UPS Worldship is a useful software for interfacing between creating printing labels and printing to a set few printers. Unfortunately the software is difficult to administer. The overall goal that will be covered in this article is trying to go from having one computer able to print to the printer to having multiple computers print to the label printer. Our implementation involved setting the master computer, that has the printer plugged into it, to another computer as well. In Worldship multi user setups are referred to as workgroups. The owner of the printer is a workgroup admin.
UPS Worldship (the bane of all IT folk existence) doesn't like it much. Here is the deal. The administrator computer (the software's name for it) runs all the daily updates and such, and the user that runs it is merely a power user. Software works great, and updates nicely (this even with highly curtailed internet access on the computer). UPS is requiring all tobacco shipments to ship with Adult Signature Required, meaning that someone at least 21-years-old must sign for the package. The representatives informed tobacco companies that WorldShip, a UPS software used by many, would not allow for both COD and Adult Signature Required.
The problems that we faced in getting this implementation are as follows:
- We have users who uses UPS WorldShip daily. We don't want to give the users local admin rights on there computers, but WorldShip updates automatically and it happens more than once a week. These updates require admin privileges to run. With these instructions you can easily bypass the UAC rights.
- It should beep and feed a label out. Then try to go back into UPS worldship and do a reprint. I do recall settings in UPS worldship for the label format. I can't remember at the top of my head. I believe it maybe be under Printer Settings or Preferences. These settings are inside the worldship application itself. Call UPS tech support.
- Only the latest WorldShip version will receive new Rates updates for download. To review the WorldShip Rate version: Select the Support tab, WorldShip, and then choose About UPS WorldShip.; The UPS.
- A single user install of Worldship has a database that isn’t compatible with a multi user setup.
- Upgrading from single user to workgroup requires the install directory of the version that is being run currently.
- Upgrading from single user to workgroup requires a special piece of software.
- The Worldship installer doesn’t homogenize its version of Microsoft SQL between a fresh install and an update from a previous install.
- Databases aren’t compatible between different versions of Worldship.
- When we updated our version of Worldship on the original host computer, that was a single user, to the latest version of Worldship most of the user interface became unusable. The batch import/export and the end of day close out both were greyed out. There weren’t any other ways of obtaining that functionality directly so batch import/export wasn’t a viable option after an update. This is suspected to be caused by a crash in the program during first runtime.
- Batch Import/Export is difficult to get to work properly, instead a backup/restore is preferred.
- Obtaining the software to upgrade for single user to workgroup mode requires a call to UPS. They have an FTP server where the software for these upgrades are stored.
Let us get to work. If we want to move the printer to a new computer that will be the workgroup admin first let’s install the Worldship software to the target computer. The installer can be grabbed from the UPS website or from an install disc you might of received from UPS. If you opt to go with the disc do be aware that it might not be the most current version of Worldship.
After that is installed first we should verify the versions of the software. In the bottom of the Worldship window, towards the right, there is a piece of text that says Ver XX.XX.XX where X is some number. Make sure the numbers after Ver are the exact same between both current installs of the software. If not then the easiest way to homogenize the versions is to update both to the latest version.
In the top right hand corner there is a question mark. To the side of that question mark is an arrow. Click the arrow and select About Worldship. This will open up a new window for us to view a plethora of information on the current Worldship install.
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What we are worried about is the database version. Make sure both installs have the same version. If you find that they are different between the two, first make sure they are running the same version of Worldship, secondly check out this handy chart: http://sqlserverbuilds.blogspot.com/
If one PC is running version 10.50.6000.34 and the other is running 9.0.4035, for instance, than the PC that is running 9.0.4035 needs to have SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 3 installed to match the other computer. It is better to upgrade than downgrade. We found what version we needed installed from the chart linked above. Install the new version of Microsoft SQL Server as an upgrade, not a standalone install. The exact steps of this are beyond the scope of this particular article, however the information is readily available throughout the internet.
Once both installs are running the same version of the software and the same version of the database we can begin with getting the data copied.
Earlier it was mentioned that UPS has a public FTP site with some software we need. Open up an explorer window, file browser, and in the top bar type ftp.ups.com then right click a blank area of the screen and select login as. The credentials for the new window that popped are, user: upsguest pass: pickups if this doesn’t work for you call UPS to get into the FTP site. Next we need to navigate to the software we need. Open incoming, open ups, scroll to the bottom and find wsXXmigrate.exe where XX is the major version number of the software you are running. So if I am running version 17.XX.XX I want ws17migrate.exe. Copy this software somewhere on your computer where you know where it is. When you run it click Unzip.
More than likely the default location for the unzipped contents is C:UPSWSTDMIGRATE or C:Program FilesUPSWSTDMIGRATE run MUInstall.exe. Once it is installed run it. Generally its executable is in C:Program Files(x86)UPSUtilitesMU once it is running you can make an option of what role you want the computer to become, select the desired role and start the process.
Once that is done our database is compatible with the new computer that is going to be running it. Open the Worldship Support Utility select Data Maintenance, and select backup choose a backup location and let it do its thing.
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Once the backup is done get the copy to the target computer. Open the Worldship Support Utility select Data Maintenance, and select restore browse to the backup and let it do its thing.
Double check the process is completed by seeing if your contacts are all imported.
Like many shipping locations, we have a workstation located in the warehouse used for shipping packages via UPS WorldShip. A problem we need to solve is that often (i.e. several times each month) when the WorldShip software starts, it automatically patches itself. If the user only has standard privileges, they are unable to update the software AND…the software will not run without being patched.
We don’t want to grant local admin rights to the user, because if we do the chances of the shipping computer becoming a BitTorrent server or iTunes media server are increased, if you know what I mean.
The following post is based on updated instructions from the site techierambles. These instructions below were installed and tested with WorldShip 2016 (version 19) running on a 64-bit Windows 10 Professional workstation.
Step 1 – Download the ACT Toolkit
Because this is being installed on a Windows 10 machine, Microsoft has a new tool called the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) for Windows 10.
When this package is downloaded and executed, it will try to install several packages. Simply uncheck everything except the Windows Application Compatibility Toolkit. For this fix, this is the only tool needed.
Step 2 – Create the Application Fix
- Open the program ‘Compatibility Administrator (32-bit). As of this writing, the WorldShip software runs 32-bit (…Program Files (x86))
- There should be a New Database already listed. Right-click the new database and select the option ‘Create New Application Fix’
- On the window that opens, name the program to be fixed (I used ‘UPS WorldShip’) and Name the vendor for the program (I used ‘UPS’). In the third field, set the program location. I used ‘C:Program Files (x86)UPSWSTDrunpatch.exe’. Click ‘Next’
- On the next screen, the only option to select is ‘RunAsInvoker’.
- Click ‘Next’ and ‘Next’ for the next screens, no other options are needed.
- Once finished, save the database. I gave it a generic name (like ups-updater) and put it in the UPS WSTD directory.
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Step 3 – Register the Database
After all this, the only step left is to register the database. I have heard you can simply right-click the database in the Compatibility Administrator program and choose install. I chose the older-school method by navigating to an elevated command prompt and running the command:
It is that simple!