#2 USPS website still doesn't work

[sunil]

My main interest in this plugin was to be able to use the
USPS website's click and ship functionality. After entering
the address the webpage is supposed to return a label. Due
to the Java mismatch, this was not possible. I was hoping
installation of this plugin might make it possible to use the
USPS site, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to work.

Has any one tested the USPS website and been able to get it
to work?

-Sunil

[Steven Michaud]

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You need to be more precise describing your problem.

You don't give me any URL(s). And you don't tell me what
problems you had trying to use it (or them).

On my own I've found a "Print Shipping Labels" page for the
"Click-N-Ship" service
(https://sss-web.usps.com/ds/jsps/ds_landing.jsp). I don't
have an account. But there's a button in the bottom-right
corner to "Print a Sample Label".

This function seems currently to be broken -- wherever I try
it from (including Mozilla 1.7.3 on Windows with Sun's Java
Plugin 1.4.2_06) I get an "Error displaying label" message
that's blamed on a "temporary communication failure"). But
the applet loads and runs correctly up to the point that the
error gets displayed.

Is your problem that the label, once the applet displays it,
won't print?

If so, this is a known problem, which isn't likely to be
fixed anytime soon. (I haven't yet documented it in my
KnownProblems.txt, but will do so on the next release of the
JEP.)

It's also not a problem with the Java Embedding Plugin
... or not only with the JEP:

No matter which Java technology they use, none of the
Mozilla-family of browsers support applet-printing on OS X
(though they all do on other platforms). As far as I can
tell, the support is actually turned off in the browser.
But it also seems that the Java support that Apple provides
for browsers other than Safari (Java Applet.plugin) doesn't
support applet printing, either (even IE for the Mac can't
print applets). This may have been the reason Mozilla.org
turned off support for applet-printing in their browsers on
OS X.

So, for the time being, the only way to print applets on OS
X is to use Apple's "official browser" -- Safari.

[sunil]

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Hi: I am sorry my message was not detailed, and I should have
provided more specific information. However, your sleuthing was
excellent. This is exactly what my problem is. I have been trying
to print the USPS label on OSX using Mozilla, Explorer, and Safari
browsers, and none of them would print the label. I have no
problem printing the label using Windows based browsers.

I thought your plugin might be able to help me, but your
description helped me understand that this problem is not related
to the functionality of the plugin but to the fact that the applet
printing support is turned off in Mozilla browsers. I am surprised
that it is turned off in Safari too, for Safari also doesn't print the
lable yet.

Thanks for a great plugin, and thanks for the explanation. Sorry
the USPS problem remains for thousands of OSX business users. I
am going to complain about this to Apple. Its their problem, and
they ought to fix it.

-Sunil

[Steven Michaud]

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Actually, I've found out since I wrote my earlier message
that there are _two_ problems using the USPS "Print Shipping
Labels" applet:

1) No browsers other than Safari can print applets on OS X
(I talked about this in my first message). As you said,
this is largely Apple's fault.

2) The USPS applet doesn't work in any Mozilla-family
browser on (as far as I can tell) any platform. This is
due to a design flaw in the applet, and is the fault of
USPS.

The USPS applet is tied to specific browsers and specific
Java Virtual Machines. If you try to use it in an
unsupported browser or JVM, you'll get the "temporary
communication failure" error. Yes, this is a misleading
error message.

By the way, Safari (on OS X 10.3.7) does seem to be one of
the browsers supported by the USPS applet -- I had no
problems using it to generate and print a sample label.
Maybe you should reinstall Safari. (For further support on
this, you should (of course) contact Apple.)

[sunil]

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Thank you for your follow up. I went on the Apple support
forum and this issue is being discussed there quite a bit.
It appears as though the issue was resolved earlier on, but
with some later updates some people seem to be having a
problem printing the label.

I am still using Jaguar, and waiting for Tiger to come out.
Hopefully with Tiger, these problems will be history!

Again, appreciate you looking into it. Thanks.