPTION

Shippo connects you with multiple shipping providers (USPS, UPS and Fedex, for example) through one interface, offering you great discounts on a selection of shipping rates. You can sign-up for an account at https://goshippo.com/.

The Shippo API can be used to automate and customize shipping capabilities for your e-commerce store or marketplace, enabling you to retrieve shipping rates, create and purchase shipping labels, track packages, and much more.

Though Shippo do offer official API clients for a bevy of major languages, the venerable Perl 5 was not included in that list. This community offering attempts to correct that omission ;-)

API Resources

Access to all Shippo API resources is via URLs relative to the same encrypted API endpoint (https://api.goshippo.com/v1/). The client provides object and collection classes to help with the nitty-gritty of dealing with those resources:

Each item class has a related collection class with a similar name in the plural form. The rationale behind this is that the Shippo API can be used to retrieve single objects with the fetch method, and collections of objects with the all method, and different behaviours may be applied to collections, which is why both forms exist.

Request & Response Data

The Perl client ensures that requests are properly encoded and passed to the correct API endpoints using appropriate HTTP methods. There is documentation for each API resource, containing more details on the values accepted by and returned for a given resource (see "FULL API DOCUMENTATION").

All API requests return responses encoded as JSON strings, which the client converts into Perl blessed object references of the correct type. As a rule, any resource attribute documented in the API specification will have an accessor of the same same in a Perl instance of that object.

REST & Disposable Objects

The Shippo API is built with simplicity and RESTful principles in mind: POST requests are used to create objects, GET requests to fetch and list objects, and PUT requests to update objects. The Perl client provides create, fetch, all and update methods for use with resource objects that permit such operations.

Addresses, Parcels, Shipments, Rates, Transactions, Refunds, Customs Items and Customs Declarations are disposable objects. This means that once you create an object, you cannot change it. Instead, create a new one with the desired values. Carrier Accounts are the exception and may be updated via PUT requests.

OBJECTS vs COLLECTIONS

Whereas a GET request to https://api.goshippo.com/v1/addresses/d799c2679e644279b59fe661ac8fa488 might produce a single address whose structure would resemble this:

    {
       "object_state":"VALID",
       "object_purpose":"PURCHASE",
       "object_source":"FULLY_ENTERED",
       "object_created":"2014-07-09T02:19:13.174Z",
       "object_updated":"2014-07-09T02:19:13.174Z",
       "object_id":"d799c2679e644279b59fe661ac8fa488",
       "object_owner":"shippotle@goshippo.com",
       "name":"Shawn Ippotle",
       "street1":"215 Clayton St.",
       "street2":"",
       "city":"San Francisco",
       "state":"CA",
       "zip":"94117",
       "country":"US",
       "phone":"15553419393",
       "email":"shippotle@goshippo.com",
       "ip":null,
       "is_residential":true,
       "messages":[],
       "metadata":"Customer ID 123456"
    }

A GET request to https://api.goshippo.com/v1/addresses/ might produce a collection of address objects whose structure would resemble this:

    {
       "count":3,
       "next":null,
       "previous":null,
       "results":[
          {
             "object_state":"VALID",
             "object_purpose":"PURCHASE",
             "object_source":"FULLY_ENTERED",
             "object_created":"2014-07-16T23:20:31.089Z",
             "object_updated":"2014-07-16T23:20:31.089Z",
             "object_id":"747207de2ba64443b645d08388d0309c",
             "object_owner":"shippotle@goshippo.com",
             "name":"Shawn Ippotle",
             "street1":"215 Clayton St.",
             "street2":"",
             "city":"San Francisco",
             "state":"CA",
             "zip":"94117",
             "country":"US",
             "phone":"15553419393",
             "email":"shippotle@goshippo.com",
             "is_residential":true,
             "ip":null,
             "messages":[
    
             ],
             "metadata":"Customer ID 123456"
          },
          {...},
          {...}
       ]
    }

The Shippo API does not distinguish between a single object and a collection of objects. It deals purely with JSON strings and both object and collection are notionally considered to be the same type of object.

Nevertheless, the Perl client does distinguish between a single object and a collection of objects. For each API resource, the client defines an Item Class (e.g. WebService::Shippo::Address) and a corresponding Collection Class (e.g. WebService::Shippo::Addresses). The name of the collection class is always the plural form of the item class. Furthermore, any objects making up the results of a collection will be blessed as instances of the appropriate item class.

Both item and collection classes implement different interfaces, but they also exhibit common behaviours. Collection classes will respond to methods that aid item access and cursor navigation, while both types of class respond (where appropriate) to create, update, fetch, all, iterate and collect methods.

METHODS

api_key

Get or set the key used by API requests for Shippo's token-based authentication. This is Shippo's preferred method of authentication.

  • Return the token currently being used for authentication.

        my $api_key = Shippo->api_key;

  • Set the token to be used for authentication.

        Shippo->api_key($auth_token);

    The api_key method is chainable when used as a setter.

api_credentials

Get or set the login credentials used by API requests for Shippo's legacy authentication. Legacy authentication means encoding the HTTP Authorization header for Basic Authentication so, even though requests and repsonses are encrypted, you should still consider using the token-based authentication instead (see api_key).

  • Return the login credentials currently being used for authentication.

        my ($username, $password) = Shippo->api_credentials;

  • Set the credentials to be used for authentication.

        Shippo->api_credentials($username, $password);

    The api_credentials method is chainable when used as a setter.

Whenever a configuration specifies both token and login credentials, the client will always favour token-based authentication. If api_key and api_credentials are both set manually then it is the most recently set mechanism that defines the HTTP Authorization header.

EXPORTS

The WebService::Shippo package exports a number of helpful subroutines by default:

true

    my $fedex_account = Shippo::CarrierAccount->create(
        carrier    => 'fedex',
        account_id => '<YOUR-FEDEX-ACCOUNT-NUMBER>',
        parameters => { meter => '<YOUR-FEDEX-METER-NUMBER>' },
        test       => true,
        active     => true
    );

Returns a scalar value which will evaluate to true.

Since the lingua franca connecting Shippo's API and the Perl client is JSON, it can feel more natural to think in those terms. Thus, true may be used in place of 1. Now, when creating a new object from a JSON example, any literal and accidental use of true or false is much less likely to result in misery.

See Ingy's boolean package for more guidance.

false

    my $fedex_account = Shippo::CarrierAccount->create(
        carrier    => 'fedex',
        account_id => '<YOUR-FEDEX-ACCOUNT-NUMBER>',
        parameters => { meter => '<YOUR-FEDEX-METER-NUMBER>' },
        test       => false,
        active     => false
    );

Returns a scalar value which will evaluate to false.

Since the lingua franca connecting Shippo's API and the Perl client is JSON, it can feel more natural to think in those terms. Thus, false may be used in place of 0. Now, when creating a new object from a JSON example, any literal and accidental use of true or false is much less likely to result in misery.

See Ingy's boolean package for more guidance.

boolean

    my $bool = boolean($value);

Casts a scalar value to a boolean value (true or false).

See Ingy's boolean package for more guidance.

callback

    $put_all_accounts_in_test_mode = Shippo::CarrierAccounts->collect( 
        callback { shift->enable_test_mode } );
    $put_all_accounts_in_test_mode->();

Many of the Perl client's methods allow the use of lambda functions for block operations and filtration.

See Params::Callbacks for more guidance.

CONFIGURATION

While the client does provide api_key and api_credentials methods to help with authentication, hard-coding such calls in anything more mission critical than a simple test script may not be the best way to go.

As soon as it is imported, one of the first things the client does is search a number of locations for a YAML-encoded configuration file. The first one it finds is loaded.

In order, the locations searched are as follows:

  • ./.shipporc

  • /path/to/home/.shipporc

  • /etc/shipporc

  • /path/to/perl/module/install/lib/WebService/Shippo/Config.yml

The configuration file is very simple and needs to have the following structure, though not all elements are mandatory:

    ---
    username: martymcfly@pinheads.org
    password: yadayada
    private_token: f0e1d2c3b4a5968778695a4b3c2d1e0f96877869
    public_token: 96877869f0e1d2c3b4a5968778695a4b3c2d1e0f
    default_token: private_token

At a minimum, your configuration should define values for private_token and public_token. These are your Shippo Private and Publishable Auth tokens, which are found on your Shippo API page.

FULL API DOCUMENTATION

REPOSITORY

AUTHOR

Iain Campbell <cpanic@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright © 2015 by Iain Campbell.

You may distribute this software under the terms of either the GNU General Public License or the Artistic License, as specified in the Perl README file.