Help With Built In Shipping Zones?

[RabbitInTheHeadlight]

Many thanks.

I have got all my weights/costs/ISO codes for the countries I am going to deliver to, just one last question, and I really do appreciate your time.

The tare/gross settings, are these the packaging weights I have to enter for small-medium & larger packages? If so the packaging I will be using will be no more than .25kg for small-medium and 1.5kg for larger packaging, would this make the codes 0:0.25 & 0:1.5? I have risked looking dumb again, but again this will be my last time I will bug you on the matter.

Regards.

David.

[RabbitInTheHeadlight]

Hi schoolboy.

Just wanted to thank you for all your help.

I am halfway through re-entering product weights and will be finishing off assigning the attributes soon.

All working fine and have much better peace of mind now.

Regards.

David

[Elvira]

Hello,
I would like to say thank you to Schoolboy for explaining things clearly - I understand the principle behind this shipping module now.

My shipping doesn't work correctly though and I don't understand what did I miss. I have exactly the same situation, where I have to estimate shipping cost by weight and country.
a) the shipping doesn't want to add up for multiple items.
b) when it does work for one item only, it is more than it should be. I changed the Tare settings and maximum weight configutarions but I still don't understand how it works and it is still calculating the wrong price.
c) I've changed lbs to kg in all files I could find through dev toolkit, but in my admin the tare section still shows lbs
d) I suddenly have shipping weight show up on my item description page and I don't know how to get rid of it.

I must say I find this part of Zen Cart the most challenging. I really don't get how does it work

Here, try to add some items to cart. UK is default country: http://shopforhealthandbeauty.co.uk/

[schoolboy]

The "KG" and "LBS" definitions are nothing more than "LABELS". And you change the definition in LANGUAGE FILES.

In the store-front, the reference is in the main english.php file, and as you should be using a CUSTOM TEMPLATE, this file is in:

includes/languages/YOUR_CUSTOM-TEMPLATE/english.php

If you do not have either that folder in that location, nor the english.php file inside it, then you must CREATE that folder - sometimes called the OVER-RIDE folder - on your server. That folder MUST bear the SAME NAME as your custom template folder.

Then, you put a COPY of english.php inside that folder.

You do this by collecting a COPY of the core file via FTP. So you FTP a copy to your home computer. Then, you FTP that copy to the OVER-RIDE folder you created.

You NEVER edit the CORE file... only the COPY that now sits in your OVER-RIDE folder.

Then.., to change LBS to KG, open that copied english.php file for editing in a PLAIN TEXT EDITOR such as CRIMSON EDITOR

and find:

 define('TEXT_PRODUCT_WEIGHT_UNIT','Lbs'); 

Change to:

 define('TEXT_PRODUCT_WEIGHT_UNIT','Kg'); 

--------------------------------

For the ADMIN area, things are a bit different, because there is no OVER_RIDE system in admin... you edit the CORE FILE.

So... first thing to do is to start a formal DIARY of the edits you make, so you have a chronology of what you have done. Very useful for debugging and later upgrades.

The same principle applies to the english.php file in admin

admin/includes/languages/english.php

 define('TEXT_PRODUCT_WEIGHT_UNIT','Lbs'); 

BE CAREFUL NOT TO CONFUSE THE TWO english.php FILES... THE ADMIN VERSION IS DIFFERENT FROM THE STORE-FRONT ONE.

-----------------------------------------

That sorts out the issue of the LABEL applied to the weight variables.

The REST of the process is purely arithmetic, because the NUMBER VALUES you now key in will be processed mathematically by the programming.

As your WEIGHT LABEL is now Kg, the VALUES you put into the weight field for each product must be represented in proper decimalisation of Kgs.

ONE KG will be input simply as 1
TWO HUNDRED GRAMS will go in as 0.2
ONE GRAM will go in as 0.001

...and so on. If you didn;t pay attention in maths class, ask your 10-year-old son/daughter to show you how to decimalise KG and fractions of KG...

------------------------------------------

So... if your shipping relies on WEIGHT values, the first step is to make sure all your products have correct weights... and it is just a NUMBER you enter into the weight field... do not enter "kg"... JUST the number.

[schoolboy]

SETTING UP THE SHIPPING...

So much has been said on this forum (much of it by me) that I am not going to repeat it here. Please look for the myriad of postings on the subject.

I will however say this...

YOU CAN ONLY SET UP SHIPPING PROPERLY WHEN YOU KNOW WHO IS GOING TO DO YOUR SHIPPING. So unless you are going to get into your own car, or onto your own bicycle, to deliver to customers, you are probab;y going to use a standard mail service, or a courier service.

Their RATE CARDS will give you an accurate indication of how you will configure your shipping, because the rate cards will tell you:

WHERE they deliver to
WHAT they charge for different consignment weights
WHAT time-frames they offer. (The faster they deliver, the more expensive the charges).

Only when you have this info, can you even begin to look at shipping configs.

[Elvira]

D'oh!

You know what it was? In Calculation Method, it was still marked as Item and not Weight. As soon as I switched it to weight - it started to work perfectly. I spent almost two days trying to see what am I doing wrong...

Thank you once again Schoolboy. The problem was between the chair and the table.

[EngineeringSolutions]

I just wanted to say this is an excellent thread with important basic information for setting up the built in shipping modules for zen cart.

It has taken me a long time to find it, would it be possible to add a link to this thread directly from the FAQ category:

"Setting up Categories, Shipping and Payment Modules"

Or maybe even sticky it? or even both?

It would have saved me a lot of time, hopefully it will help others in the future......