NAME

Business::US::USPS::WebTools::TrackConfirm - track a shipment using the USPS Web Tools

SYNOPSIS

        use Business::US::USPS::WebTools::TrackConfirm;
        my $tracker = Business::US::USPS::WebTools::TrackConfirm->new( {
                UserID   => $ENV{USPS_WEBTOOLS_USERID},
                Password => $ENV{USPS_WEBTOOLS_PASSWORD},
                Testing  => 1,
                } );
        my $array_of_hashes = $tracker->track( TrackID => $tracking_number );
        if( $tracker->is_error ) {
                warn "Oh No! $tracker->{error}{description}\n";
                }
        else {
                foreach my $hash ( reverse $hash->{TrackDetail}->@* ) {
                        say '-' x 50;
                        say join "\n", map { "$_: $hash->{$_}" }
                                qw(Event EventCity EventDate EventTime);
                        }
                }

DESCRIPTION

*** THIS IS ALPHA SOFTWARE ***

This module implements the Track & Confirm web service from the US Postal Service. It is a subclass of Business::US::USPS::WebTools.

track( TrackID => VALUE )

Although the USPS API allows to make multiple queries in a single request, this method one queries only one.

The "track" method takes the following keys, which come directly from the USPS web service interface:

        TrackID   The tracking number

It returns an anonymous array of hashes with the data from the response. Each hash represents one step in the tracking and is blessed into Hash::AsObject. The array is in reverse chronological order (so the oldest detail is the last element). The first element is the latest status (and is mostly the same as TrackSummary from the API).

If you want to see if something went wrong, check:

        $tracker->is_error;

See the "is_error" documentation in Business::US::USPS::WebTools for more details on error information.

tracking_number_regex

Returns the regex that checks a tracking number. I have it in its own method so you can easily override it if I got it wrong.

The USPS shows the valid forms at

        https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction!input.action
        USPS Tracking®                        9400 1000 0000 0000 0000 00
        Priority Mail®                        9205 5000 0000 0000 0000 00
        Certified Mail®                       9407 3000 0000 0000 0000 00
        Collect on Delivery                       9303 3000 0000 0000 0000 00
        Global Express Guaranteed®                82 000 000 00
        Priority Mail Express International™  EC 000 000 000 US
        Priority Mail Express™                9270 1000 0000 0000 0000 00
                                          EA 000 000 000 US
        Priority Mail International®          CP 000 000 000 US
        Registered Mail™                      9208 8000 0000 0000 0000 00
        Signature Confirmation™               9202 1000 0000 0000 0000 00

is_valid_tracking_number( ID )

Returns a normalized version of the tracking number if ID looks like a tracking number, based on the regex from "tracking_number_regex". Returns false otherwise.

Normalizing ID merely removes all whitespace. Sometimes the USPS shows the numbers with whitespace.

service_type( ID )

Returns the service type, based on the examples shown by the USPS and shown in "tracking_number_regex". I know this is wrong because I have tracking numbers that don't have the same leading characters for Priority Mail International.

        <TrackSummary>
        <EventTime>8:34 pm</EventTime>
        <EventDate>September 25, 2018</EventDate>
        <Event>Departed</Event>
        <EventCity>NEWARK</EventCity>
        <EventState /><EventZIPCode />
        <EventCountry>UNITED STATES</EventCountry>
        <FirmName />
        <Name />
        <AuthorizedAgent>false</AuthorizedAgent>
        <EventCode>AT</EventCode>
        </TrackSummary>"

test_server_host

The testing API uses stg-production.shippingapis.com instead of the usual testing server.

TO DO

SOURCE AVAILABILITY

This source is in GitHub:

        https://github.com/ssimms/business-us-usps-webtools

AUTHOR

brian d foy

MAINTAINER

Steve Simms

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the Artistic License 2.0.

2022-08-28

perl v5.34.0