USPS API Returning Error - No error in XML

Question

I am using cURL to submit POST information to the usps shipping rate calculator.

$info = "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<RateV4Request USERID='xxxx'>
    <Package ID='$aucid'>
        <Service>Priority</Service>
        <ZipOrigination>xxxx</ZipOrigination>
        <ZipDestination>$zip</ZipDestination>
        <Size>$size</Size>
        <Pounds>$pounds</Pounds>
        <Ounces>$ounces</Ounces>
        <Container>RECTANGULAR</Container>
        <Width>$width</Width>
        <Length>$length</Length>
        <Height>$height</Height>
        <SpecialServices><SpecialService>108</SpecialService></SpecialServices>
    </Package>
</RateV4Request>";

$array = array("API" => "RateV4", "XML" => $info);

$link = "http://production.shippingapis.com/ShippingAPI.dll";

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,$link);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,$array);
$answer=curl_exec($ch);
echo $answer;
curl_close($ch);

When I signed up for the USPS web tools, an email was sent with the USERID (I have replaced it with xs due to its sensitive nature).

In that same email, it was specified that Rate Calculation was allowed. Here's the error that is returned:

80040B19XML Syntax Error:
Please check the XML request to see if it can be parsed.USPSCOM::DoAuth

I went ahead and took the XML that is echoed and plugged it into an xmlvalidation.com and it found no errors. I have also tried it without <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"> line at the top.

Are you sure that these values (like this one: `$pounds`) are getting updated with real values (numbers) and not just staying as the string "$pounds"? — jonmrich, Jan 20 '17 at 03:06
@jonmrich Yes the values are being passed in, I echoed it out at some point after putting its content type to text so the tags showed. That is the code i copied to the validation website. — A. Johnston, Jan 20 '17 at 03:10
@jonmrich yes. It is equivalent to the id in the mysql database (unique to each shipment). — A. Johnston, Jan 20 '17 at 03:17
Someone else had this issue and it was because of unescaped ampersands for him. http://stackoverflow.com/a/32911679. Another person found that their issue was because the tracking number was too long and PHP converted it to a different format. http://stackoverflow.com/a/26875878. — Joseph Hansen, Apr 11 '17 at 18:18

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 20 '17 at 03:22

2

PHP is turning the Package ID into scientific notation because it's just a big "number", so you need to stop that from happening by making it a string.

Instead of this: <Package ID='$aucid'>

Try this: <Package ID=\"".$aucid."\">

You may also need to wrap that entire XML in rawurlencode

answered Jan 20 '17 at 03:22

jonmrich

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The `$aucid` is a two digit variable. I went ahead and put that in rawurlencode and I get the same error. – A. Johnston Jan 20 '17 at 05:51

USPS API Returning Error - No error in XML

1 Answers1