# Shipping?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/shipping/139012>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 29, 2008, 10:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/shipping/139012 "2008-05-29T22:15:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![magic6435](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@magic6435](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/magic6435)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 10:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/shipping/139012/1 "2008-05-29T22:15:44Z")

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Why are there tutorials on everything having to do with rails EXCEPT  
on calculating shipping costs for a shopping cart? there are 10 or so  
blog posts about the “shipping\_gem” or “active\_shipping” but no real  
details like how one might get the information from a form and then  
pass the cost into the total for checkout. Does anyone know of a  
tutorial i might have missed in the past two weeks for trying to  
figure this out that actually details the process? I’m about ready to  
put my head through a wall.

Thanks for any help.

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**Author:** ![magic6435](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@magic6435](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/magic6435)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 11:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/shipping/139012/2 "2008-05-29T23:01:07Z")

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Hi,  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote:

> Why are there tutorials on everything having to  
> do with rails EXCEPT on calculating shipping  
> costs for a shopping cart?

Because it’s trivial?

What, exactly, are you having trouble getting your arms around? One  
approach would be to use observe\_field to submit the info on the items  
as  
they’re selected, calculate shipping and update a total shipping cost  
field,  
etc. There are, of course, alternatives. How do you want it to work  
for  
your app?

Next time, it might be a good idea to ask for help before you get angry  
😉  
It’s a very helpful community!

Best regards,  
Billl

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**Author:** ![magic6435](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@magic6435](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/magic6435)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/shipping/139012/3 "2008-05-30T01:38:55Z")

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On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 01:15:08PM -0700, removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote:

> Why are there tutorials on everything having to do with rails EXCEPT  
> on calculating shipping costs for a shopping cart? there are 10 or so  
> blog posts about the “shipping\_gem” or “active\_shipping” but no real  
> details like how one might get the information from a form and then  
> pass the cost into the total for checkout. Does anyone know of a  
> tutorial i might have missed in the past two weeks for trying to  
> figure this out that actually details the process? I’m about ready to  
> put my head through a wall.

At least one API (UPS) is under NDA, so there is no public code to  
interface with it. See  
[http://redcorundum.blogspot.com/2008/02/quest-for-ups-api.html](http://redcorundum.blogspot.com/2008/02/quest-for-ups-api.html)

> Thanks for any help.  
> –Greg

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![magic6435](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@magic6435](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/magic6435)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2008, 3:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/shipping/139012/4 "2008-05-30T03:54:03Z")

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On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 4:17 PM, Gregory S.  
[removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> At least one API (UPS) is under NDA, so there is no public code to  
> interface with it. See  
> [Ruby, iOS, and Other Development: The Quest for the UPS API](http://redcorundum.blogspot.com/2008/02/quest-for-ups-api.html)

Thank you for posting that – I needed a laugh.

I went through dealing with UPS a few years ago, and the bottom  
line was: their API _flat didn’t work_.

As a sanity check I used their consumer web-based form to calculate  
a shipping amount, and then compared to the API result. Oops. mmm.  
Not compare equal. Bummer.

Long story short – UPS “tech support” _couldn’t even understand_  
why this was a problem. After weeks of emails, providing test cases  
and code, nothing. No resolution. I gave up. No UPS business from  
that client.

So, to the OP – the technical side of this isn’t any big deal, but the  
rest of it is a bundle of worms. Have fun 🙂

–  
Hassan S. ------------------------ removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid