AusPost API Changed - Postage Broken
Note: This post is now outdated. Australia Post have released their developer centre which gives access to all the tools required for integrating Australia Post with your websites. For more information please visit: https://auspost.com.au/devcentre/
Having recently implemented a postage calculator which uses a service provided by Australia Post, it was a surprise to me when I went looking for their API again that it couldn't be found. The web address simply went to a page on the main Australia Post website.
Doing some further digging, it became clear what has happened - Australia Post did a DNS change:
Name: edeliver.com.au
Address: 155.144.24.22
edeliver.com.au nameserver = ns0.post.com.au.
edeliver.com.au nameserver = ns4.post.com.au.
edeliver.com.au nameserver = ns1.telstra.net.
edeliver.com.au nameserver = ns1.optus.net.au.
edeliver.com.au
origin = ns0.post.com.au
mail addr = hostmaster.auspost.com.au
serial = 2011090601
refresh = 10800
retry = 3600
expire = 604800
minimum = 86400
What does this mean for you? Well if you have a shopping cart of some sort, using this service, there is a good chance your postage calculation will no longer work.
It appears that using https://drc.edeliver.com.au/ratecalc.asp? followed by your GET variables will only work for AU postage.
Furthermore, it won't work using POST, only GET.
Using the IP Address instead of the url i.e. https://155.144.24.22/ratecalc.asp? WILL work for POST and GET, but obviously there are issues with hardcoding an IP Address in there, so this is very much a temporary fix.
It's a bit hard to determine exactly why there was this change, but it has been noted on the Whirlpool forums that a new Developer centre is soon to be available...
We are soon to launch a developer centre with new web services of calculating postage (including domestic & international letter& parcel). In the developer centre, you can register yourself, get a customer key and find proper documentations. The new web serviceswill have proper price, products, services and service options. With you registration details, we can pro-actively contact you with any service updates or upcoming changes (not like current case).
This is great news, (though it wouldn't suprise me if there is a cost involved) when it actually happens, but until then, check your shopping cart software as you may need to make some changes!
In the mean time, if you are looking for the old instructions, you can view them on the Way Back Machine has a cached version.