Getting Started

Start your integration as a FedEx Compatible Provider by taking advantage of the value provided by FedEx APIs. The following instructions will guide you through every step in the process of extending FedEx features and capabilities within your solution.


Step 1:

Browse APIs to determine what you need for your application.

  • Go to the API Catalog to determine the right APIs for your application.
  • Select an API to discover its overview, change log and key features.
Screenshot of Rate Overview page
  • View the API's docs to learn more about request and response elements, examples in your programming language of choice, error codes and more.
Screenshot of Rate documentation page
  • Check the Announcements for planned service updates and learn what’s new.

Step 2:

Sign up or log in to begin integrating with FedEx APIs.

  • Log in with your fedex.com user ID and password to begin integrating with FedEx APIs.
  • If you do not have a user ID yet, please sign up for free.

Step 3:

Create or join an organization.

Either create an organization if one does not yet exist for your company or join your company’s existing organization. You can have many users associated with your organization, but you cannot have many organizations associated with one user ID.

If you create your organization, you will automatically be listed as the Admin of that organization. An Admin can invite users to join their organization, assign them to roles and projects and manage shipping accounts. To learn more about which roles are best for whom, view our Organization Administration Guidelines. To create your own organization, click on My Projects and then click the "Create Organization" button. This button will only display if you have not associated your user ID with an existing organization yet. From there, you can start to create an organization by completing the following (those that are marked with an * are optional):

  • Enter an organization name.
  • Enter email addresses of any team members you would like to invite. They will automatically be added as a Viewer, associated with no projects.*
screenshot of Create your organization page

You can also join your company’s organization by completing the following:

  • If your company already has an organization created, ask the Admin of the organization to invite you to join. You will have 24 hours to accept their invite, but if you miss this window of time, you can ask them to resend it.
  • To accept the invite, you will need to either log in with your existing user ID and password or create a new one if your existing user ID is already associated to an organization.

Step 4:

Add a shipping account.

An admin can add as many shipping accounts as needed under the organization. To begin, click the “Add Account” button from the Shipping Accounts tab of the Manage Organization page. From there, you can add an existing shipping account to your organization by completing the following steps:

  1. Complete account information
  • Enter your account number, any account nickname and billing address associated with the account. This will be validated to be sure it matches the account details in order to prevent fraudulent activities.

  • To view shipping accounts associated with your user ID, go to the Ship Admin page. To create new shipping accounts, please contact your FedEx Sales Representative.

screenshot of Add Shipping Account page
  1. End User License Agreement
screenshot of Execute EULA page

Step 5:

Add users to your organization to begin collaborating with your teammates.

An Admin can invite users to their organization and assign them to roles and projects. To begin, click the “Add Users” button from the Users tab of the Manage Organization page. From there, you can add users by completing the following steps (those that are marked with an * are optional):

  1. Enter the email addresses of the user(s) needing to join your organization. Enter multiple email addresses by hitting a space, comma, semicolon or enter key on your keyboard.
  2. Choose a role if default option of Viewer doesn’t match the users’ needs.*
  3. Choose a project associated with your organization to assign users to. If you haven’t created one yet, that’s covered in the next step.*
screenshot of Add Users page

An Admin will always have access to all projects, but a Contributor or Viewer must be assigned to a project, unless the Contributor created the project. Whether a user has accepted the invite yet or not, you can quickly update their projects or roles straight from the Users tab on the Organization Administration screen. All you have to do is click on the caret beside the role or project and a dropdown will appear with options to choose from. Make your choice and select the “Apply” button to save your selection.

screenshot of Manage Organization page

Step 6:

Create a project to get credentials.

On the My Projects page, an Admin or Contributor can create a project by selecting the “Create Project” button. From there, they can start to create a project by completing the following steps (those that are marked with an * are optional):

1.  Set Up Project        

  • Give your project an identifiable name that's unique to your organization.
  • Begin by selecting at least one API to add to your project. You can always add or remove APIs later.           
screenshot of step 1 for creating a project 

2. Accept Terms

screenshot of step 2 for creating a project
       
         3.  Configure your project
 
  • Select any countries you plan to ship within, so that we can assign you a test shipping account. To test shipping packages domestically within a European country, you must have a separate test account for each country. You can always add/remove countries at a later time.*
  • If you plan to use FedEx SmartPost® Returns or FedEx Freight® LTL, select Yes.*
  • Once you click the "Create" button, you will see a confirmation screen. Within your new project, you can now view your test credentials. 
screenshot of step 3 for creating a project

Step 7:

Integrate APIs into your application and test your implementation.

  1. Retrieve test credentials (API Key, Secret Key and shipping account(s)) from the Test Key tab of the Project Overview page.
screenshot of test keys page
  1. Request an OAuth access token that must be used with each API transaction. The session for the token is valid only for an hour, so you will need to programmatically code your application to refresh the token before the session expires. Refer to the API Authorization docs for more details.
  2. Select docs for the APIs on your Test Keys page and read the business context to best understand how to use the selected API. Review example requests for the endpoint that match your desired integration.
  3. Implement your calls to these endpoints as described in the example requests, configuring them to use your test credentials.
  4. Verify that the received API call responses are matching those shown in the documentation.
  5. Completely test your implementation within the FedEx test environment using test credentials and the FedEx test URIs.

Step 8:

Move your project to production.

On the Project Overview page, click the Production Key tab. From there, you can start to move your project to production by completing the following steps (those that are marked with an * are optional):

  1. Configure Project.
  • Rename your Production API Key.*
  • One shipping account is required to be added at this time, but you can add more after your project has successfully been moved to production. If you have no shipping accounts associated with your organization or if the EULA has not been signed for shipping accounts that are added to your organization, they will not appear in the dropdown.
screenshot of step 1 of production keys page
  1. Get Project Keys.
  • Next, your production API Key and production Secret Key will be displayed. Make sure to copy them to a secure place.
  • To keep your production Secret Key secure, we only display it once. If you lose it, you may generate a new one.
screenshot of step 2 of production keys  page

Step 9:

Complete your integration.

  1. Some APIs require either basic or shipping label certification for use in our production environment. Complete the certification process for any APIs in your project with this requirement.
screenshot of certification page
  1. After all APIs have been certified and enabled, update your API requests by replacing the test URIs, keys and shipping accounts with the production URIs, keys and shipping accounts
  2. Retest your implementation in the production environment using sample data.
  3. Enjoy the benefits of your new integration!


Step 1: 

FedEx creates Compatible provider organization.

  • FedEx will create an organization and then invite one team-member to join the organization. This user will be designated as the “Admin” for your organization.
  • Upon completion of certification and integration, you will be able to distribute the solution to your customers with ease.

Step 2:

Accept invite.

  • In order to get access to the API integration artifacts and documentation, please accept the invite. To accept the invite, you will need to either log in with your FedEx User ID and password or create a new one if you don’t already have credentials.
screen shot of Sign up to begin integrating with FedEx APIs page

Step 3:

Invite users to your organization.

  • As Admin, you are able to invite any team members that need access to the project or organization. For details on the different roles, view the Organization Administration Guide.
screenshot of Manage Organization Users page
  • If your organization has already been created, ask the Admin of the organization or FedEx to invite you to join. You will have 24 hours to accept their invite, but if you miss this window of time, you can ask them to resend it.

Step 4:

Select APIs you need for your solution.

  • Head over to the API Catalog to determine the right APIs for your solution. Your FedEx Customer Technology Consultant (CTC) and Compatible Channel manager can help you select the right APIs for your solution as per your business needs.

screenshot of API Catalog page
  • Select an API to discover the overview, changelogs and key features.

screenshot of Address Validation API Overview page
  • View the API's documentation to uncover request and response elements, examples in your language of choice, error objects and more.

screenshot of Address Validation API Documentation page
  • Go back to Salesforce to fill out the Product Information Worksheet (PIW) and list out the APIs you would like to have added to your solution.


Step 5:

FedEx creates project(s).

Once the PIW has been approved, FedEx will create your project(s). Each version of each of your solutions will have a separate project within the FedEx Developer Portal. If a user is not an Admin of the organization, they would need to be invited to view each project. 

This is also when the FedEx Compatible team along with the FedEx CTC and certification teams will organize a technical demonstration for the APIs with your team. The FedEx team will discuss the new features and functionality available with the version of APIs you are adopting. The team will be able to address technical questions regarding APIs, API testing and all processes that need to be completed to start the process of ‘certification*’ for APIs.

* Certification – The process defined by the FedEx Compatible Program to satisfy Program Compliance requirements. Compatible Program Certification is required to ensure that all Compatible Providers implement, market and distribute FedEx technology to shippers (customers) as defined by FedEx technology & service standards.


Step 6:

Integrate APIs into your application and certify to the Compatible Program.

  1. You will now have access to your Test API Key and Test Secret Key to start running transactions. Retrieve them from the Test Key tab of the Project Overview page.
screenshot of Project Overview Test Key tab page
  1. In order to create customer keys, you will need to use the Credential Registration API, which is a private API only found in the API section of each of your projects.
  2. Once you’ve created a few customer keys, go ahead and request an OAuth access token to be used with every API transaction. The session for the token is valid only for an hour, so you will need to programmatically code your application to refresh the token before the session expires. Refer to the API Authorization docs for more details. When viewing sample code, make sure “Reseller” is chosen from samples dropdown.
screenshot of sample code “samples” dropdown for Credential Registration API page
  1. Select docs for the APIs on your Test Keys page and read the business context to best understand how to use the selected API. Review example requests for the endpoint that match your desired integration.
  2. Implement your calls to these endpoints as described in the example requests, configuring them to use your test credentials.
  3. Verify that the received API call responses are matching those shown in the documentation.
  4. Completely test your implementation within the FedEx test environment using test credentials and the FedEx test URIs.
  5. After fully testing your solutions, certify each solution in Salesforce. FedEx will fully review everything submitted and update you once your certification is approved.

Step 7:

FedEx moves project(s) into production.

  • FedEx will then move your project(s) to production.
  • You will then be able to see your Production API Key under the Production tab of the Project Overview page.
screenshot of Compatible version with Generate link displayed for Project Overview Production tab page

Step 8:

Generate Production Secret Key.

  • Your Production Secret Key will need to be generated by clicking the Generate Secret link under the Secret Key column.
  • You are now able to retest your implementation in the production environment using sample data.
  • Enjoy the benefits of your new integration!