Pulling real time shipping rates into an RPG program.

[phildixon]

I am not positive that this is the correct forum for this, but I have a request that I am in the beginning stages of trying to determine what is possible and how to go about doing it. We need to be able to pull shipping rates from UPS, Fedex, USPS, DHL and several others, at the time of order entry in a RPG program (specifically a BPCS program). I know for UPS, I think that this would require us to us the HTTP server on the iSeries, create an XML document, post it to UPS and retrieve the results and parse it. We are not currently using any HTTP functionality currently. How hard is this to set up? Especially if I have little "web" experience. Since getting out of college 10 years ago, most of my experience has been with RPG. It seems like I can find a lot of information about using PHP to develop a solution. Would PHP on the iSeries be necessary to make this a successful project? I really don't want someone to hold my hand but I would like some guidance on whether I am thinking about this the right way, and whether or not the technologies I have suggested are appropriate for this task. Also, if someone know of an out of the box solution that might be better, please advise.

Sorry for the really long first post.

Thanks a million in advance!

-Phil Dixon

[tomholden]

Re: Pulling real time shipping rates into an RPG program.

i would start by checking out HTTPAPI from Scott Klement's web site http://www.scottklement.com there are some example programs in the library that show you how to use web services from RPG using his service program

[phildixon]

Re: Pulling real time shipping rates into an RPG program.

Thanks for the advise! Will do!