Integrate iPaaS.com with ShipStation to synchronize orders (as ShipStation shipments), order line items, order addresses, shipments, and shipping methods.
This document is the ongoing reference for the ShipStation connection: what each credential and setting does, how authentication works, and how to keep the connection healthy when rotating credentials or onboarding new team members. For the first-time setup journey, including the additional configuration that order shipments depend on, see the ShipStation Installation Instructions.
How to Connect
Prerequisites
The integration connects to two generations of the ShipStation API. The V1 API reads shipments and shipping methods from ShipStation; the V2 API creates shipments in ShipStation from iPaaS.com orders. Before setting up the ShipStation integration in iPaaS.com, make sure you have the following from your ShipStation account:
API Key and API Secret (V1): Generated in ShipStation under Account Settings, Account, API Settings, with V1 selected as the API Version. Example key: a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1f2a3b4c5d6.
V2 API Access Key (V2): Generated on the same API Settings page with V2 selected as the API Version. ShipStation allows one active V2 key at a time. Example: aBcD1eFgH2iJkL3mNoP4qRsT5uVwX6yZ.
API Url: The base URL iPaaS.com uses to communicate with the ShipStation V1 API. Value: https://ssapi.shipstation.com/.
V2 API Base URL: The base URL iPaaS.com uses to communicate with the ShipStation V2 API. Value: https://api.shipstation.com/v2.
ShipStation Account Owner access: Only the ShipStation account owner can generate API keys, after verifying their email address. Ensure you can sign in as the owner, or have the owner generate the keys for you.
A ShipStation plan with API access: At the time this documentation was written, ShipStation states that V1 and V2 API access is included on its Standard, Accelerate, or higher plans and that keys on lower plans stop working. ShipStation's separate developer product (ShipStation API, formerly ShipEngine) can create shipments through the V2 API on its free plan, but it has no V1 API, so the inbound flows and the store lookup this integration uses require a ShipStation platform plan.
Generating or regenerating these credentials is done entirely in ShipStation. iPaaS.com only stores the values you enter in the subscription settings; it does not create credentials on your behalf.
Configuration Details
Locate the API keys on the ShipStation API Settings page. Select the API Version in the dropdown before clicking Generate API Key: V1 produces an API Key and an API Secret, V2 produces a single API key. ShipStation shows each key only once, immediately after it is generated, so copy it before leaving the page.
Configure Subscription Settings
Open the ShipStation subscription settings in iPaaS.com and provide the following values. The keys come from your ShipStation account; the two base URLs are the ShipStation API addresses.
Field | Description | Required | Example |
API Url | The base URL iPaaS.com uses to communicate with the ShipStation V1 API. | Yes | |
API Key | Your V1 API key from the ShipStation API Settings page. | Yes | a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1f2a3b4c5d6 |
API Secret | Your V1 API secret from the ShipStation API Settings page. | Yes | f6e5d4c3b2a1f0e9d8c7b6a5f4e3d2c1 |
V2 API Base URL | The base URL iPaaS.com uses to communicate with the ShipStation V2 API, through which orders are sent to ShipStation. iPaaS.com does not save the settings while it is empty. | Yes | |
V2 API Access Key | Your V2 API key from the ShipStation API Settings page. iPaaS.com does not save the settings while it is empty. | Yes | aBcD1eFgH2iJkL3mNoP4qRsT5uVwX6yZ |
Enable Multi Address Shipment | When True, an order whose line items name different destination addresses is sent to ShipStation as one shipment per destination. When False or left empty, each order becomes a single shipment to its primary shipping address. Requires the line-item destination custom field described in the Installation Instructions. | No | False |
Concurrent Batch Executions | The maximum number of batch transfers the integration runs at the same time. Controls how aggressively data is pushed to and pulled from ShipStation. The field is pre-filled with 10. | Yes | 10 |
Authentication Methods
The integration uses a different authentication method for each ShipStation API generation, and both are configured from the same subscription settings page. There is no separate token to obtain or refresh.
Method: V1 Basic Authentication (shipments and shipping methods from ShipStation)
ShipStation's V1 API uses HTTP Basic authentication. iPaaS.com combines the API Key and API Secret and sends them with every request that reads shipments and shipping methods from ShipStation.
Open the ShipStation subscription settings in iPaaS.com.
Enter the API Url, API Key, and API Secret obtained from your ShipStation account.
Save the configuration.
Confirm the credentials by running a small inbound transfer, for example a Manual Sync of one shipment or the shipping method initialization.
Method: V2 API Key Authentication (orders to ShipStation)
ShipStation's V2 API authenticates each request with a single API key sent as a request header. iPaaS.com sends the V2 API Access Key with every request that creates or updates a shipment in ShipStation. Both the V2 API Base URL and the V2 API Access Key are required: iPaaS.com does not save the subscription settings while either is empty, and a subscription whose settings were saved before they became required cannot send orders to ShipStation until both are entered (see SHST-AUTH-1002 in the ShipStation Error Messages article).
Open the ShipStation subscription settings in iPaaS.com.
Enter the V2 API Base URL and V2 API Access Key obtained from your ShipStation account.
Save the configuration.
Confirm the credentials by sending one test order to ShipStation and checking that a Pending shipment appears under Shipments in ShipStation.
Because the credentials are validated by ShipStation only when data is actually exchanged, running a small transfer is the reliable way to confirm each key. If a transfer fails with an authentication error, re-check the corresponding key against ShipStation, regenerate it in ShipStation if necessary, and update the subscription setting.
Key expiration and rotation: ShipStation API keys expire on the schedule chosen when they were generated (3, 6, or 12 months) and ShipStation emails a reminder beforehand. Generate the replacement key in ShipStation, update the matching subscription setting in iPaaS.com, and only then delete the old key. ShipStation permits two V1 keys at once for this purpose but only one V2 key, so plan the V2 rotation for a quiet period.
Multi-Address Shipment Setting
Enable Multi Address Shipment changes how many ShipStation shipments an order becomes, not whether it ships:
True: The integration groups the order's line items by the destination address each line names and creates one shipment per distinct address, numbered "[order number] (1 of N)", "(2 of N)", and so on. A line item whose destination is empty ships with the order's primary shipping address. A line item whose destination does not match an address on the order is not shipped and is reported as a failed transfer (SHST-EXTN-1004), while the order's other destinations are still sent.
False or empty (the default): The integration creates one shipment to the order's primary shipping address containing every line item. Any destination the line items carry is ignored, so a subscription that has not opted in behaves like an ordinary single-destination integration even if its order source populates the field.
The destination each line item names is read from the ShipToAddressExternalId custom field on the order source's Transaction Line module, which must hold the order source's own identifier for the address (the same external id the order source registers on the order's address in iPaaS.com). The integration resolves that identifier to the iPaaS.com address, so the order source never needs to know an iPaaS.com id. Creating the custom field, the acceptable values per order source, and the related Ship From Location, store, currency, and weight custom fields are covered step by step in the ShipStation Installation Instructions.
Initialization Support
Initialization (a one-time bulk import of data when the integration is first connected) is supported for shipping methods only.
Add/Update ShipStation Shipping Method TO iPaaS.com: Clicking Initialize Data in the ShipStation subscription settings performs a one-time bulk pull of all ShipStation carriers and shipping services into iPaaS.com as Shipping Method records. This is normally run once during setup so the full set of shipping methods is available; subsequent changes can be brought across with Manual Sync.
Initialization is not supported for the order, order line item, order address, or shipment collections. Those collections transfer through the integration's normal synchronization and manual transfer behavior rather than a bulk import.
Throttling
Throttling keeps the integration from overwhelming ShipStation's API with too many simultaneous requests, preserving performance during heavy data transfers. For ShipStation, throttling is governed by the Concurrent Batch Executions subscription setting, which caps how many batch transfers run at the same time and is pre-filled with 10.
The throttle values are pre-populated by the integration settings. For more details, refer to Subscription Configuration – Edit.