Checkout and Order Processing: the User Side

For calculating Federal Express (FedEx) and United Parcel Service (UPS) shipping costs, you can use the handy Shipping RubyGem (http://shipping.rubyforge.org/).  

Using the Shipping Gem

You’ll first need to register an account at FedEx (http://www.fedex.com) and UPS (http://www.ups.com).  

Next, install the Shipping gem by executing this command:

$ sudo gem install shipping --include-dependencies

Then save your account information inconfig/shipping.yml:

  fedex_url: https://gatewaybeta.fedex.com/GatewayDC
  fedex_account: <your FedEx account number>
  fedex_meter: <your FedEx meter number>

  ups_account: <your UPS account number>
  ups_user: <your UPS username>
  ups_password: <your UPS password>

Note  You can obtain thefedex_meternumber by first registering for a FedEx account, and then calling theShipping::FedEx.registermethod with the following parameters:name,company,phone,email,address,city,state,zip,fedex_account, andfedex_url. You need to register to both the live and test servers. The URL to the live environment ishttps://gateway.fedex.com/GatewayDC.

Now let’s test how much it costs to send an order weighing 2.0 pounds from Emporium (located in New York) to Durham, North Carolina. We chose UPS because it’s easier to use than FedEx, which requires that we apply for a meter number. Save the code shown here intest/unit/test_shipping.rb:

require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../test_helper'
class PaymentTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
  def test_ups_shipping
    params = {
      :zip => 27712,
      :state => "North Carolina",
      :sender_zip => 10001,
      :sender_state => "New York",
      :weight => 2,
      :prefs => '../../config/shipping.yml'
    }
    ship = Shipping::UPS.new params
    assert ship.price > 5
    puts ship.price
  end
end

Run the test by executing the following command:

$ ruby test/unit/test_shipping_rb

The output when we ran it was $8.59 (your result might be different).