Checkout API at Google Developer Day May 31

Posted by Patrick Chanezon, Google Checkout Team

Google Developer Day on May 31 is a one day event for developers held
simultaneously in many Google offices around the world, where we will present all the building blocks for better web applications that Google APIs provide.

A fundamental building block for many web applications is eCommerce: there will be one session about the Google
Checkout API titled "Testing distributed systems with AJAX, XML - lessons learned from Google Checkout" where we will present the Checkout API and a new test server that makes it easier to test your web site integration with Checkout.

We hope to see you there, it should be a fun day.

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OSCommerce and ZenCart Google Checkout Integration Demo servers available

Posted by Patrick Chanezon, Google Checkout Team

Bruno Rovagnati, maintainer of the Google Checkout PHP samples, OSCommerce and Zen Cart integrations, announced the availability of 2 demo sites:

• Google Checkout - OSCommerce Integration Demo Site
• Google Checkout - Zencart Integration Demo Site

These sites provide a nice way to understand the OSCommerce and Zen cart integrations, but more generally are a great testbed to better understand Google Checkout Level 2 integration.

The Demos add 2 links to the standard OSCommerce and Zen Cart distributions: MC Log Viewer and Notification Log Viewer. These are Ajax Log Viewers that allow you to look at the callback logs for Merchant Calculations and Notifications, very much like what a tail -f on the log files would provide you on a Unix machine.

In order to experiment with API callbacks, first open the Log Viewer window. These demo sites target the Google Checkout Sandbox, so you can easily create fake orders that will trigger Merchant Calculations or Notifications.

The administrative user interface for both sites is exposed to the public, allowing you to study the lifecycle of a Checkout order, and the database for these sites is refreshed from scratch every hour.

We hope these demo sites will be a useful tool for Checkout API developers.

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Google Checkout API at Web 2.0 Expo

Posted by Patrick Chanezon, Google Checkout Team

Web 2.0 Expo 2007 starts today in San Francisco. They have a great lineup and it should be a fun conference. If you're in attending and are interested in the Google Checkout API, I'll be at the Google booth (#411 in the Expo Hall) Tuesday April 17, 2007 from 3:00pm to 6:00pm and also on Wednesday April 18, 2007 from 10:30am to 1:00pm.

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Introducing International Shipping

Posted by Alexander Newman, Checkout Team Technical Writer

Are you a Checkout merchant who's been itching to ship internationally? Well, now you can, with some recent enhancements to our shipping and tax APIs that I'm delighted to be telling you about.

Wherever you are using <excluded-areas> or <allowed-areas> to define shipping restrictions or address filters, or you're using the <tax-area> tag to set tax rules, you can now add the <postal-area> tag to refer to international addresses. Here's an XML snippet that adds <country-code> and <postal-code-pattern> elements to the <postal-area> to define the island of Lesvos, Greece:

<postal-area>
    <country-code>GR</country-code>
    <postal-code-pattern>81*<postal-code-pattern>
<postal-area>

Excellent! Now, if you all wouldn't mind using the right two-letter ISO 3166 country code, a handy wildcard, and implementing that rule before July 19, I can send my cousin a birthday present. Hop to it, please! If you must, you can leave the <postal-code-pattern> out altogether and provide a shipping rule for the whole of Greece.

Don't miss the March 22 release notes for the Checkout API Developer's Guide, where the other new tag for international shipping, <world-area> is described, along with other new features.

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