Migrate from FedEx Legacy Web Services to FedEx REST APIs
FedEx legacy Web Services Tracking, Address Validation, and Validate Postal Codes WSDLS will be disabled on August 31, 2024. The SOAP based FedEx Web Services is in development containment and has been replaced with FedEx RESTful APIs here on the FedEx Developer Portal. Read this guide to learn more and upgrade your integration from Web Services to FedEx APIs.
SOAP is like using an envelope. It’s larger, requires more resources and effort to seal and open.
REST API is like using a Postcard. It’s lightweight, faster to convey the message and easier to update.
FedEx Web Services has been an ideal choice for you to integrate your business processes and systems to FedEx capabilities. It has been designed to help you streamline your business operations and be more efficient.
In recent times, more and more developers in the industry are preferring REST APIs since they offer more flexibility and performance. As part of our digital transformation strategy, FedEx has built modernized REST APIs that will further improve your integration to FedEx capabilities. Along with the new APIs, FedEx will also offer an improved, self-service developer portal to provide a frictionless API integration experience.
With more and more customers preferring Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs, as part of digital transformation and improving the integration experience for customers, FedEx is introducing modernized REST APIs. The new APIs will help streamline your business processes by integrating your business processes and systems to FedEx capabilities in a frictionless way.
| ATTRIBUTE | WEB SERVICES (SOAP) | FEDEX APIS (REST) | NOTE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Estimated Delivery Time Window (EDTW) |
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EDTW is only available within APIs (REST). There are no plans to include it in Web Services. |
| Dangerous Goods/Hazmat Shipping |
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DG/Hazmat rating functionality, limited quantity and battery shipments are available within both. All other DG/Hazmat shipping TBD. IMPORTANT: Please engage the API Core Team with an iSell Case prior to consulting on any DG/Hazmat API (REST) shipping implementations. |
| Transaction-based Parent-Child Registration |
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APIs (REST) require accounts to be manually added to an organization and project. |
| Consolidated Services |
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IGC is the only consolidated service currently in production. |
| Returns Technology |
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Returns Technology is not currently part of the FedEx Developer Portal for the APIs (REST). |
| Label White Space/Doc Tab Customization |
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APIs (REST) do not support customization of the white space or doc tabs in 4X8 and 4X9 thermal label formats. |
| Secure Tracking |
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Secure tracking is only available in Web Services. Secure SPOD is available in both. |
| FedEx Freight Direct (FXFD) |
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Delivery instructions with specific verbiage must be included in the transaction. |
| Electronic Trade Document (ETD) |
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API currently only uploads one document vs. Web Services uploads multiple documents. |
| FICE |
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*FICE is available in Web Services and FedEx APIs when shipping IP and IPF. It isn’t available in either when shipping IPD. |
Business benefits
- REST coupled with JSON is generally considered easier for developers to work with and offers better support for browser clients and mobile apps.
- REST protocol is generally faster and uses less bandwidth as it is not as verbose as SOAP.
- REST is stateless in design, which can be leveraged to improve application performance through caching and scalability by deploying to multiple servers without dependencies.
- REST APIs offer better versioning management that ease customer upgrades, as opposed to continuous major versions with SOAP-based WSDLs.
- FedEx APIs will have improved security through OAuth token-based authentication.
In addition to the many benefits of REST APIs, the FedEx Developer Portal is designed to provide features, tools and information to ease the integration experience. Here are a few improved key features:
- Improved onboarding experience to get your API integration completed more quickly and efficiently
- Simplified and up-to-date API documentation including business rules, schema details, element level descriptions, validation rules, best practices and samples in multiple programming languages for specific use cases
- API-specific regression testing guidance, tools, processes and best practices
- Ability to visually see within your projects if APIs are certified and enabled
- Multiple languages supported for you to learn about APIs and begin to integrate them into your business processes and systems
- Up-to-date FAQ page and a support page with contact information displayed based from where in the world you’re viewing the site from
- Enhanced security through the use of Open Authorization(OAuth)token-based authentication
- Less major API versions in the future, easing the upgrade process
- Smaller response payload, thus improving the performance of your integration
- Improved onboarding experience on our developer portal to get your integration completed more quickly and efficiently
- Simplified and up-to-date API documentation, including business rules, schema details and sample code in multiple programming languages for specific business use cases
- Multiple languages supported for you to learn about our APIs and begin to integrate them with your business processes and systems
FedEx Web Services encompass the systems that followed SOAP WSDL standards to communicate with FedEx processing systems. FedEx has elected to base future integrations on these new REST APIs to improve reliability and performance.
Yes. All future features and enhancements will be added to the FedEx RESTful APIs. For more information on how to integrate, visit our Getting Started Guide.
FedEx APIs will not affect existing integrations that are built using FedEx Web Services. However, for future integrations, FedEx Web Services will not support all of the new features.
Please see the Getting Started Guide for more information on API integration. If you need further assistance, please reach out to your CT or Sales representative.
Complete this form if you are using a solution developed by a third party, or if you are a third party developer yourself. Upon completing the form, you can expect guidance and support tailored to your needs for migrating your FedEx integration.
