Hi Saida, Great summary. As an add on, it would also be possible for shapeways to just charge our 'business' creditcards monthly (i.e. with Stripe.com so they don't need to store the cc's) or another recurring billing solution. Then you can skip the manual banktransfer. I'm just wondering if any of you guys already heard a solution/update on this? we're looking with our platform, www.suuz.com to integrate automatic ordering at shapeways as well and it seems you can add us to the list of companies above.. wondering if anyone off shapeways can give an update? @Nathan? cheers, Elco Suuz.com
Hey guys, Just came by to check if there's been any progress and I see this great summary...just making it loud and clear we're still interested and still hoping to use this API. Our app is well under development and we're now using competitive service's API since we can't use Shapeways. The request is still alive and very much needed. The entire API is complete except one tiny crucial step that would allow thousands of orders to flow into Shapeways. I'm not sure I understand the reason why it's not been prioritized/done. Thanks for putting together the summary guys and let us know if we can help in any way. Cheers, Alex
Just wanted to add my voice to the conversation as I too am in a need for such feature to be implemented. I think that if SW implemented something to support automated orders it would be for the benefit of all sides. The current checkout flow I have in my apps has way too much friction for a process that needs to be as simple as possible.
Thanks for this great summary, that's exactly what I need for my website, APIs relative to shipping addresses are necessary.
It seems saida has done a good job of summarizing a what I was hoping to find when I dug into the API. +1 I'm developing a toolkit for printing terrain models and it's now time to integrate with providers. I'll see what sort of experience I can provide with the existing API, but I hope more capabilities are forthcoming.
The ability to process orders nearly entirely via the API and within my own system is integral to the business I'll be offering. I assumed Shapeways allowed for this so it's shocking to see this isn't an option. I'm currently being forced to use alternative providers until this changes.
Both [Competitor] and [Competitor] provide Apis that allow your website or app to upload your models, let the customer place an order, and you get a commission on the sale.[Competitor] was even very helpful for me, getting my app up and running. [Competitor] was not helpful, but I got it to work anyway. Shapeways does not seem to be interested in this business model, so it is best to just use the alternatives. ======================== Moderator note: Discussing other services is outside the terms and conditions of this forum.
At the moderator: Competitor? We all would love if Shapeway would be a competitor and offer a uasable and reliable api.
I never argued with improving the API. I want it enhanced also. I've personally turned in more enhancement requests for it than you could imagine. The moderation above was only about the fact that Shapeways pays for this forum, and they would prefer that we as customers not identify their competitors by name. Even then, it's not so much about customers going to other services, but more about the fact that Shapeways can't afford to play host to comments about other vendors that could be construed as libelous. If they allow any naming of competitors, they might be forced to allow all, and they can't allow it to turn into a free-for-all of negative comments or the competitors could sue them. If this forum wasn't paid for and hosted by Shapeways (or the competitor) you could say anything you wanted. Just not here, where Shapeways could become liable for comments.
Hi Nick, may I ask you how you got an app for your site using the API? Did you hire someone to do it for you? Thanks, Miriam
When I started my project I had hoped to fully control the customer experience. I'd decided I wanted to launch with shapeways, so I figured out the best I could do with the API. Customers design models on my site, initiate an upload, and hopefully stick around for the model to be buyable. Once it is buyable I send them to the private product page, and hopefully find the Buy It button. When things are running smoothly this takes less than a minute. But when shapeways is having problems or otherwise running slow, it might not return in any useful amount of time, so I just have to hope the customer will check back. Feel free to checkout my integration at topophile.com. I'm happy to answer questions about it.
@topophile: Nice site. I also tried shapeways at first, but the upload and inspection was so slow, if working at all so I tried another provider with much better results. Have a look at glyphomat.com. A small usability hint: I did need a while to understand that I have to press the "select area" button on the map. Before that everything was disabled and I thought that there is a js error preventing the side from working.
@topophile and @braillesigns I like both of your solutions a lot. If keeping the user on my site from start to finish is not possible then I think something similar to your solutions is my best bet. Can I ask you how you developed those apps? Did you DIY them or had to hire a developer to do it? I am going to be using Wordpress and WooCommerce (not sure I will need WooCommerce in this case.) Would appreciate any hint to point me to the right direction. Thanks! Miriam
Hello Miriam, I did it myself, but I am a programmer. However, for the other unidentified provider the quest consist of creating a (multipart) POST request. Authentication is rather simple and documentation is ok, so if you have some php knowledge you might be able to do it on your own.
I did not use the Shapeways API- I used the APIs provided by Shapeways' main two competetors, I'm sure we all know what their names are. I'm a programmer, I wrote my apps myself, and it's not a site, it's two iPad apps. Here is a link: http://MediaUtopia.com/ They are "Sage", an iPad app for making vases and other sculptures, and "Sage Dollmaker" for creating figurenes.
Could we please get some kind of an official statement from Shapeways on the API? Is the thing even being developed at all? Does Shapeways care at all about developers using Shapeways as a fulfillment service?
Thanks a lot for the reply. I have a tiny bit of php knowledge. I'll try the documentation and see if I get anywhere with this.