Virtuemart USPS® Shipping Extension

Requirements

• Joomla! v3.x 
• Virtumart 3.x
  
• CURL library is required as of June 24, 2021

Highlights

1Each USPS^® Shipping method that is offered in your store can be configured with shipping name, description, tax rate, handling fee and conditioning (country, zipcode, order amount and shopper group).

2All USPS shipping methods that are enabled and satisfy the conditions are displayed during checkout.

3The USPS shipping method information is stored on each order.

Quick Installation Steps

 Once you have purchased the 1 year subscription, the plugin is installed in 3 easy steps to provide quick setup of USPS shipping in Virtuemart.

1. Install the plugin via Joomla's Extension Manager
2. Configure plugin settings
3. Configure Virtuemart for each USPS shipping method that will be offered in your store

You will receive access to detailed installation instructions once the subscription has been purchased.

Features

• The USPS^® Shipping plugin v6.11 supports USPS^® Domestic API v4 and USPS^® International API v2 using cURL.
• Works in Joomla! 3.x and Virtuemart 3.x
• New! Integration with Joomla! Update System for quick software updates.
• 32 US Domestic shipping options and 20 International options.
• Smart Flat Rate Box & Envelope option: This feature checks that the dimensions of all products fit into the flat rate box or envelope. If the products do not fit the flat rate box or envelope option will not be available. This option will only work if dimensions (width, length, height) are added to the products. Also the flat rate shipping methods must be ordered from smallest to largest to exclude larger sized flat rate containers if they already fit into a smaller container. The packing process uses the Largest Area First Fit algorithm to determine if the products will fit into the flat rate container.
• New!  Multiple shipment boxes are supported by breaking the maximum shipment box weight on USPS's maximum box weight. Therefore the plugin supports cart weights greater than 70lbs. Individual product weights can not exceed 70lbs. 
• New! Inclusion and restriction rules to limit shipping methods by Virtuemart product categories.
• Ability to choose between USPS Retail, Commercial Online or Commercial Plus rate types to extend commercial discounts to your customers.
• Automatically update shipping cost for the selected USPS shipping method when the cart is modified.
• Supports Virtuemart's ability to auto select the shipping method during checkout if only one shipping service is available.
• Add percentage or flat dollar handling fee for each USPS shipping method. For example, USPS Priority Mail could have a 5% handling fee while USPS Priority Express could have a 7% handling fee. The percentage handling fee can be based on the shipping method cost or the total cart cost.
• Ability to pad the weight of the entire contents in the cart by a percentage prior to making the API call to USPS to get the shipping rates. This allows you to use estimated weights on each product.
• Ability to limit specific USPS shipping options based on country, zipcode ranges, order amount, product categories or shopper groups. These options allow Free Shipping capability for certain orders.
• The use of Virtuemart tax rules for USPS shipping methods.
• Shipping costs based on product/cart weight. USPS Flat Rate shipping methods also support packing by dimensions when products include length, width and height.
• Ability to use a proxy server when initiating the web service call to USPS (some hosting environments require the use of a proxy server).
• One-time payment to use on all your websites for ever. Subscription provides support for one website domain and software updates for 1 year.
• Works along side our UPS shipping plugin and our FedEx shipping plugin.
• Fully compatible with RuposTel One Page Checkout. Get the most of your checkout experience with RuposTel One Page Checkout for Virtuemart.
• Fully compatible with Virtueplanet's One Page Checkout.

USPS Shipping Options Supported

Release Notes

V6.11 May 25, 2021

1. Feature: Removal of insecure HTTP endpoint and switch to HTTPS protocol. cURL is now a requirement since HTTP POST is no longer supported after June 24, 2021.

V6.10.1 March 10, 2020

1. Bug: Fix issue with shipping cost total not updated in cart when a shipping rate option is changed when “Ajax for OPC” is enabled with VM One Page Checkout.

V6.10 September 20, 2019

1. Feature: Updates to support changes to Virtuemart plugins in VM v3.6.
2. Feature: Convert debugging to use Joomla logging/debugging. Enabling of plugin debugging is now triggered on debug setting in Joomla Global Configuration. Log file will be created in the log folder specified in Global Settings and titled ‘usps_ship_log.php’.
3. Bug: Minor updates to improve display of shipping details in VM backend.

v6.9 - February 27, 2018

1. Feature: Add Smart Flat Rate logic to USPS Flat Rate Envelopes. If the option ‘Smart Flat Rate’ is set to ‘Yes’ then all Flat Rate Boxes and Envelopes will use packing logic to ensure the products fit into the shipping container based on the product dimensions.
2. Feature: If Priority Flat Rate Boxes or Envelopes are available based on the contents of the cart then the standard Priority and/or Priority Express shipping will not be shown. For this to work the Priority or Priority Express mail shipping method must be ordered to appear after the Flat Rate boxes and envelopes, and the ‘Smart Flat Rate’ option must be set to ‘Yes’.
3. Feature: Change calls to USPS service to use SSL connection in Staging mode (In future release this will be a production requirement). Staging now requires cURL (HTTP Post no longer supported).
4. Bug: The packing padding amount was not being included prior to the call to USPS.
5. Bug: When determining if a new service call to USPS is required a bug calculating the cart weight was causing unnecessary USPS API calls.

v6.8 - November 9, 2017

1. Feature: Better integration with Joomla! Updater to allow auto updating if Download Key is added to plugin settings and the subscription is valid.
2. Feature: Inclusion and Restriction of shipping methods by Virtuemart product categories.
3. Feature: Coding improvements to support J3 standards.

v6.7.3 - October 25, 2017

1. Feature: Supports USPS September 3, 2017 API Maintenance Release: Change from “First-Class Mail Parcel” to “First-Class Mail Package Service-Retail”

v6.7.2 - April 27, 2016

1. Bug: Fixed a bug seen in PHP versions less than v5.4.

v6.7.1 - April 26, 2016

1. Feature: Support for multiple shipment boxes. The USPS plugin has an option to allow packing of products into multiple shipping boxes based on USPS's maximum weight per shipment box. The shipping plugin will package each shipment box with the maximum products to reach this total shipment box weight. For most services USPS restricts the total shipment box weight at 70 lbs.

2. Bug: Properly skip call to USPS rating service when destination address is not yet entered.

3. Bug: Fix various “Notices” when error reporting is set at a high level.

v6.6 - January 12, 2016

1. Feature: Supports USPS January 17, 2016 API Maintenance Release:
   • Elimination of “Priority Mail Express Flat Rate Box”.
   • Elimination of “Priority Mail Express International Flat Rate Box”.
   • Elimination of “First-Class Package Service” for Commercial PLUS pricing only.
   • “First-Class Package Service” for Commercial ONLINE pricing extended to weights less than 16 oz. (previously less than 13oz).
   • “Standard Post” service changed to “Retail Ground”.

2. Bug: Fix to properly report a blank ship-to zip code.

v6.5.1 - July 24, 2015

1. Bug: Problem with logo image not able to be removed in configuration which then defaults to ‘index.html’ file if no images in folder. Bug was introduced in VM3.0.8.

v6.5.0 - May 21, 2015

1. Feature: Supports USPS May 25, 2015 API Maintenance Release
   • International:  Priority Mail International non-Flat Rate pricing and availability for Canada destinations now requiring United States origin ZIP Code.
2. Feature: Added “First-Class Package Service” and “First-Class Package Service Hold For Pickup” for commercial rates.

v6.4.3 - January 3, 2015

1. Feature: Added option to offer discounted commercial rates to customers. The default is RETAIL rating but optionally COMMERCIAL ONLINE or COMMERCIAL PLUS postage rates can be offered. This option is chosen from the plugin settings screen.

v6.4.2 - December 16, 2014

1. Bug: Fixed a bug where multiple countries would not save in the USPS shipping method settings in Virtuemart v3.

v6.4.1 - November 26, 2014

1. Bug: Fixed a problem where shipment settings were not displayed properly in Virtuemart

 v6.4.0 - October 16, 2014

Enhancements:

1. Support for Virtuemart 3 (RC 2.9.9e) running on Joomla 3.
2. Added plugin update notification through Joomla Extension Manager.

v6.3.0 - September 5, 2014

Enhancements:

1. Support for USPS's API changes effective September 7, 2014.
2. Added debug logging to a log file instead of using VM’s debug screen (usps_ship.log).

 Bug Fixes:

1. Fix for Smart Flat Rate Box for VM2.6 to prevent Flat Rate box handling with no products in cart.

v6.2.1 - April 14, 2014

Enhancements:

1. USPS modified First-Class Letter to First-Class Stamped Letter.

2. Support for new First-Class Metered Letter shipping method.

v6.2 - December 19, 2013

Enhancements:

1. Smart Flat Rate Box option added: This feature checks that the dimensions of all products fit into the flat rate box.

2. Handling Charge Based on Percentage: Added option to have shipping handling charge applied based on percentage of cart total price.

Bug Fixes:

1. Bug fix for when source or destination zip codes are in USPS Extended format (5N-4N) no shipping options are returned from USPS. USPS plugin will now use the first 5 digits of the zip code fields when making the USPS API web service call.

2. Fixed an issue where the shipping handling fee was not showing proper amount for percentage based handling fee on completed orders in shipping details section.

v6.1 - August 26, 2013

1. USPS implemented changes to their API on July 28, 2013 to support the name change of Express Mail to Priority Mail Express. These changes will require all customers who use Domestic Express Mail or International Express Mail shipping methods to download and install v6.1 of our Virtuemart USPS plugin. 

Online Demo

View a demo of this plugin in one of our front-end demo sites (a demo of the administration area is not available).

• Demo with Joomla v3 / Virtuemart v3 (VM One Page Checkout Enabled)
• Demo with Joomla v3 / Virtuemart v3 / Virtueplanet's One Page Checkout