Today I gonna talk about how I messed around with the USPS Cortex thing. So, I was trying to get some info through their system, you know, just playing around to see what I could do.
First off, I had to log in to the USPS website. It’s pretty straightforward, just like logging into any other site. Once I was in, I started poking around their API Catalog. They got a bunch of APIs listed there, and you can even download the OpenAPI specs if you’re into that sort of thing.
- Clicked on the API Catalog.
- Browsed through the available APIs.
- Downloaded the OpenAPI specifications for a couple of them, just to see what they looked like.
Then I tried to get their APIs working with my setup. To do that, I had to check if I had the right credentials from USPS. Usually, you need some kind of key or something to get these things working. I spent some time digging through their instructions and FAQs. There’s a lot of info there, but it’s not always easy to find what you need.
After some trial and error, I finally got it figured out. Here is what I did:
- Figured out the authentication process, but I got stuck with it first.
- Read the FAQs and help sections, which took me a while.
- Finally got the API connected to my application after messing around with the settings.
I also checked out their Cortex Customer Handbook and User Manual. It’s pretty detailed, but man, it’s a lot to read through. I skimmed through most of it and just focused on the parts that seemed relevant to what I was trying to do.
I also looked at some of their common use cases to get ideas for what I could do with the API. They had some interesting examples, but nothing that really blew my mind.
Next, I started testing things out in their Customer Acceptance Testing (CAT) environment. That’s where you can play around without messing up anything in the real system. I ran a few tests, tried out different parameters, and just generally saw how things worked.
- Ran some basic tests in the CAT environment.
- Tried different API calls to see what kind of data I could get.
- Experimented with different parameters to understand how the API responded.
I even found some stuff about their older system, like the USP-S Kill Confirmed thing. Looks like they had some kind of design with a skull and a bullet. Pretty wild, right? It also mentioned that a Factory New version would cost around €160. I guess that’s not really related to the API, but it was in the documentation, so I thought it was funny.
Once I felt comfortable with the CAT environment, I moved on to the real deal. I started integrating the API into my actual application. It was a bit nerve-wracking, but I made sure to double-check everything before making any live calls.
- Carefully integrated the API into my application.
- Double-checked all the settings and configurations.
- Made a few live API calls to make sure everything was working as expected.
Overall, it was a pretty interesting experience. I learned a lot about the USPS system and how to work with their APIs. It wasn’t always easy, but I managed to get it working in the end. There’s still a ton more I could explore, but for now, I’m pretty happy with what I accomplished. You know, I hope my sharing today can help you guys!
