AUSTPost module

[RodG]

Hehe RodG your posts humour me (not a bad thing!)

Regarding the question ""For 90 points out of a hundred, tell me what you think this setting does? (Maximum Package Weight you will ship)" I assume this setting is the maximum weight I will ship per customer.

Bummer. You score zilch. From the config option itself, it states
"Carriers have a max weight limit for a single package" . (not per customer).

I added 500 grams because I only use 500 gram satchels so basically whenever the customer adds more then 500 grams it has two or more boxes.

The theory seems sound, but what happens if any single item in your store weighs more than 500gm, if if the dimensions happen to be too large? You haven't left yourself any fallback method.

Also, by setting this as a global limit you are actually defeating all of the 'brain power' of the AP module itself, and you will probably be better off using a price per item shipping method (after all, that is effectively what you seem to be aiming for).

Nonetherless, this still has me curious in regards to explaining the results you are getting with the AP module.
I do believe you have stumbled across a rather unique set of configurations that allows things to 'fall through the gaps'.

When I disable everything else and leave Regular Parcel option ticked everything works wonderfuly it calculates ######## shipping correctly regardless of how many products I add so I am very happy. Regular Parcel works very well with my new settings and dimensions which I posted before.

So Regular Parcel setting works a charm wont bother trying to fix that Satchel option too much time spent on it already thanks again RodG it looks like I am out of your hair!

Please don't bow out on me now... There is a solution to this odd behaviour, but I/we need to work out the cause of it first.
I do this by typing out my thought processes in these replys. :-)

The fact that Regular parcels 'works a charm' eliminates a lot of possible causes.

What makes the difference between a regular parcel and a prepaid satchel (from the perspective of the AP module)?

Simple answer... weights and/or dimensions.

You have already indicated that the parcel dimensions are within the limits of a 500gm satchel, so that now only leaves one possible place left ... weights.

As mentioned in the Austpost docs (and elsewhere in these forums) Weight additions and calculations are not a function of the shipping modules.. they are performed by zencart itself (bear with me).

What the shipping module recieves to calculate on are the number of parcels and the weight of those parcels.

You have set your max shipping weight to 500gm (I still don't know the weight of your test product(s)), but if you happen to place a 500gm product in your cart, and you have zero tare weight, the zencart weight code would accept this as being within limits, and the shipping module will be asked to quote on 1 parcel weighing *exactly* 500gms. If you place a 1kg item in your shopping cart the zc code will honour your max weight limit and the shipping module will be asked to quote on 2 parcels weighing *exactly* 500gms each.

The AP module always errs on the side of caution, and will consider 500gm too close to the borderline to travel at 500gm or less rates, and will declare this product to be too heavy for the 500gm satchels. If no other suitable shipping methods are enabled you'll get the cant get a valid quote error message.

I'd assume that if you have the 3kg satchels enabled they *would* show up.

I'd also assume that if you drop your product weight and/or your maximum shipping weight to 499gm you'll find the satchels will then (probably) show up.

If your product weight was 499gm, and your tare weight was 1gm the satchels would not show up.

As you can see, I'm still making assumptions here (I still have no product weight data or URL to check or verify this)

I probably did you no favours earlier when I responded to your question in the way it was written, namely by tellling you how to do what your asked, rather than trying to find out what you was trying to do (or why you felt the need to do it).

On the other hand, you were explaining a whole lot of totally different problems back in the first message (regualr parcel quotes being way too high).

Seriously though, I do think that that nice round magic number '500' is probably the explanation to some of what you are seeing, and I do think you need to re-evaluate what you need or require in regards to shipping... If you really do only wish to allow prepaid satchels only, and with only one item per satchel then the cost per item shipping rates will be far more suitable to your needs... if for no other reason than it won't be dependent on other servers in order to provide quotes.

However, if you have a somewhat varied range of products and you are happy to combine shipping on any and all products in the shopping cart without having to worry about 'what will it fit into'
then the AustPost module is the way to go, but to get the most out of it you will need to give it the maximum flexibilty possible.. in other words you *will* allow parcels up to 20kgs to be acceptable (don't try to force everything into a 500gm bags)

You should only dissallow shipping methods that you explicitely do NOT want. Eg, COD.

Then all being well, no matter what products or how many items a customer places in the cart, the AP module will only show those options applicable to that *package*.

Lemme know if my current assumtptions and guesswork is on the right track, and PLEASE include a URL if not.

Cheers
Rod

[Snype]

I've no idea what you are trying to prove by entering test data ranging in values that make little sense in the real world (unless you are selling feathers), in which case you'll get better results by enabling the letter rates.

If you want to get any sense out of it, use sensible inputs.

Rhetorical question. If you are as experienced as you say you are, why the hell are you doing things the "pain staking way" when you would clearly know there are better solutions.

And finally, I have already deduced and told you why you are getting the quotes that you are getting based on the data you are providing.
Namely, your test item is being split up into three individual parcels, each costing $4.20 each.

You apparenlty already know how the AP module works, but I'll redresh your memory anyway... if packages are overweight they get split into multiple parcels before the AustPost module sees them. .
If the package is oversized then the Australia post module splits it into multiple parcels.
IOW, if you have a 20kg maximum, and an item weighing 54kg, based on the weight alone the AP module will be asked to quote on 3 parcels@ 18kgs each.
If those parcels turn out to be oversized, say 110cm, the AP module will again split them to produce 6 parcels, 9kgs each and 55cm long.

All of this assumes the package *can* be split.
IF you happen to have a single item in the cart that weighs 54kgs and is 110cm long it will still be quoted according to the above 'rules'
Needless to say you won't be able to actually post this item unless you do split it up, so it is really up to the store owner to ensure they don't enter data that can't possibly be delivered via AP.

Anyway, the bottom line still hasn't changed, your test data is pretty darn useless. THe result you are getting can, and has been explained, and they are perfectly legitimate and valid results for the data you are using.

In other words, there is NOTHING for you to fix. It is working perfectly.

GIGO

Rod

I understood what you were saying but could not understand
why it was being split. If it exceeded the max dimensions then it should be split but in the testing data the dimensions never changed, hence why would it be spillt the pacel up.

Well it ended up being the minimum shipping weight. It was set to 20. So anything over 20 weight units was be split. Hence why 20.5 was causing the next pricing bracket.

All fixed. Thank you very much for your help.

[RodG]

I understood what you were saying but could not understand why it was being split.

Even though I clearly stated "You apparently already know how the AP module works, but I'll refresh your memory anyway... if packages are overweight they get split into multiple parcels before the AustPost module sees them. ."

Well it ended up being the minimum shipping weight. It was set to 20.

I think you'll find it was the MAXIMUM shipping weight.
Oh, and if it was set to '20' it was because that was what *you* set it to. (The default is 50).

So anything over 20 weight units was be split. Hence why 20.5 was causing the next pricing bracket.

All fixed. Thank you very much for your help.

It could've been sorted weeks ago if you'd read any of the several other threads covering this exact same problem, or perhaps if you just took more time reading my replies rather than arguing with me about them. http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/images...s/smartass.gif

Cheers
Rod.

[BW2008]

Hi Rod,

May I know how does this $defitems variable works in your AusPost Improved 2.1.3 module? and what's the optimum value I should set it to?

Thanks.

[RodG]

Hi Rod,

May I know how does this $defitems variable works in your AusPost Improved 2.1.3 module? and what's the optimum value I should set it to?

Thanks.

You don't set $defitems to anything. The module is using this as a counter for the number of items in the shopping cart that *don't* have any explicit dimensions set. Used for calculating the cube of the parcel.

This method has proven to have a couple of shortcomings and the code has been totally reworked for the next release (hopefully avialable within a week).

Cheers
Rod

[tpeck]

I am almost there setting up the Austpost module. The prices shown by the Austpost server so far seem to work for me for every item except a particular "letter" size overseas. (It's actually a CD in a CD mailer - but I never say as much.)

Taking New Zealand as an example, here are the actual prices which apply - quoted by the Austpost website:

Destination Country: NEW ZEALAND
Location: Zone A
Letter Weight: Over 50g Up To 125g
Article Type: Letter

ECI Documents $33.80 2-3 work days
Air Mail $2.80 3-4 work days

The Product entries in Zencart show:

Product Weight: 0.055(kg)
Product Height (cm): 0.5
Product Length (cm): 20
Product Width (cm): 15

Currency is Australian (default)
The tare I use is 25% (taking it to almost 0.07kg)
No Handling Fees apply.

But Zencart gives the following:

ECI Documents: $33.80 (no problem here)
Letter: $5.10

Clearly, the Letter price above is incorrect. The weight, the dimensions, appear to be correct for the $2.80 website quote. The automatic quote is $2.30 more. Why?

I have searched all the forums for a possible solution, but I'm stumped.

[tpeck]

Sorry - I made a small error - a $1.00 Handling Fee IS being added, but that still makes a $1.30 error.

[RodG]

Sorry - I made a small error - a $1.00 Handling Fee IS being added, but that still makes a $1.30 error.

Try a different destination country, ie, USA or UK.

I think the difference is because because I have been a bit slack with my coding. Australia Post has several different overseas zones with different charges for each. This is no problem with parcels, because they are dynamically priced according to the correct zone, but the letter rates are effectively 'hard coded' so rather than create tables and checks for the 4 different letter sizes and 5 (?) different zones (20 variants all up) the code caculations are based on the letter size and the most expensive zone. (only 4 variants).

You are the first to report this discrepency. I actually expected to be told about it over a year ago when the letter rates were first indroduced, but since no one has I have assumed that the discrepency is pretty insignificant and no one has really been bothered about it, or, more than likely, there aren't that many Australian zencart users that sell letter sized items in their stores.

Anyway, if you can confirm my suspicions I'd greatly appreciate it (and also to ensure that there isn't another possible cause for your problem).

As to whether I'll get around to 'fixing' it... hard to say at this stage, it seems like it will be a lot of work (both coding and CPU usage), just to determine which postal zone any given country exists in. As far as I know this information isn't available in any electronically usable format.

Cheers
RodG

[tpeck]

Thanks for the info. I can help you here (I think) if you want to fix this.

To begin with, yes, regardless of the zone destination (UK, USA, Brazil, China etc.) the cost is - as you say - hard-wired to $4.10 (you know this, but it proves it is not some other problem!)

I don't know how many others would be sending a DVD or two OS in a standard CD mailer, but I would imagine it might be a few in the future.

Before I chanced upon your mod, I worked out all the country codes for the four Zones in the Austpost website. So, I can assist by supplying you with this info - here 'tis:

Zone A: NZ

Zone B: AF,AS,BD,BT,BN,KH,CN,CK,TP,FJ,PF,GU,HK,IN,ID,JP,KI,KP,KR,LA,MO,MY,MV,MH,FM,MM,NR ,NP,NC,NU,MP,PK,PW,PG,PH,PN,WS,SG,SB,LK,TW,TH,TK,TO,TV,VU,VN,WF

Zone C: BH,CA,KM,IR,IQ,IL,JO,KW,LB,MU,MX,OM,QA,RE,PM,SA,SY,AE,US,UM,YE

Zone D: AL,DZ,AO,AI,AG,AR,AM,AW,AC,AT,AZ,BS,BB,BY,BE,BZ,BJ,BM,BO,BA,BW,BR,IO,BG,BF,BI,CM ,CV,KY,CF,TD,CL,CO,CG,CD,CR,CI,HR,CU,CY,CZ,DK,DJ,DM,DO,EC,EG,SV,GQ,ER,EE,ET,FK,F I,FR,GF,GA,GM,GE,DE,GH,GI,GR,GL,GD,GP,GT,GN,GW,GY,HT,VA,HN,HU,IS,IE,IT,JM,KZ,KE, KG,LS,LR,LY,LI,LT,LU,MK,MG,MW,ML,MT,MQ,MR,MD,MN,ME,MS,MA,MZ,NA,NL,AN,NI,NE,NG,NO ,PA,PY,PE,PL,PT,PR,RO,RU,RW,KN,LC,VC,ST,SN,SP,SC,SL,SK,SI,SO,ZA,ES,SD,SR,SZ,SE,C H,TJ,TZ,TG,TT,TY,TN,TR,TM,TC,UG,UA,UK,UY,UZ,VE,VG,VI,ZM,ZW

Clearly, the last lot comes to more than 255 characters!

If you need any more hack work done - I'm willing.

Terry

[RodG]

Thanks for the info. I can help you here (I think) if you want to fix this.
Terry

##############. Now that you've done the hard yakka it would be rude if I didn't take advantage of it now wouldn't it. <grin>

Thanks again.
RodG (I've been somewhat bogged down for a few days).