New site biz optimization!

Hey, folks. I've got a website on 1.5.5f. It's wobbling and creaking and about to die from ancient PHP dysfunction. :D So, I will soon upgrade to 1.5.8. The only plugins going will be basics for USPS, FedEx, and PayPal. There are no functional problems to report.

HOWEVER... I am quite limited when it comes to efficient drop shipping from multiple companies with different shipping policies. One of them may add a significant drop shipping surcharge. Here, I'll incur losses. Then, another one may do free shipping. As such, I'll not take advantage of a pricing advantage and cannot properly compete. Yet another example of need is for warehouse locations to be custom set. I'm in NJ but the shipper might be in CA. Lastly, an order might involve multiple warehouses vs. just one. How can I optimize for these variables?

SECONDLY... There's the matter of retail pricing vs. wholesale. Are there pricing modules available for 1.5.8 to handle this?

Thanks,

P.S. Is it possible to get rid of that "Extras" section or replace it with something other that esoteric media biz? That makes Zen Cart look like a relic from the MP3 era (which it arguably is).

Shipping - do a web search for the plugin Advanced Shipper. It might do what you need.

Pricing - Use a group pricing discount for your wholesalers.

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plugin Advanced Shipper

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Thanks for the help. And, that must be... this here. It appears to be what I need! However, it mentions PHP v7.x... and that's precisely what's going off the rails with my site. If my site is built with 8.x, will it work with this 7.x-based software?

Module Name: Ceon Advanced Shipper
Zen Cart Versions: 1.2.x - 1.5.x.
PHP Versions: 5.2.10 -7.x

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Pricing - Use a group pricing discount for your wholesalers.

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This does not seem to be a practical way to customize pricing for hundreds of distinct products and dozens of distributors... Nothing else exists? This seems like it'd be a popular function.

Advanced Shipper does NOT work with PHP 7.4 or any ZC later than 1.5.7d.

I have numerous emails and PMs that have not been responded to.

I am in the process of getting it to work but, am not sure if I can share any of the work I've done. I did purchase the software for more that one site so do have the rights to use it but don'e know if I can publish any of the fixes.

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Originally Posted by dbltoe

Advanced Shipper does NOT work with PHP 7.4 or any ZC later than 1.5.7d.

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I thank you much for this valuable reply. I wonder if there is some coordinated (or antagonized) evolution going on behind the scenes. See this offering here. Regardless, I'd like to fairly compensate any developer who's due credit or pay. -just not sure which direction to go in.

I've had Advanced Shipper working for ages with php8+, but as you say, sharing fixes is complicated. I'll see if I can get some response from them...

Doing different discounts for different products and for different customers is not trivial and since when it was suggested to try and include an add-on into the core, not apparently of interest to the Zen Cart users still standing.

I needed to implement different discounts based on the products in question, for trade customers.
I did my own solution, which I never finished enough to put it into production. A world of pain it was.

@dreadscott - it's a long and complex story which would be inappropriate to go over in public, but please contact JSWeb via the website for more information.

Thanks

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Originally Posted by torvista

I've had Advanced Shipper working for ages with php8+, but as you say, sharing fixes is complicated. I'll see if I can get some response from them...

Doing different discounts for different products and for different customers is not trivial and since when it was suggested to try and include an add-on into the core, not apparently of interest to the Zen Cart users still standing.

I needed to implement different discounts based on the products in question, for trade customers.
I did my own solution, which I never finished enough to put it into production. A world of pain it was.

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FWIW, the way that Conor's (Ceon) commercial licenses work is that the code is distributed via GPL-2 but the documentation is truly licensed and cannot be re-distributed.

> it's a long and complex story which would be inappropriate to go over in public, but please contact JSWeb via the website for more information.

Aha, this looks right and good. Thanks, Ryk. :)

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FWIW, the way that Conor's (Ceon) commercial licenses work is that the code is distributed via GPL-2

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So a public GitHub of the code, but with the documentation removed would be ok? Odd.

@lat9 - absolutely spot on. Whilst that’s not a problem for anyone who purchased Advanced Shipper either directly from Conor or whilst Ceon & JSWeb were collaborating together as the original manual still applies to the majority of the plug-in, we always inform new users of that fact. It proved impossible to re-write the manual without plagiarising Conor’s work so we gave up!

If users need more that what is included in the onscreen instructions we just have to talk them through it.