Enveloupe: An API for snail mail

whitehat2k9 10 years ago |

Prompting users to enter payment information over unsecured HTTP...smart.

r1ch 10 years ago | |

Seriously! It's 2016, unless you rely on 3rd party resources that don't support HTTPS there's no reason why your site shouldn't be HTTPS only. Certificates are free and there's negligible performance overhead with modern CPUs.

lol768 10 years ago | |

Looks like it does support HTTPS but there's no redirect & HSTS in place to force use of the secure site which is odd.

daw___ 10 years ago | |

Yep, although the form posts to a secure URL: https://api.stripe.com/v1/tokens

Gurrewe 10 years ago | | |

Doesn't make it better tough, a MITM could change the action URL of the form.

jgalt212 10 years ago | | |

MITM requires a man in the middle. For the most part, a state level adversary is required for a generalized MITM attack.

megabytemike 10 years ago | | |

Come join my wifi network at the coffee shop :-D

jgalt212 10 years ago | | |

Yes, but that's not a general MITM attack as the NSA has pulled off. Only the folks at that particular coffee shop are placed at risk from this particular adversary.

staticfish 10 years ago | | |

not if it's pinned at the web app level.

tyre 10 years ago | | |

Again, MITM.

If you mean the front-end web (JS) app, MITM the request from the server to the client browser and replace the hardcoded submission url in the JS.

staticfish 10 years ago | | |

Not really. I used Play Framework which is also its own webserver. SSL is at both the app and webserver level.

ryanbertrand 10 years ago | | |

Usually Stripe throws warnings into the console for using their JS lib while on a HTTP site.

ataylor32 10 years ago | | |

See http://www.troyhunt.com/2013/05/your-login-form-posts-to-htt...

nanis 10 years ago |

There is Lob as well: https://lob.com/

dannysu 10 years ago | |

Lob is great. I've used them to mail postcards as well as letters before. They also recently started allowing you to use HTML for the design rather than PDFs.

ryanbertrand 10 years ago | |

Looks great. The only downside (like most companies) is HIPAA compliance only comes with the >$900/mo price points.

sjtgraham 10 years ago | | |

That's customer segmentation 101.

godzillabrennus 10 years ago | |

I'm about to use them for a startup. Anything I should know? Tips and tricks welcome.

andrewjshults 10 years ago | | |

(my opinions, not my employer's standard disclosure) Lob team has been great to work with - they've accommodated a lot of tweaks we've needed (custom paper, much higher levels of verification). They're good at API backwards compatibility, but they are pretty active on the development front, so it's worth keeping an eye on what changes are coming through on the SDK.

jc4p 10 years ago | | |

I used Lob for a small side project, it was fantastic. We simply sent HTML to them, which worked out great since we didn't have to deal with any real typesetting and got to design letters with HTML/CSS.

shravvmehtaa 10 years ago | | |

Hey, Lob employee here! Feel free to email me at shrav@lob.com. I'd be happy to give you any tips or tricks!

brianbreslin 10 years ago |

Wasn't there a company that started doing Instagram postcard mailing, and eventually offered the API as well they were using?

turley 10 years ago | |

My side project, OttoPost[1] does Instagram postcard mailing. It's currently using Lob's API (which has been great). There are several others too, though.

[1] https://www.ottopost.com

scott_hardy 10 years ago | |

I made a little side project that I use to send postcards to my grandma: https://github.com/scott113341/post

It sends the requests to the Lob API directly, so you there's no price markup! $0.70 for a 4"x6" postcard and $1.50 for a 6"x11".

yarone 10 years ago | |

Years ago there was postful: http://postful.com/

And postal methods: http://www.postalmethods.com/

harryzhang 10 years ago | |

http://repostage.com/

These guys are doing this, as I believe are many others.

cripblip 10 years ago |

Nice! As a heavy user of postagram .. (#1 grandson.. Check) An iOS app that makes this appear in the print options please then I can..: login to a central site afterwards and choose the content I want to print -> snail mail it to destination

Additionally you could Offer printers to local stores, I could print to my bodega/gas station/Amazon parcel drop/staples etc (Pickup the job via qr code displayed on phone/Apple Pay) for things I need now

dhaivatpandya 10 years ago |

For some reason, the https redirect broke - working on fixing it. Rest assured, https://enveloupe.com/api/new works perfectly.

Kinnard 10 years ago |

Looks cool! This should totally exist and be independent of any given country's postal system. Perhaps prepend a "SHOW HN: "

zeeshanm 10 years ago |

If I were you I'd put link to API docs in top navigation. If you are targeting to devs, that's the first thing they look for.

lemieux 10 years ago |

Payment info over HTTP? Ehhh, no thanks.

modoc 10 years ago |

I'm looking for something like that that's the best fit for singleton mailings. I want to send one letter at a time. The pricing here isn't unreasonable for that ($1.09), but it seems geared for bulk mailings? Any suggestions?

1812Overture 10 years ago |

Plenty of printing companies have APIs already (and much lower prices).

jgalt212 10 years ago | |

Can you list a few?

1812Overture 10 years ago | | |

I've using Printing 4 Less. They've got one, and they're not exactly a big fish. I'd imagine most of these would: http://www.piworld.com/article/the-2015-printing-impressions...

TeMPOraL 10 years ago |

Looks interesting, though I must ask - where exactly is the API? Or are we to hook up directly to the HTML form endpoint?

matmann2001 10 years ago |

You should link to the landing page.

TamDenholm 10 years ago |

I'd like to see the same service for the UK.

jdietrich 10 years ago | |

Here you go:

http://www.docmail.co.uk/api/ https://developers.clicksend.com/ https://www.stannp.com/

shravvmehtaa 10 years ago | |

Lob employee here. We are running beta services in the UK, please email support@lob.com for more information!

TamDenholm 10 years ago | | |

brilliant, i didnt know this. Thanks

greysteil 10 years ago | |

You can use Lob in the UK. We (GoCardless) do, and have had a good experience.