[Info-vax] OT: Automating shipments

[Jan-Erik Soderholm]

JF Mezei wrote 2011-12-02 06:33:
> Jeffrey H. Coffield wrote:
>
>> We wrote an OpenVMS interface to UPS for one of our customers a few
>> years back. It connects to a web service and returns a image file (GIF I
>> think) which is printed on a label printer
>
> Cool. Always wanted to know at what level that worked. So they send back
> a .gif image.  I would have thought a .PDF with the barcode fonts
> embedded to ensure proper printing.

Good it was *not* a PDF.
PDF is fine for online reading and printing from tabletop
client type of systems. PDF is close to worthless on VMS...

It could also have been a labelprinter file with an embedded
GIF, such as a ZPL file for a Zebra printer. These files
are plain text files with the GIF hex-coded.

See also :
http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/bussol/browse/online_tools_shipping.html
https://www.ups.com/upsdeveloperkit/downloadresource?loc=en_US

That is as far as one comes without a login at UPS...

Jan-Erik.