Title: Error on API Connection Status Last modified: November 17, 2023 --- # Error on API Connection Status * Resolved [codelad](https://wordpress.org/support/users/codecorun/) * (@codecorun) * [2 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-on-api-connection-status/) * Hi Support, My client is having this issue with their website where the status of API connection is **[XML2Array] Error parsing the XML string.**Please explain why and kindly provide some guidelines on how to solve it.Thank you. Viewing 12 replies - 1 through 12 (of 12 total) * [Clint Johnson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nmbgeek/) * (@nmbgeek) * [2 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-on-api-connection-status/#post-17212416) * I am experiencing this as well. I was using the a different plugin that also stopped working so decided to give this one a try and am getting this error. * Plugin Author [Grzegorz Rola](https://wordpress.org/support/users/grola/) * (@grola) * [2 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-on-api-connection-status/#post-17212426) * Please enable debug mode and paste here API request and response: [https://octolize.com/docs/article/usps-general-settings/#debug_mode](https://octolize.com/docs/article/usps-general-settings/#debug_mode) * [Clint Johnson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nmbgeek/) * (@nmbgeek) * [2 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-on-api-connection-status/#post-17212454) * I enabled debugging and the only thing I am getting is “USPS Live Rates: [XML2Array] Error parsing the XML string.” * I have disabled my cloudflare proxy, and I am also experiencing similar results with other USPS calculator plugins. I have tested my USPS API username and verified it is correct by doing a request to [https://secure.shippingapis.com/ShippingAPI.dll?API=RateV4&XML=%3CRateV4Request%20USERID=%22MY_ID_HERE%22%20PASSWORD=%22%22%3E%3CRevision%3E2%3C/Revision%3E%3CPackage%20ID=%221ST%22%3E%20%3CService%3EGROUND%20ADVANTAGE%3C/Service%3E%20%3CZipOrigination%3E30677%3C/ZipOrigination%3E%20%3CZipDestination%3E46750%3C/ZipDestination%3E%20%3CPounds%3E0%3C/Pounds%3E%20%3COunces%3E10%3C/Ounces%3E%20%3CContainer%3EVARIABLE%3C/Container%3E%20%3CWidth%3E%3C/Width%3E%20%3CLength%3E%3C/Length%3E%20%3CHeight%3E%3C/Height%3E%20%3CMachinable%3E%3C/Machinable%3E%20%3CDropOffTime%3E%3C/DropOffTime%3E%20%3CShipDate%3E2023-11-20%3C/ShipDate%3E%20%3CSortationLevel%3E%3C/SortationLevel%3E%20%3CDestinationEntryFacilityType%3E%3C/DestinationEntryFacilityType%3E%20%3CReturnFees%3Etrue%3C/ReturnFees%3E%20%3C/Package%3E%20%3C/RateV4Request%3E](https://secure.shippingapis.com/ShippingAPI.dll?API=RateV4&XML=%3CRateV4Request%20USERID=%22MY_ID_HERE%22%20PASSWORD=%22%22%3E%3CRevision%3E2%3C/Revision%3E%3CPackage%20ID=%221ST%22%3E%20%3CService%3EGROUND%20ADVANTAGE%3C/Service%3E%20%3CZipOrigination%3E30677%3C/ZipOrigination%3E%20%3CZipDestination%3E46750%3C/ZipDestination%3E%20%3CPounds%3E0%3C/Pounds%3E%20%3COunces%3E10%3C/Ounces%3E%20%3CContainer%3EVARIABLE%3C/Container%3E%20%3CWidth%3E%3C/Width%3E%20%3CLength%3E%3C/Length%3E%20%3CHeight%3E%3C/Height%3E%20%3CMachinable%3E%3C/Machinable%3E%20%3CDropOffTime%3E%3C/DropOffTime%3E%20%3CShipDate%3E2023-11-20%3C/ShipDate%3E%20%3CSortationLevel%3E%3C/SortationLevel%3E%20%3CDestinationEntryFacilityType%3E%3C/DestinationEntryFacilityType%3E%20%3CReturnFees%3Etrue%3C/ReturnFees%3E%20%3C/Package%3E%20%3C/RateV4Request%3E) which does work. * In my Nginx log I am getting `2023/11/18 16:19:55 [error] 1581#1581: *346 FastCGI sent in stderr: "PHP message: PHP Warning: DOMDocument::loadXML(): Start tag expected, '<' not found in Entity, line: 1 in /home/runcloud/webapps/altman/wp- content/plugins/flexible-shipping-usps/vendor_prefixed/vinceg/usps-php-api/src/ XML2Array.php on line 55" while reading response header from upstream, client: 66.153.189.27, server: ``redacted`.com, request: "GET /checkout/ HTTP/2.0", upstream:" fastcgi://unix:/var/run/altman.sock:", host: "redacted.com", referrer: "https://` redacted`.com/cart/" * [Clint Johnson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nmbgeek/) * (@nmbgeek) * [2 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-on-api-connection-status/#post-17212460) * I’m sorry it actually is showing the debug boxes and the request is: * ```wp-block-code 2 ONLINE 29578 29566 0 6 true ``` * The endpoint URL is: [https://secure.shippingapis.com/ShippingAPI.dll](https://secure.shippingapis.com/ShippingAPI.dll) * [Clint Johnson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nmbgeek/) * (@nmbgeek) * [2 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-on-api-connection-status/#post-17212461) * Sorry for the deluge of responses. When I try and submit that as a manual GET request (with my ID of course) I get an authentication error, but when I add PASSWORD=”” after USERNAME it works successfully. * Plugin Author [Grzegorz Rola](https://wordpress.org/support/users/grola/) * (@grola) * [2 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-on-api-connection-status/#post-17212463) * Perhaps the hosting has turned on some firewall. I just checked our demo site and everything works fine. You can also test it at [https://demo.octolize.com/](https://demo.octolize.com/) * [Clint Johnson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nmbgeek/) * (@nmbgeek) * [2 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-on-api-connection-status/#post-17212467) * The Password=”” wasn’t correct as it does work without it. The hosting is a VPS and I have disabled Wordfence and cloudflare but the strange thing is that curl requests from the server cli to the same URL that works in my browser are actually returning a binary response instead of text/xml. * Edit: the binary is actually just gzip compression - This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by [Clint Johnson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nmbgeek/). * [Clint Johnson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nmbgeek/) * (@nmbgeek) * [2 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-on-api-connection-status/#post-17212497) * I think I am getting somewhere. USPS may be blocking Digital Ocean IPs? I have tried from 3 different Ubuntu servers on Digital Ocean and all have returned a 401 Unauthorized response. The same curl request from my ubuntu home lab server, 2 different Azure Ubuntus, and a hosted postman instance are all successful. * Confirmed: I cloned my site through runcloud to one of my Azure servers and it now works. - This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by [Clint Johnson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nmbgeek/). * Plugin Author [Grzegorz Rola](https://wordpress.org/support/users/grola/) * (@grola) * [2 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-on-api-connection-status/#post-17212847) * [@nmbgeek](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nmbgeek/) can you check curl with“ Accept-Encoding: identity” header? * [Clint Johnson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nmbgeek/) * (@nmbgeek) * [2 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-on-api-connection-status/#post-17213321) * Same thing. It works on my Azure and home lab but on 3 different digital ocean servers I receive a binary response and if I add “–compressed” the 403 response“ You do not have permission to access this page If you have found this page in error, please contact support”. Can’t even put in a support request to USPS because once I submit I get an error back as well. * [jbixler](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jbixler/) * (@jbixler) * [2 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-on-api-connection-status/#post-17215906) * Also having this issue on a DigitalOcean-hosted site. Anyone have any success with getting in touch with the USPS API team? * [stoi2m1](https://wordpress.org/support/users/stoi2m1/) * (@stoi2m1) * [2 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-on-api-connection-status/#post-17233143) * I am using a Droplet on Digital Ocean running Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS and yesterday I was successful in configuring USPS Live Rates. API Connection Status **OK** Viewing 12 replies - 1 through 12 (of 12 total) The topic ‘Error on API Connection Status’ is closed to new replies. * ![](https://ps.w.org/flexible-shipping-usps/assets/icon.svg?rev=2737986) * [Shipping Live Rates for USPS for WooCommerce](https://wordpress.org/plugins/flexible-shipping-usps/) * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/flexible-shipping-usps/#faq) * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/flexible-shipping-usps/) * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/flexible-shipping-usps/active/) * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/flexible-shipping-usps/unresolved/) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/flexible-shipping-usps/reviews/) ## Tags * [api](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/api/) * 12 replies * 5 participants * Last reply from: [stoi2m1](https://wordpress.org/support/users/stoi2m1/) * Last activity: [2 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-on-api-connection-status/#post-17233143) * Status: resolved