Printing a Label for USPS with PHP
Last updated: Dec 1, 2008If you have been following the posts on USPS you should know how to calculate USPS shipping rates with PHP. Today we are going to use the same USPS API to print out a label. One of the advantages of this is that you get free tracking on all priority shipments when you create your own label. The other advantages is that you get to integrate automatic label generation with your website for customers or for your own shipping.
Start off by making a file called, USPSLabel.php and copy and paste the code below and save it.
Then Change the userName variable with your USPS username and change the rest of the variables to match your label.
USPSLabel.php
<?php
function USPSLabel() {
// This script was written by Mark Sanborn at https://www.marksanborn.net
// If this script benefits you are your business please consider a donation
// You can donate at https://www.marksanborn.net/donate.
// ========== CHANGE THESE VALUES TO MATCH YOUR OWN ===========
$userName = ''; // Your USPS Username
$FromName = '';
$FromAddress2 = '';
$FromCity = '';
$FromState = '';
$FromZip5 = '';
$ToName = '';
$ToAddress2 = '';
$ToCity = '';
$ToState = '';
$ToZip5 = '';
$weightOunces = 5;
// =============== DON'T CHANGE BELOW THIS LINE ===============
$url = "https://Secure.ShippingAPIs.com/ShippingAPI.dll";
$ch = curl_init();
// set the target url
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,$url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
// parameters to post
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
$data = "API=DeliveryConfirmationV3&XML=<DeliveryConfirmationV3.0Request USERID=\"$userName\">
<Option>1</Option>
<ImageParameters />
<FromName>$FromName</FromName>
<FromFirm />
<FromAddress1 />
<FromAddress2>$FromAddress2</FromAddress2>
<FromCity>$FromCity</FromCity>
<FromState>$FromState</FromState>
<FromZip5>$FromZip5</FromZip5>
<FromZip4 />
<ToName>$ToName</ToName>
<ToFirm />
<ToAddress1 />
<ToAddress2>$ToAddress2</ToAddress2>
<ToCity>$ToCity</ToCity>
<ToState>$ToState</ToState>
<ToZip5>$ToZip5</ToZip5>
<ToZip4 />
<WeightInOunces>$weightOunces</WeightInOunces>
<ServiceType>Priority</ServiceType>
<POZipCode />
<ImageType>PDF</ImageType>
<LabelDate />
</DeliveryConfirmationV3.0Request>";
// send the POST values to USPS
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,$data);
$result=curl_exec ($ch);
$data = strstr($result, '<?');
// echo '<!-- '. $data. ' -->'; // Uncomment to show XML in comments
$xmlParser = new uspsxmlParser();
$fromUSPS = $xmlParser->xmlparser($data);
$fromUSPS = $xmlParser->getData();
curl_close($ch);
return $fromUSPS;
}
class uspsxmlParser {
var $params = array(); //Stores the object representation of XML data
var $root = NULL;
var $global_index = -1;
var $fold = false;
/* Constructor for the class
* Takes in XML data as input( do not include the <xml> tag
*/
function xmlparser($input, $xmlParams=array(XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING => 0)) {
$xmlp = xml_parser_create();
foreach($xmlParams as $opt => $optVal) {
switch( $opt ) {
case XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING:
$this->fold = $optVal;
break;
default:
break;
}
xml_parser_set_option($xmlp, $opt, $optVal);
}
if(xml_parse_into_struct($xmlp, $input, $vals, $index)) {
$this->root = $this->_foldCase($vals[0]['tag']);
$this->params = $this->xml2ary($vals);
}
xml_parser_free($xmlp);
}
function _foldCase($arg) {
return( $this->fold ? strtoupper($arg) : $arg);
}
/*
* Credits for the structure of this function
* http://mysrc.blogspot.com/2007/02/php-xml-to-array-and-backwards.html
*
* Adapted by Ropu - 05/23/2007
*
*/
function xml2ary($vals) {
$mnary=array();
$ary=&$mnary;
foreach ($vals as $r) {
$t=$r['tag'];
if ($r['type']=='open') {
if (isset($ary[$t]) && !empty($ary[$t])) {
if (isset($ary[$t][0])){
$ary[$t][]=array();
} else {
$ary[$t]=array($ary[$t], array());
}
$cv=&$ary[$t][count($ary[$t])-1];
} else {
$cv=&$ary[$t];
}
$cv=array();
if (isset($r['attributes'])) {
foreach ($r['attributes'] as $k=>$v) {
$cv[$k]=$v;
}
}
$cv['_p']=&$ary;
$ary=&$cv;
} else if ($r['type']=='complete') {
if (isset($ary[$t]) && !empty($ary[$t])) { // same as open
if (isset($ary[$t][0])) {
$ary[$t][]=array();
} else {
$ary[$t]=array($ary[$t], array());
}
$cv=&$ary[$t][count($ary[$t])-1];
} else {
$cv=&$ary[$t];
}
if (isset($r['attributes'])) {
foreach ($r['attributes'] as $k=>$v) {
$cv[$k]=$v;
}
}
$cv['VALUE'] = (isset($r['value']) ? $r['value'] : '');
} elseif ($r['type']=='close') {
$ary=&$ary['_p'];
}
}
$this->_del_p($mnary);
return $mnary;
}
// _Internal: Remove recursion in result array
function _del_p(&$ary) {
foreach ($ary as $k=>$v) {
if ($k==='_p') {
unset($ary[$k]);
}
else if(is_array($ary[$k])) {
$this->_del_p($ary[$k]);
}
}
}
/* Returns the root of the XML data */
function GetRoot() {
return $this->root;
}
/* Returns the array representing the XML data */
function GetData() {
return $this->params;
}
}
?>
Then make another file and include the functions like this:
<?php
require('USPSLabel.php');
echo '<pre>'; print_r(USPSLabel()); echo '</pre>';
$USPSResponse = USPSLabel();
$USPSLabel = $USPSResponse['DeliveryConfirmationV3.0Response']['DeliveryConfirmationLabel']['VALUE'];
?>
Then use PHP’s base64_decode(); to convert the image to PDF and save it with fwrite.
Unfortunately the security on this domain won’t allow me to write out an fopen/fwrite statement without throwing out a 503 error. So you will have to look it up. It is about 3 lines of code.
You should end up with a a PDF label like the one to the right. There are options to specify the size and type of label for people with regular printers or thermal label printers.
This is basically just a sample of what you can do. Check out the USPS Webtools guide and just adapt the XML part of the code to your integration needs.
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