Developer Account Required?

Hi Mark,

Thank you for reporting this. The developer account is free, and usage of the Pitney Bowes API is also free. I have clients that have used this process for years and am not aware of any pricing except the shipping label itself – but if you find this has changed please let me know. You may sign up for a developer account here: https://developerhub.shippingapi.pitneybowes.com/signup/new-account

I am interested to see the query that is echoed on your config screen. I have not yet been able to reproduce this, but if you have an example that will surely help.

Thanks for your reply. I set up an account using that link yet when I click on the “login” link in the PB Ship Admin I get a message after logging in of:

Your login attempt failed.
The user is not authorized to access Merchant Portal.

Is there some kind of additional step I need to take? Also, it’s not clear to me how I’d link the client PB account to the developer account to. In general I’m a bit confused about the steps to set this all up. Do you have any documentation available?

The query being echoed is the following, the first is after activating the plugin, and the second is on the admin page for the plugin:

First:

SELECT o.ID order_id
,o.post_type channel
,o.post_status
,m.meta_id
,DATE_FORMAT(MAX(s.meta_value),'%Y-%m-%d')shipped
,d.meta_value delivery_est
,IFNULL(IFNULL((SELECT meta_value FROM wp_postmeta WHERE meta_key='_shipping_first_name' AND post_id=o.ID LIMIT 1),(SELECT meta_value FROM wp_postmeta WHERE meta_key='_billing_first_name' AND post_id=o.ID LIMIT 1)),'')fname
,(SELECT 1 FROM wp_postmeta JOIN wp_options ON option_name=CONCAT('sms_sb_',meta_value) WHERE meta_key='_billing_phone' AND post_id=o.ID LIMIT 1)subscribe
,(SELECT meta_value FROM wp_postmeta LEFT JOIN wp_options ON option_name=CONCAT('pb_unsb_',meta_value) WHERE option_name IS NULL AND meta_key='_billing_phone' AND post_id=o.ID LIMIT 1)phone
,(SELECT LOWER(meta_value) FROM wp_postmeta LEFT JOIN wp_options ON option_name=CONCAT('pb_unsb_',meta_value) WHERE option_name IS NULL AND meta_key='_billing_email' AND post_id=o.ID LIMIT 1)email
,IFNULL(m.meta_key,'')label
,IFNULL(m.meta_value,'')label_meta
FROM wp_posts o
JOIN wp_postmeta s ON s.post_id=o.ID AND s.meta_key='_last_shipped' AND s.meta_value>=NOW()-INTERVAL 30 DAY
LEFT JOIN wp_postmeta d ON d.post_id=o.ID AND d.meta_key='delivery_est' AND DATE_FORMAT(d.meta_value,'%Y-%m-%d')>DATE_FORMAT(s.meta_value,'%Y-%m-%d')
JOIN wp_postmeta m ON m.post_id=o.ID AND m.meta_key LIKE '_pb_label_meta%' AND m.meta_value NOT LIKE '%inbound%' AND m.meta_value NOT LIKE '%cancel%' AND m.meta_value NOT LIKE '%returnToSender%' AND m.meta_value NOT LIKE '%delivered,%'
WHERE o.post_type IN ('import_order','shop_order')
AND (LENGTH('0')>1 OR (d.post_id IS NULL OR DATE_FORMAT(d.meta_value,'%Y-%m-%d') BETWEEN DATE_FORMAT(NOW()-INTERVAL 3 DAY,'%Y-%m-%d') AND DATE_FORMAT(NOW()+INTERVAL 10 DAY,'%Y-%m-%d')))
AND o.post_status NOT IN ('wc-cancelled','trash')


ORDER BY m.meta_id DESC
LIMIT 50;

Second:

SELECT n.option_value store_name
,(SELECT option_value FROM wp_options WHERE option_name=’woocommerce_store_address’)address
,(SELECT option_value FROM wp_options WHERE option_name=’woocommerce_store_address_2′)address_2
,(SELECT option_value FROM wp_options WHERE option_name=’woocommerce_store_city’)city
,(SELECT option_value FROM wp_options WHERE option_name=’woocommerce_default_country’)ctry_state
,(SELECT option_value FROM wp_options WHERE option_name=’woocommerce_store_postcode’)zip
,(SELECT option_value FROM wp_options WHERE option_name=’woocommerce_store_tel’)tel
,IFNULL(NULLIF((SELECT option_value FROM wp_options WHERE option_name=’woocommerce_email_from_address’),”),(SELECT option_value FROM wp_options WHERE option_name=’admin_email’))email
FROM wp_options n
WHERE option_name=’blogname’
;

Hi Mark,

Thank you for providing the query information. From the tests I’ve conducted, it appears that the echoing of queries isn’t occurring in fresh installs, suggesting that the issue might be related to specific server settings, such as error reporting or output buffering configurations. These settings can influence how PHP handles errors and output, potentially leading to unexpected behavior like the echoing of sensitive information.

Additionally, if your server is utilizing Suhosin, a PHP security extension, certain settings within it could contribute to the display of information in the interface. I’ll be working on addressing these potential issues in the next release to ensure smoother operation across different server environments.

Regarding the developer account, it seems you’re on the right track. If you continue to receive the error on login, please reach out to shipping api support (email address & phone number are at the top of the plugin’s settings page). They are typically very responsive. Be sure to provide them with the email address associated with your developer account. Mention to them that you’d like to link your existing merchant account (client PB account) with the new developer account. If all else fails, you may create a developer account with a different email address than the SendPro account, as this might be a factor.

Once your developer account is functioning smoothly, integrating it with the plugin is straightforward—simply copy and paste the relevant IDs into the plugin settings to facilitate communication between them.

If you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to reply to this thread.

Hi,

Thanks again for your follow up. I’ve been in communication with Pitney Bowes support and it sounds like it may require an eCommerce PitneyShip account in order for this to work, but the support from them hasn’t been great, so I don’t feel confident in that. Do you happen to know if that is the case? I was finally put in touch with the account manager for my client so I’m hoping he’ll be able to provide more information.

Ultimately, the client is actually more interested in having all WooCommerce transactions sent to their PitneyShip account and printing labels from there vs. the WP admin, in addition to getting the correct PitneyShip live rates for customers at checkout. Does your plugin also send Woo transactions to PitneyShip such that they could print from there if they’d prefer?

While working on this, we also came across https://www.pitneybowes.com/us/support/article/000089540/connecting-your-woocommerce-store-to-pitneyship.html which details a way to connect Woo and PitneyShip such that: “Connecting your WooCommerce store to the PitneyShip allows you to manage data between both platforms.” which of course is very vague and provides no further details on what that means. There was no “add store” option anywhere on the client PitneyShip account which is where I was told that an “eCommerce level” account was needed in order to enable that, but no solid information on what that connection using their method actually achieves.

Thanks again for all of your help. Please let me know if you have any more information to share based on the above.

Hi Mark,

Thank you for the update! This plugin operates independently of PitneyShip software and order info is not sent to PitneyShip. In comparison, this WooCommerce plugin is free, and PitneyShip may be charging a small monthly fee. However, it is possible for this WC plugin to display live rates that match PitneyShip?as long as the client (merchant ID/shipper ID) is the same entity between the plugin and PitneyShip.

The process is to first create a PB developer account. If you are a developer for the client, it will be okay to use your details to set up the account. You might have previously run into an issue setting up the developer account if you were using the client’s details and they already have a PitneyShip?account, but this is beyond my expertise. Once the developer account is created, the PB account manager should be able to tie the client’s merchant/shipper account to the developer account so that the live rates are quoted in WooCommerce.

As the developer, the final step once your account is live is paste in the Developer ID, Merchant ID, and API keys into the plugin. The client can set up payment directly with PB if they choose to use their merchant account for purchasing labels directly in WC, but live rates in the WC cart will work without this step. I am more than happy to offer assistance to complete your set up, and I have a few more ideas, but unfortunately I’m unable to share account details in a public thread. Please refer to the second bullet under “Need Help?” banner on the plugins setup page.

In regards to connecting WC and PitneyShip, I have not done this before, although it appears to use the native WC API which is common. I would expect this just allows tracking numbers and shipping status to be exchanged over API. I do not have a PitneyShip account as this is a separate software product. If you are experiencing issues within PitneyShip like the lack of an ‘Add Store’ button, I would direct this to the PB account manager.

Hi Mark,

I’m happy to announce that the plugin setup has been streamlined in 5.0 released today. If you perform a clean install of the plugin (ensuring that the uninstall preference is set to delete all settings), most of your issues in this thread should be resolved.

Live rates will work immediately, without a connection to a merchant account. You’ll only need a new merchant account to purchase labels.

It’s a single step to connect a new merchant, instead of previously requiring a developer account. The only thing I don’t recommend is trying to tie an older merchant account – if it is already associated with PitneyShip or SendPro. In these cases, create a new merchant account for use just with the plugin.