[Old] Royal Mail Modules

16 Sep 2006, 19:19

#1

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[Old] Royal Mail Modules

Evening,

Based on previous works and ports I have created a really big royal mail module for those in the UK. Currently it deals consists of separate modules for the following services:

Royal Mail 1st Class
Royal Mail 1st Class Large Letter
Royal Mail 1st Class Packet
Royal Mail specialdelivery Next Day service
Royal Mail specialdelivery 9am service
Royal Mail Airmail
Royal Mail Airmail International Signed For
Royal Mail Airsure (limited to the 24 countries as defined by the Royal mail).

So that you can choose exactly which to offer to which customer, plus the most recent thread I read was very useful in that it used the Zone system, but now that the royal mail has changed to size limits, this should prove more useful. Also by splitting out the services it the benefit of being able to offer more than one such as "1st Class" and "special delivery" whereas the Zone system and the previous royalmail.php were one service only.

it can be downloaded here

http://bouncing.org/big_royalmail.zip

I shall be adding the cheaper 1st class signed for services at a later date.

Thank you

17 Sep 2006, 11:53

#2

bouncingltd

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Re: [Old] Royal Mail Modules

This was graciously approved by "the team" last night and can be downloaded from the downloads > shipping modules section or by following this link:

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?main_page=product_contrib_info&cPath=40_51&products_id=294

17 Sep 2006, 16:50

#3

zigzak

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Re: [Old] Royal Mail Modules

Hey! This is great - thanks. I spent most of last night looking at the default "table" shipping module and finding the information in this very forum about how to duplicate it to create additional modules for the various Royal Mail services.

However I am stuck at a certain point - I want to be able to limit the postage services offered by the VALUE of the total order. For example it would be unwise to send valuable product via 1st class post, but no problem to send it via, say, Special Delivery.

I assume there is a variable available to the shipping modules which gives the total order value and they could then turn themselves off where not appropriate (for example I notice the default table rate module does this where the order weight is zero).

So for example - if the limit for first class was set at 50UKP, the module would calculated and display postage based on its weight table ONLY where the total money value of the order was <50UKP.

Perhaps someone has already done this? I'd be interested to know!

Regards,
David Spink

17 Sep 2006, 17:31

#4

bouncingltd

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Re: [Old] Royal Mail Modules

Evening,

Today I've put in the second prices for everything and will be working on the "signed for" first class services tonight.

I would suggest that I by default do a limit of 32 GBP for first class because that's the maximum that is insured by, by the post office if you get a "proof of postage". I'll look at that once I've finished the set, so probably over the next 3 days.

Thank you Philip.

17 Sep 2006, 17:49

#5

zigzak

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Re: [Old] Royal Mail Modules

Hi Philip,
Fantastic effort - thank you so much! This is going to save me alot of figuring out that I wasn't looking forward to!

Regards,
David

18 Sep 2006, 00:48

#6

bouncingltd

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Re: [Old] Royal Mail Modules

This has now been updated to version 1.1 with the addition 1st calls signed for pricing added, plus the 2nd class tariffs.

Royal Mail 1st Class
Royal Mail 1st Class Large Letter
Royal Mail 1st Class Packet
Royal Mail 1st Class "signed for"
Royal Mail 1st Class Large Letter "signed for"
Royal Mail 1st Class Packet "signed for"
Royal Mail 2nd Class
Royal Mail 2nd Class Large Letter
Royal Mail 2nd Class Packet
Royal Mail specialdelivery Next Day service
Royal Mail specialdelivery 9am service
Royal Mail Airmail
Royal Mail Airmail International Signed For
Royal Mail Airsure (limited to the 24 countries as defined by the Royal mail).

It is available for direct download from

http://bouncing.org/big_royalmail.zip

and has been submitted to the downloads area here as well

The next step in development will be setting minimum and maximum order values for royal mail service offered as suggested above,

Thank you

18 Sep 2006, 20:41

#7

pixxi

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Re: [Old] Royal Mail Modules

Thanks - this looks like an excellent mod and just what we've been needing in the UK :)

Could I add a further request to what's already been mentioned above?

At present, all of the options appear on the shopping cart/on checkout no matter what country the customer is from.

Could options that don't apply be set not to show? - eg. if you're a UK customer you don't need to see the airmail options, and if you're a customer from the EEC you don't need to see the Royal Mail (UK) First Class etc. options.

This would make the checkout and shopping cart screens much neater and easier for the customer to understand.

18 Sep 2006, 21:58

#8

bouncingltd

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Re: [Old] Royal Mail Modules

Evening,

I agree with you entirely, it will require work on the checkout_shipping template though so will require a backup of your own personal custom templates. I'd say that that should be ready by the end of the week,

Thanks

Philip.

18 Sep 2006, 22:38

#9

tonyrobbo

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Re: [Old] Royal Mail Modules

Thanks and Great work, this is just what i needed.

Is there any chance of a future Parcelforce service for our heavy items?

:cheers:

18 Sep 2006, 22:44

#10

pixxi

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Re: [Old] Royal Mail Modules

That would be really useful - thank you :smile:

Just had another thought, following on from the point zigzak raised above in respect of first class value limits.

Looking at Royal Mail's website, airmail is also only covered up to £32, after that you need to use 'Airsure' (extra insurance, but no signature) or 'International Signed For' (extra insurance plus signature).

Would it be possible to also make standard airmail disappear for orders over £32?

18 Sep 2006, 22:59

#11

bouncingltd

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Re: [Old] Royal Mail Modules

Pixxi : yes I think I can work removing shipping costs if the maximum or minimum order value is breached (currently as I am putting the facility on, I have at least 18 options visible), but it will be left until after I've put zigzag's function on because that template re-write will probably mean doing a double probe into the shipping modules to check if a price has come back before display, and it's something I'm a bit wary of from the speed point of view.

tonyrobbo: I could do parcelforce and standard parcels, but am currently working through a lot of options so it would be at the very very end of the week, it would be helpful if you could message me the URL's of the from the websites to speed things up.

Thank you

Philip.

18 Sep 2006, 23:01

#12

bouncingltd

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Re: [Old] Royal Mail Modules

BUG Notification:

Up to 1.2 there is a bug from the work that this module was based upon, it is possbile for someone to select something like a 2nd Class letter rate of £0.00, when "The shipping rate cannot be determined at this time" and still proceed to the checkout, this is being fixed as I go through to add the modifications for version 1.2

Thank you.

19 Sep 2006, 12:01

#13

bouncingltd

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Re: [Old] Royal Mail Modules

Afternoon,

version 1.2 with minimum and maximum order values is here

http://bouncing.org/big_royalmail_v1.2.zip

also it fixes the bug whereby people could order things with shipping set to £0.00. The default values are 0 for the minimum and £32 for most services with the exception of specialdelivery services, so you will have to tailor it to your own website as to at which price break, you want to offere which service.

As with most shipping modules, this WILL remove your old settings, BUT for version 1.3 I will be adding a new feature requested by Pixxi, i.e. that if a service is not available it will not be displayed on the the checkout_shipping page. For version 1.3 I will release a patch if possible as well as the full version for new installers, so that any minimum and maximum order values will not be removed.

I had a working version of 1.3 working on one service last night, but as mentioned it is a template job so may require a bit work if you have customised your templates.

I'll add parcelforce rates at some point in the near future.

Thank you

19 Sep 2006, 21:09

#14

zigzak

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Re: [Old] Royal Mail Modules

Hi,
I copied the upgraded modules over my existing 1.1 install from yesterday and everything worked great - thanks again.

One very minor point I noticed is that if you already have some of the previous shipping methods enabled the new features don't appear correctly (ie. the min and max order value settings explanation text is missing) unless you first "REMOVE" and then "INSTALL" the module again from the Admin/Shipping page.

This module is fantastic work - UK Zenners need to get it NOW!!!

David

20 Sep 2006, 07:55

#15

bouncingltd

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Re: [Old] Royal Mail Modules

Good Morning,

version 1.3 is now available for download here:

http://bouncing.org/big_royalmail_v1.3.zip

it covers the majority of royal mail services, and a template to remove shipping services from the checkout screen e.g. to not display Airmail services for someone in the UK, or to not display a service if the weight is too great/ little

with regards to zigzags comments about the upgrade and some options not appearing until "REMOVE"/ "INSTALL" is used, there is now a sql patch included that solves this issue.

Thank you

Philip.

20 Sep 2006, 11:12

#16

heathenmagic

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Re: [Old] Royal Mail Modules

Hi there,

this is a great module! Just wondering, not sure if it is exclusive to my setup, but are the rates supposed to show on the shopping cart? The rates for each service display when you login and get to that checkout page. I have 1.35 ZC, and have the shopping cart shipping estimator embedded, not the one where you have to open a popup.

Many thanks.

20 Sep 2006, 11:31

#17

bouncingltd

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Re: [Old] Royal Mail Modules

Afternoon HeathenMagic,

I haven't got around to removing rates from the shopping cart "available shipping methods", I too have that bit installed on my server (1.3.5 ZC) too looks like some kind of really ugly table layout that I've been meaning to remove or fix, I'd turn off the box at the moment because it doesn't look like it matches the rest of the CSS, when I fix the module I'll try and fix the layout too unless everyone says "oh we'd really like an ugly table box!"

Thanks

Philip.

20 Sep 2006, 21:00

#18

bouncingltd

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Re: [Old] Royal Mail Modules

okay there is an easy fix for this but you have to find which template your system is currently using this will be a file called:

tpl_modules_shipping_estimator.php

and could be located under template_default, template_custom or wherever you've put your custom template folder, i recommend putting "hello" on line 12 temporarily one file at a time until you find the right one to modify.

under line 89 which should look like this:
for ($i=0, $n=sizeof($quotes); $i<$n; $i++) {

add
if (!isset($quotes[$i]['hidenoshippingservice'])) {

and then around line 144 put a closing curly bracket

} // end of big_royalmail_v1.3 if

in amongst the wealth of other curly brackets there (but label it with a comment so you know which one to take out).

This will remove the invalid shipping services from the estimator in both pop up and under the shopping basket form.

While you are at it, you should probably modify that template file to remove the ugly border, because it's just plain yuk, i'm going for a left sidebox theme myself.

Thank you

Philip

HeathenMagic:
Hi there,

this is a great module! Just wondering, not sure if it is exclusive to my setup, but are the rates supposed to show on the shopping cart? The rates for each service display when you login and get to that checkout page. I have 1.35 ZC, and have the shopping cart shipping estimator embedded, not the one where you have to open a popup.

Many thanks.

20 Sep 2006, 21:03

#19

bouncingltd

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Re: [Old] Royal Mail Modules

Now this is the question, do I submit a prettier version of

tpl_modules_shipping_estimator.php

for the bug fix, or leave it as standard for others to pretty up ?

20 Sep 2006, 21:34

#20

pixxi

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Re: [Old] Royal Mail Modules

... Submit a new version, of course ... :D

By the way, could you be a tad slightly more specific about where that closing curly bracket goes? ... there's 5 of them there, and wherever it's put it removes all shipping options from the shipping estimator :blink:

This mod is getting more excellent all the time, thanks! :smile: