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Here it is, the brand new ShipSync!    It’s awesome.

ShipSync v3

Rating

• Incredibly accurate rate estimations, with numerous options for tweaking rate results.
• Supports List and Account rates
• Now featuring fully functional international rate requests, with support for all FedEx methods, supported currencies, and destinations
• Sends verbose package data (including dimensions) to FedEx, avoiding nasty surcharges and expensive dimensional weight fees
• Option to show estimated delivery date for applicable methods
• New option for logarithmic handling percentage rewards your customers for buying more by scaling down handling fees as the price of the shipment increases
• Supports all FedEx domestic and international shipping methods (including FedEx Freight), currencies, and destination
• Saturday Delivery Flag to enable weekend shipping
• Free shipping methods, with option to apply free shipping before discounts
• Uses the very latest FedEx RateService v9, for the most up-to-date and accurate quotes

Shipping

• Create shipments, retrieve tracking numbers, and print labels from within the Magento admin panel
• Ability to override and ship non-FedEx orders (such as Flat Rate orders)
• Ability to override shipping method and shipping address when creating final shipment
• Can split products into multiple packages and modify weights and dimensions, giving you the ability to get granular and save real dollars on your shipping
• Fully supports international shipments, tracking numbers, and labels
• Uses FedEx ShipService v9, the most advanced shipping Web Services API on the market

Tracking

• Tracking numbers are retrieved and entered automatically once the shipment is created. No more switching back and forth between browser windows and no more cutting pasting. Just click send.

Labels / Printing

• Labels can be generated in a variety of formats, without the need to install complicated PHP image processing extensions
• • PDF Document
  • PNG Image
  • Zebra EPL2 (Thermal)
  • Zebra ZPLII (Thermal)
  • Datamax DPL (Thermal)
• Support for all FedEx paper & stock types
• • All available FedEx label sizes : 7×4.75, 4×6, 4×8, 4×9, 8.5×11
  • Supports all FedEx stock formats for thermal printers : 4×6, 4×6.75, 4×8, 4×9
  • Supports Doc Tabs for thermal printers
  • Able to create international labels, including customs data, multiple copies when needed (Consignee copies, etc..), and legal notices when applicable (such as the Geneva Convention).
• Print directly to Thermal and RAW printers on Windows, Linux, and OSX

Address Validation

• Validates US addresses using FedEx’s Address Validation service
• Determines residential status, selects appropriate method (Home Delivery or Ground), and applies applicable surcharges
• Detects spelling errors and typos and corrects customer addresses
• Validates and selects proper city, region, and country codes
• Option to disable shipments to Post Office Boxes (PO Boxes)
• If the customer address is not found, ShipSync will suggest possible matches

USPS Shipping with FedEx SmartPost

• Frustrated with Magento’s lack of USPS support? SmartPost is the answer. Ship with the US Postal Service using FedEx’s Web Services and ShipSync
• SmartPost rating, shipment creation, tracking, and label creation
• Configuration options for all available Ancillary Endorsements and Indicia Types

Packages & Rate Estimation

• Adds multiple package functionality to Magento, with the ability to define 6 custom package types
• Adds fields for Height, Width, and Length for all Magento products
• Estimates packages on the fly using a First-Fit Bin Packing algorithm
• • Able to automatically split large orders into multiple packages, with up to 95% packing efficiency when properly configured
  • Able to split bundle products into multiple packages
  • Retrieve more accurate rates, since the rate estimation is a reasonable reflection of the final shipment, not a weight-only summary of items
  • Adds a “Special packaging” flag for products, which indicates that a product should be shipped in its own container specified by that products dimensions and weight
• Shipping really heavy stuff? Avoid those outrageous freight charges by shipping in multiple smaller packages

ShipSync for Developers

• Firebug debugging, so you can take a peek at Item Collection, Package Estimation, and FedEx Web Services Requests/Responses, making it easy for you to optimize your client’s rate estimations
• Flexible licensing and well-commented code makes it easy to customize ShipSync for your customers when needed

Support

• 24/7 email support with response times under 24 hours
• We’ve been tinkering with Magento since 1.0, and have been playing with FedEx’s web services since its inception, and somewhere along the way we became experts. We offer that expertise to you.
• Guaranteed to always support the latest FedEx Web Services and Magento versions

Updates

• An aggressive release schedule with frequent updates and new features
• Our roadmap is defined by customer request. When our customers ask for something, we listen.
• Issue & Feature tracker, so you can keep tabs on what’s in the pipeline

System Requirements

• Linux/Windows w/ Apache, PHP, and MySQL (if you have Magento, then you have this)
• Magento 1.3.x, 1.4.x
• PHP-SOAP
• PHP OpenSSL

Installation

• It’s simple! Download and unzip into your root Magento directory. Magento will detect the new extension and complete the installation automatically
• Sign up at fedex.com/developer and request test credentials
• • Enter these credentials in the ShipSync configuration
  • Create a test order for each shipping method that you plan on using (Ground, 2Day, etc…)
  • Create test shipments for these orders, and print PDF test labels
  • Send these labels to your FedEx representative and request production credentials (with Shipment Creation enabled). They’ll have a look and make sure everything looks ok and then send you production credentials
  • Once you receive your production credentials, enter them in the configuration, turn off test mode, and you’re ready to go
• Start saving money with better rate estimations, and saving time by performing all of your shipping tasks from within the Magento admin panel!

Get ShipSync! http://www.illapps.com/shipsync.html

When I first started developing with Magento I found retrieving quote items (especially bundle items) to be rather confusing.      Here is the process, simplified ->

1. Get the quote

In most cases you will want to retrieve items from the quote object,  however there are occasions when it’s better to get items from $request or $this, since the items may have been modified by the calling method.  For example, during multiple address checkout Magento sends shipping methods two requests, each with a different set of items for the same quote.    But, to keep this tutorial simple and sweet, let us focus on grabbing items from the quote object.  Here are two easy methods for doing so (use either method depending on whereabouts in Magento you are calling from) :

Customer Checkout Quote

$quote = Mage::getSingleton('checkout/session')->getQuote();

Admin Sales Order Quote

$quote = Mage::getSingleton('adminhtml/session_quote')->getQuote();

2. Get the items

Cool, now you have the quote.    Here are the two main methods for getting items :

$items = $quote->getAllItems();

This method grabs all items (simple items, parent items and their children).     It can be confusing because it contains doubles of configurable products.    However, I find this method simpler to use and implement in the long run.

$items = $quote->getAllVisibleItems();

This method only returns simple items and parent items.

3. Parse the items

This step assumes that you’ve retrieved the items using getAllItems().       Now let’s parse the results and whittle it down to the items that we need.   We’ll do this using a foreach loop, eliminating items until we get the set items of desired items  :

foreach ($items as $item)
{
     	/** If the item is a child, and is not set to ship separately */
	if ($item->getParentItem() && !$item->isShipSeparately()) { continue; }

	/** If the item is a parent, and is set to ship separately */
	if ($item->getHasChildren() && $item->isShipSeparately()) { continue; }

	/** If item is virtual */
	if ($item->getIsVirtual()) { continue; }

        /** Set item */
        $parsedItems[] = $item;
}

In the preceding example we first check to see if the item is a child item (by checking to see if it has a parent) and also if the child item is not set to separately.     If so, we break out of the loop and continue to the next item.     We also check to see if the item is a parent (by checking to see if it has a child) and if the item is set to ship separately.   If so, we break out of the loop because we are only interested in this item’s children.   Lastly, we can check to see if the item is virtual (such as a downloadable product).

Here’s another example.  This one emulates the behavior of getAllVisibleItems().

foreach ($items as $item)
{
     	/** If the item is a child */
	if ($item->getParentItem()) { continue; }

        /** Set item */
        $parsedItems[] = $item;
}

This retrieves only simple items and parent items, stripping child items away.

Once the loop is finished $parsedItems will be a neat and tidy array containing the desired items.

4. Conclusion

The moral of the story?  Reduce by reducing.   I hope somebody finds this information useful.