Canada Post shipping module - how does it actually work?

[smokinjo]

I want to better understand how things actually work. I will say up front that while I have been looking to learn fro while on how ZC works, am just no looking shipping and payment parts of this.

How does this plug in work? What is the process that happens?

On the plug in, there is not much description.

The plug in sends what to Canada Post? Customer contact information, I presume?

How is the box size determined before sending it to Canada Post?

If I am talking about this backwards, please tell em that too.

I looked at Canada Post, but ZC is nto on the list, so I will ask in their forums if neeed, only after getting abetter understanding here.

Thanks

[DrByte]

Zen Cart takes the items in your shopping cart and looks at the product details you've configured for them -- particularly the weight (but the CP module also considers dimensions and ships-in-own-box setting). It uses that information to send a list of all the package weight/dimensions and number of boxes, to CP's SellOnline API servers along with the store's postal code and the customer's postal code. Then CP returns a list of rates it offers for shipping that combination of packages. No customer-identifying information is transmitted, nor the details of what's in any of the packages.
Those rates are then shown to the customer so they can choose what service and rate they're willing to pay for.

Then during checkout the customer's selected choice is stored with the order.

Then when you have packaged up the order and take it to CP you tell the person at the counter what Service the customer selected, and you pay CP to ship it.

There are a few smaller details in the background to how it calculates how many boxes, etc. Those can be found in our online documentation at docs.zen-cart.com
(Zen Cart does not do spacial box calculations to try to fit items into defined box sizes. Just weight. There are some 3rd party plugins that do dimensional stuff, but it's not a default feature.)

[smokinjo]

Dr Byte

Thanks for the reply. That explains it very well.

I have a related question:

I need a way to just pass the information needed to Canada post for them to be able to make a label.

Is that possible?

Thanks

[DrByte]

The CP shipping module prepares real-time shipping quotes for customers during checkout.
It doesn't do anything with labels and order-fulfillment.

There's a plugin (which I've not used) which claims to make it easy to export shipping data for use with CP's EST desktop application to print labels. I don't know if the desktop app still exists or not, nor whether it requires a contract with CP. https://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=833

Also, I've heard several merchants report that PayPal's shipping label feature is both affordable and easy to use. (Doesn't avoid the data-entry part though.)
Access it via https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now