Tony G wrote:
I concur with Glen's assessment that some of these services can
be unstable. Not long after writing NebulaShip
(nospamNebula-RnD.com/products/ship.htm) I realized that even
though the product was stable that we might be getting emergency
calls when services were down. I stopped advertising the
product, we're not currently selling it, and unless there is
significant demand for some of the less critical functions
(lookups, confirmations) I may withdraw it entirely. Make sure
you have backup providers for critical services.
That's a nice spin on my comments. I was actually promoting the API
web intergration. WorldShip and Cafe' change too often to be long-term
stable automated shipping components IMO. If you have someone standing
at the terminal running batches, then OK have fun. I'd rather not waste
employee time doing that. If you're only shipping a handful of packages
then the desktop tools are fine. We ship way more than that and our
shipment processing efficiency was suffering with WorldShip integration.
WorldShip used to change once every 3 or 4 years (it seemed like) but
now every year a new version comes out with some core change that
affects a piece of software plugged into it. Plus, I never could get the
post-shipping export to work with D3 ODBC and from what I've read it's
not fun to do with U2 either. We use RF terminals to capture tracking
barcodes and prompt for other box info. Of course, that is only when the
order is hazardous or the rare instance that we can't process packages
through the API. It really is a rare thing, so I wouldn't discount your
NebulaShip. Anyone who specifically integrates web services must have an
understanding of the cloud and the fact that stuff will get lost in the
ether just like your ODBC lookup will fail at some point. Either way, a
plan needs to be in place to handle the problem. No service is perfect.
It won't happen daily, quarterly, or even semi-annually if you implement
the proper infrastructure and failover plan. If you don't plan the
cloud-operating infrastructure to support web services during processing
hours then your "disaster recovery" is just as bad as sticking the
backup tapes to the filing cabinet with magnets.
GlenB
Tony Gravagno
Nebula Research and Development
TG@ remove.pleaseNebula-RnD.com
remove.pleaseNebula-RnD.com/blog
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From: Glen Batchelor
3) You're tied to a web service that can (and will) go
down at some point. Have a backup processing plan with
WorldShip. UPS has been good, for the most part. FedEx
has gotten better, but there are still times when the
FedEx Ground back-end disappears and we get goofy
'unavailable' errors.
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