Greetings Andy:

For some reason, I have not received a reply to a couple of email I sent to you about Shipper 1.4 and Shipper 3.4. Here are the questions:

1) We found out that the Shipper version 1.4 which we are running is not picking up orders that are kits (kitting). Is there a patch for this for Shipper ver 1.4
2) Will Shipper 1.4 support ASP 3.5?
3) Doesl SHipper 3.1 suport ASP 3.5.

Thanks Andy

Nolan

Hi Andy:
I am not sure exactly what happened to your email since I checked the deleted box where my SPAM email goes. I am sure that your replied to my email since you always do. In any case, it looks like we have reached the point were we have to do a mass update to get BV and all supporting apps all in a common platform that all apps supports. The real concern we have is that if we upgrade to ASP.net 3.5 can only be done at the server level so all our domains will have to be running apps that are compatible with ASP 3.5

What licenses do we need to upgrade from 1.4 to Shipper 3. Will it keep the current settings from 1.4?

Thanks.
Nolan

Hi Andy:
We are using FEDEX ShipManager and use it to print the labels. We use Shipper to pull-in paid orders, print packing slip which we modified so that the packing slip includes a bar code of the order number. We then go to FEDEX ship manger and do order-by-order shipping. We do this by scanning the order bar code from the packing slip after the order has been picked for final inspection, weighing, and packaging. We do not need the label printing option of Shipper (Ship Rush). I think what we need is the Gold version. For starters, we will need the Shipper 3.1 (gold) and the Shipper Service that is compatible with it. We may need a second station for redundancy and load balancing dueing busy hours.

There is also a possibility that we may offer to clients UPS options and show them on BV side by side with FEDEX. It all depends if UPS will be able to come close to the discounted FEDEX rates we get.

As far as our uprade strategy, we are hoping we can upgrade the dedicated server we ar using (applied Innovations) and upgrade the ASP.net to 3.5. We are running BV 5.4 and ASP.Net 2.0 on both production and test domain. The ASP.Net upgrade will impact all domains. I am still trying to get work on whether BV 5.4 will run fine with ASP 3.5. This wil allow us to upgrade the apps, inclusing shipper 3.1 in the test environment first and if all goes well, replicate the process in the production domain. It is a moot point since we need Shipper version 3.1 due to the kitting issue but we will know if shipper 1.4 runs on ASP.Net 3.1 if w are able to upgrade to ASP.Net 3.5 in our production domain running BV 5.4

Please advise if you have heard any issues with BV 5.4 under ASP.NET 3.5

Please advise that given how we use Shipper as describe above, what package do we need.

Thanks
Nolan

Hello Nolan,

Either edition of Shipper 3 can pull order information from your site and print packing slips with bar codes. However, I do not supply an integration profile that would pull the package information into Ship Manager. You would have to create the integration profile or simply re-type the addresses in Ship Manager. In either case, if you use Shipper in this way on only one or two computers, then definitely go with the Gold Edition.

Regarding ASP.NET 3.5, I do not anticipate any problems with BV 5.4 (I think I recall other people saying they run it that way). Under the covers ASP.NET 3.5 is really ASP.NET 2.0 + some extras. Only a few 2.0 DLL's are affected and it is rare that any application is affected.

You have written, "The ASP.Net upgrade will impact all domains" a couple of times. That is not completely true, or at least not in the way I think you mean. After you install .NET 3.5, you will be able to configure each domain to use 2.0 or 3.5. For example, you could leave your production domain at 2.0 while you test 3.5 on your test domain.

Yes, but indirectly. Let me explain...

How Shipper 1.4 is Integrated with FedEx Ship Manager
FedEx Ship Manager uses an "Integration Profile" to read and write shipment information from and to an MS Access database over ODBC. Similarly, Shipper 1.4 reads and writes to the same MS Access database using ODBC. It looks like this:

FedEx Ship Manager Integration Profile <- ODBC -> MS Access Database <- ODBC -> Shipper 1.4

How Shipper 3 is Integrated with ShipRush
Shipper and ShipRush communicate directly...no database is involved in the connection. It looks like this:

ShipRush <--> Shipper

Connecting FedEx Ship Manager to Shipper 3
Even though Shipper 3 does not use a database to communicate with ShipRush, it does keep a local copy of the shipment data. Theoretically, you can connect Ship Manager to Shipper 3 using your own Integration Profile that reads and writes to the Shipper 3 database. I have not done this, but I can't think of why it would not work. It would look like this:

FedEx Ship Manager Integration Profile <- ODBC -> Shipper 3 Database

Writing the Integration Profile can be tricky, but FedEx will probably do it for you if you are a big customer. All of the tables and fields in the Shipper database have obvious names (Address, Line1, etc). But I would be glad to answer any questions you or FedEx have about the layout.

To be clear...Shipper 3 is not integrated with FedEx Ship Manager, but you can write an Integration Profile that would add this feature. In the same way, you can skip Shipper altogether and write an Integration Profile that reads and writes to your BVC5 database instead. However, this requires a direct connection to the BVC5 database which will cause you to fail a PCI-DSS audit. And you would need to find another way to print packing slips with barcodes.


If you will not need or use ShipRush, then it is simply a matter of math. Up to 3 licenses of the Gold Edition will cost less than 1 license of the Platinum Edition. If you want Shipper on 4 or 5 computers, then Platinum Edition will cost less (1 Platinum Edition license can be used on up to 5 computers).

Out of the box, each copy of Shipper 3 (Gold or Platinum Edition) will have its own separate database. But Shipper supports over 20 different database formats. If you have a database server available, we can easily configure each copy of Shipper to use that server instead.

Shipper 3 can easily be configured to store its data on your SQL Server. Or you can leave the data in the local database. You can talk to either one with ODBC so either database is accessible from Ship Manager. Since you would not use Shipper to print labels, you would not need ShipRush.



Please install Shipper 3 and try it...no license is required for 30 days.

Andy:
I downloaded Shipper3 and ShippingagentBVC5SP4. I copied the DLL files to our test site /bin. I copied ShippingAgent.asmx to the test site /Shipper. Installed Shipper3. Created website and pointed to the location of ShippingAgent.asmx. Setup was validated without errors. When we download the orders, the download happens in about 2 seconds and no order show. With version 1.4. the download process takes several minutes against the same BV database so I am not sure if the setup is accurate. BY the way, we are testing the Gold Edition.

There was no prompt or anything on the documentation about setting up the datbase in SQL Server express.

Please advise .

Nolan

andy:
For now just email to :

[email protected]

Thanks.

Nolan

Hello Bryan,

Yes Shipper 3 supports BV Commerce 5.6 (actually 5.3 through 5.6).