Flat rate tied to item, UPS for the rest

[Hazmat]

Hi...

I'm looking to ship the majority of my products via UPS. No problem there, I have the UPS module setup and working correctly. The problem is I have some items I need to ship via freight which I setup using flat rate shipping. The problem is I'd like to only show that flat rate option on the items I need to ship bt freight. Can flat rate be tied to certain items? Or maybe by going over X amount of weight?

Thanks in advance..

[Ajeh]

You could customize the code for this ... but you need to consider what to do when 10 items are usually sent UPS and 1 item is for the special shipping ... how do you want to manage that?

[Hazmat]

The flat rate is setup for freight shipping so if one item qualifies, the 10 "regular" items could all be loaded on the pallet and shipped together..

How would I customize the code? is there a mod for this or maybe a walk through?

Thanks!

[Ajeh]

There isn't a mod for this ...

The idea is there has to be a flag or some type of indicator that can be tested for to know when the cart has any of these freight products in it ...

If 1 or more is present, then only the flat rate shows ... otherwise, use the standard UPS ...

Is there something that presently distinguishes these Products from all the others?

[Hazmat]

Weight could be one thing. Or maybe one whole catagory like "tires".. I wish there was a way to create product groups kind of like the zone definitions..

Thanks for the reply!

[Ajeh]

You could add a new field ...

Or use a large weight such as 5000 ... something where no combo of regular products can reach it ... so when the weight is >= 5000 or whatever amount you use ... it can be the trigger for which Shipping Module to use ...

Advantage of the 5000 products_weight is that you don't have to code in a new field you mearly have to test for it in the shipping modules to determin which is turned on/off ...

[Hazmat]

That's great and all, but I haven't the slightest clue how I'd go about coding that.. Would you happen to have any kind of examples to work off of?

Thanks again!

[Ajeh]

You can look at how the Free Shipping is managed via the function zen_get_shipping_enabled to test when and when not to allow a shipping module to display based on criteria for Free Shipping orders ...

For example, in the shipping module for Flat Rate flat you will see:
/includes/modules/shipping/flat.php

      // disable only when entire cart is free shipping
      if (zen_get_shipping_enabled($this->code)) {
        $this->enabled = ((MODULE_SHIPPING_FLAT_STATUS == 'True') ? true : false);
      } 

[Hazmat]

That's a good place to start.. Thanks!