USPS webtools help please

[Murph_Durt]

Hi, is it possible that someone can answer me a couple of questions in as basic english as they can please.. i am trying to get the shipping calculator working for my site, i have got my user name and password from usps website and i have filled out the appropriate fields in miva.. the url ive got in there is.. http://production.shippingapis.com/ShippingAPI.dll is this correct? when i try and do an order to test that it works all i get is a drop down box that says ''unable to calculate shipping costs''
secondly.. the emaill i received also said
''you may begin sending calls to the test server. Depending on the API, the address to the test server is either http://testing.shippingapis.com/ShippingAPITest.dll or https://secure.shippingapis.com/ShippingAPITest.dll. Use this information in combination with your User ID and your XML string to send a request to the USPS servers.'' what is a test call? and an XML string? as you can tell i have no idea what im talking about so any help on this would be very appricated..
thanks as always
Murph

[Red Flare]

Re: USPS webtools help please

http://production.shippingapis.com/ShippingAPI.dll

I dont think you need a password only the user ID which is case sensitive.

[Murph_Durt]

Re: USPS webtools help please

That is the http that i already have in my shipping options.. i have my user name XXXNAMEXXXX and source of zip.. but still when i try and place an order it lets me go through until i choose how to pay, and there i get a drop down box that says ''unable to calculate shipping costs'' .. is there something else i need to do in order for this to work.. ive read a few things that said you need to contact usps and ask to be moved to the production server? but they will no do this without having 2 succesfull tests? what is meant by tests..?
thanks for the response

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: USPS webtools help please

As for getting switched to the live server, just tell them you are using Miva Merchant (the two test requirement is for when you are rolling your own API).

Then switch to the live server URL and try the test again.

Some common gotchas:

1) You must use a real address in the test

2) Make sure products have weights associated with them.