How to do this (shipping method)

[joshuayang]

my shop shipping workflow is:
shop is in china, and the rate of shipping is FLAT, $25 to usa, $30 to uk, and $32 to other conturies.
when customer make an order on the site, i will call DHL/UPS take the products.
how can i make the shipping method?
My thought on it now is: to copy the shipping method of FLAT RATE two times, and set it to usa\uk\others, but how can i do that?
please, help me by your kindness and wise.

[ellivir]

my shop shipping workflow is:
shop is in china, and the rate of shipping is FLAT, $25 to usa, $30 to uk, and $32 to other conturies.
when customer make an order on the site, i will call DHL/UPS take the products.
how can i make the shipping method?
My thought on it now is: to copy the shipping method of FLAT RATE two times, and set it to usa\uk\others, but how can i do that?
please, help me by your kindness and wise.

You have to copy all the files related to the flatrate module. Do not touch the original files but make as many copies as you need (practise with one first).
Make marks in which folder each of the copied files are (better if you keep the folder structure for it).

You should find these:
includes -> modules -> shipping -> flat.php
includes -> languages -> english -> modules -> shipping -> flat.php
(the same way all the languages you are using)

When you open the file flat.php under modules (non-language one) you will see lot of these:
MODULE_SHIPPING_FLAT_TEXT_TITLE

Change in your copied file (not original) all of them for example like this:
MODULE_SHIPPING_FLATUK_TEXT_TITLE
and rename your php file the same with small letters, like flatuk.php.

You can use Find-and-replace function with a good raw text editor (do not use any Word, Wordpad etc. since they will destroy your code; I use mac computers and BBEdit there) and replace one by one checking that it is replacing properly the word FLAT for word FLATUK. Keep everything else untouched in the file.

In the language files you can put the description what is your module called (so of course put different descriptions for each of the different shipping methods).

I was trying long time ago ask help for this same matter and nobody answered me here, so I needed to find my way. This way above is the one I did then.

When you have carefully changed your info in a copied flatrate files, please upload them back to their correct directories and you will see them on your admin as a shipping option that can be activated there. You probably see some need for editing the language part again when you see how it appears for the customer in the shop and how it is in admin. Then you just update the proper language file for that.

I hope this answer helps you to get forward.

Elli

[Ajeh]

Note: flat is flatuk and FLAT is FLATUK ... these are case sensative replacements ...

[reopru]

Well, maybe here is the right place to ask a similar question.
The thing is - i plan to deliver the items in my shop using my own vehicle, so i made a list of Postal/Zip Codes and shipping costs (for example 334455 costs €6 to deliver, 445566 - €7 and so on). I tried to create separate shipping module, but i am having a problem to call up the client postal code, since they can change it anytime through the address book. Reading this topic here makes me think, that i may be able to do something similar to what this Chinese fellow did, only i need to use Postal instead of the country code. Any hints or ideas will be welcome and appreciated. I am kind of stuck on this one and given any hope. Thanks for your time!

[joshuayang]

thanks to ellivir, the post help me so long...

[reopru]

Could someone please give me a hint on my issue (well, not really an issue, but something i cant get over with). I am really running out of ideas, but i am sure someone out there might be able to help me? Please!

[Ajeh]

I thought someone made a recent post on setting up zones by zipcode ... or was that by county ... hmm ...

[joshuayang]

oops...
it's my first "denote" to the forum.
i have solved my problem by "Zone Rate" shipping module.
Zone Rate is a countries-shipping based module for shipping, just instal it in the admin interface, and configue it! you will get what i have done!

[reopru]

@joshuayang
Yes, i can see what you have done and it seems reasonable, but i cant think of a way to use it for determining the shipping cost based on the zipcode. This solution works for you, because you filter the clients by country, not by zipcode. I think it should be something similar, but while digging into the code i come to think that it isn't really that easy to achieve, as it is with your case.

@Ajeh
I've searched the entire forum, but honestly didn't find the post you mean, so i guess it must been one with a country based zones. As i said, i would be extremely grateful if you can give me a hint or point me to something similar that was already done. For my case it is really important to do such shipping table, because otherwise i must set a really high price on flat shipping that would scare most of my customers ;).

Thanks in advance for your help!

[reopru]

I searched also the archives and found the article about the MZMT mod and ... well it is bad news for me:

Originally posted by ewaite@Mar 20 2006, 12:32 AM
Is there a way to get the MZMT Module to look at the Postal Code?

No, "zones" in Zen cart only go as small as a state/province, and since the module uses Zen Cart's built in Zone functionality, that is all it supports.

So ... any ideas? I know this is one of the hardest parts in zen, but still it doesn't sound so crazy - pricing based on postal code.

/*
Just an idea. In my shop i don't take use of the country field, it is always the same country, i cannot deliver my products to a different country. So is there maybe a chance to take use of it? I mean something like that: if zipcode is in the range 80000-90000 use shipping rate for Italy, if zipcode is in the range 45000-50200 use shipping rate for Spain and so on. I know this is unusual, but it might just work, the only question i am asking myself is how to achieve this? And is it really reasonable or just crazy talk?
*/