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What follows is an e-mail chain between myself and the United States Postal Service. I ran into a bit of a road block while attempting to utilize their rate calculator API for a web application I’m working on. It should speak for itself. The replies are listed top to bottom in chronological order (i.e. bottom-posted). I assume their replies to be public domain since they are a government organization and national security is not a factor. Names and other personal info have been withheld.

From: jeremy@[redacted]
To: [redacted]@usps.com

When I try to submit a simple test request to the Rate V3 API on the test servers:

http://testing.[redacted].com/ShippingAPITest.dll or https://secure.[redacted].com/ShippingAPITest.dll

In each case, I get a message saying that “RateV3 is not a valid API name for this protocol.”

Is there some other test server I am supposed to use for developing against RateV3?

Thanks,
Jeremy [Redacted]
User ID: [Redacted]

From: USPS Internet Customer Care Center <[redacted]@usps.com>
To: jeremy@[redacted].com

Dear USPS Customer,
Thank you for contacting the USPS Internet Customer Care Center. For the test server you want to use Rate V2.

Thank you

[Name redacted]
USPS Internet Customer Care Center
[redacted]@usps.com

From: jeremy@[redacted]
To: [redacted]@usps.com

Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately, I cannot test with Rate V2 for the following reasons:

1. I am not developing to the Rate V2 API. I am developing to the Rate V3 API.
2. There is no documentation for the Rate V2 API, so even if I wanted to develop to it, I couldn’t.
3. I want to use the current API in my application. Rate V2 is not the current API. Rate V3 is the current API.

Since I apparently can’t execute Rate V3 queries against the test server, and I cannot use the production server until I have executed queries against the test server, can you recommend a course of action?

Thanks,
Jeremy

From: USPS Internet Customer Care Center <[redacted]@usps.com>
To: jeremy@[redacted].com

Dear Mr. Jeremy [Redacted],

To complete successful testing you should be using RateV2 with the testing server and RateV3 with the production server once you have been granted acces.

[Name redacted]
USPS Internet Customer Care Center
[redacted]@usps.com

From: jeremy@[redacted]
To: [redacted]@usps.com

Dear USPS,

Just to be 100% clear, you want me to:

1. Somehow write code against the (now undocumented) RateV2 API.
2. Test that code on the test servers.
3. Contact you and ask to be moved to production servers.
4. Throw away the useless code I wrote (at great expense to my company), and write entirely NEW code against RateV3.
5. Test that code on the production servers.

Is this your official process? If so, do you have an archived copy of the Rate V2 API documentation so that I may use it to begin your shocking farce of a development process?

Thanks,
Jeremy [Redacted]

From: USPS Internet Customer Care Center <[redacted]@usps.com>
To: jeremy@[redacted].com

Dear Mr. Jeremy [Redacted],

Thank you for contacting us. Congratulations on completing your testing using the U.S. Postal Service’s Internet Shipping Application Program Interfaces (APIs).
Your profile has been updated to allow you access to the Production Server.

1. The Production Server URL is: http://production.[redacted].com. For APIs calling the secure server, the URL is https://secure.[redacted].com.
2. There is a line of code that refers to “shippingapitest.dll”. You’ll need to remove the word “test”.

If you are using third party software and need assistance, please contact the vendor of the software. They should be able to assist you in obtaining live information using our APIs.

Thank you for using the USPS Shipping APIs.

[Name redacted]
USPS Internet Customer Care Center
[redacted]@usps.com