[Old] Royal Mail Modules

[sneakysnier]

Hi Philip,

Firstly thanks for ALL your work on modules/addons!

I've installed the New Royal Mail Modules and all seems fine....great work!

I was wondering if there was any way i could change the selected delivery method string that is displayed on the shopping cart page....?

I ask because if a customer selects 'Royal Mail Standard Parcels (to £500 insurance)' as a shipping method this results in a display in the 'totals' box as

Royal Mail Standard Parcels (to £500 insurance) (3 to 5 days. Delivery to United Kingdom : 4.000 kgs):

which is a little too long for the setup of my site...(it doesn't sit on the same line as the actual cost)
(see pic)


Is it possible for me to simply replace the long string with 'Shipping' or a shortened description?

Thank you
(Optionals installed)

[philip_clarke]

Yes you'll find in the folder includes/languages/english/modules/shipping a load of php files whose names correspond to the modules (which is displayed in Admin), in each one of those you can change the name and put whatever you want for the text, the weight is always added at the end though, just because it helps you work out if you are undercharging for postage when you add the packing materials.

Thank you
Philip.

[sneakysnier]

Thanks for the swift response Philip!

Yes you're obviously 100% correct in your reply....

Only snag is if i change the string to simply display 'Delivery' (with appended destination & weight) at checkout.... when the customer comes to select a delivery option the description of the delivery method has been also been changed to 'Delivery' (without any info of the delivery)...

Is there a workaround?

[sneakysnier]

Thanks for the swift response Philip!

Yes you're obviously 100% correct in your reply....

Only snag is if i change the string to simply display 'Delivery' (with appended destination & weight) at checkout.... when the customer comes to select a delivery option the description of the delivery method has been also been changed to 'Delivery' (without any info of the delivery)...

Is there a workaround?

Yes there is... well for me anyway lol.. just a case of choosing my words carefully...


Although just to have 'shipping' displayed at checkout would be cool

Thanks again Philip!

[philip_clarke]

There "could" be a workaround in that I could duplicate the contstant and display it differently in two different places, I'm due to release an airmail surface mail module this week so I may be able to jam in adding the constants and then changing each page. By with ragard to choosing your words, by default the picture in the checkout shows a Royal Mail Icon, so you could knock Royal Mail down to RM without too much confusion,

Thank you
Philip.

[sneakysnier]

There "could" be a workaround in that I could duplicate the contstant and display it differently in two different places, I'm due to release an airmail surface mail module this week so I may be able to jam in adding the constants and then changing each page. By with ragard to choosing your words, by default the picture in the checkout shows a Royal Mail Icon, so you could knock Royal Mail down to RM without too much confusion,

Thank you
Philip.

I certainly applaud your efforts to please Philip!

With regards to the Royal Mail Icon workaround.... the icon only appears in 'Step 1' of the checkout process and not beyond... so yes it would be quite clear to a customer on selection but (depending on choice of wording after the icon) might not be clear in Steps 2 & 3 ....

But that said... the icon is almost the same size as the words 'Royal Mail' .... so maybe no gain...?

[need_help]

Hi Phillip

I am hitting my head off the wall trying to do a new store for the UK for a friend and also have flexible postage options.

I installed your Royal Mail module and i know the SQL needs updating but a simple few questions first.

Zen Cart displays it's weights in lbs and the Royal Mail module displays in Kilograms. Will it calculate the weight using the lbs i supply when adding a product to the site or do i need to edit files to change the system so it works with Kilograms and if i need to change files which files and what do i change them to.

Obviously i would be most happy not to have to edit any files.

Secondly. I'm looking for a module which can handle all the variables without me having to scratch my head wondering what 3:8.50,7:10.50,99:20.00 means and how to change it to reflect my store weight and prices.

Once i upgrade the SQL does your store module do all the work for me with regards weights and the accurate price of postage on the checkout pages or do i need to mess around with the 3:8.50,7:10.50,99:20.00 part. I cannot get my head around that part or how it works or calculates things out.

Finally if items weigh more than the Royal Mail can accept how do i go about getting another module to work. Is this where parcelforce come into the equation and is there a separate parcelforce module to install ?

Your help appreciated and you have been very helpful in the past.

[philip_clarke]

The first thing to do with any ZC store that is going to be used in the UK is to go to this file

includes/languages/english.php

and change the TEXT_PRODUCT_WEIGHT_UNIT and TEXT_SHIPPING_WEIGHT from lbs to Kg and magically all the weights in the shop are now displayed in kilograms. So you do have to edit a file but it's not that bad.

Next in Admin go to Configuration > Shipping/Packaging and then Package Tare Small to Medium which you change to 10%:0 and Larger packages - added packaging percentage:weight which is changed to 8%:0. Now what this does is change the packing material weight from the default USA rate which is to add 3lbs (and would add 3Kg to a UK shop) to adding 10% and 8% weight, you may have to tune this later based on your goods, but it works for the majority of people.

The 3:8.50,7:10.50,99:20.00 that you quote, is the same type of thing for every postal modules. It's the same format for every rate which is

MAX_WEIGHT:PRICE,MAX_WEIGHT:PRICE,MAX_WEIGHT:PRICE,....

so in the above example you have everything weighing to 3 Kg costs £8.50 everything to 7 Kg costs £10.50 and everything to 99Kg costs £20.00.

Now the uk courier modules can come into effect for items larger that the royal mail will ship (which is 20Kg for Standard Parcels but a measly 2Kg for Airmail) but if you want to specify a maximum shipping weight, the you co back to configuration in Admin, click on shipping packaging and click o Enter the Maximum Package Weight you will ship and put in 20Kg. This is a bad title for the option because it means that if the weight is bigger than 20Kg, it will split the package into smaller boxes. It's not a perfect system as it's very much built into zencart so if you have an order that weighs 23 Kg, it will split the price into two 11.5 Kg packages. This is "okay" in the sense that you would not undercharge for shipping as 2x 11.5 Kg packages costs more than one 20Kg package and one 3 Kg box, but there are cases where objects cannot be split into 2 boxes and there is no facility inside zencart to do that.

If you want to ship more than 2Kg abroad then the best setting is to put the maximum shipping weight down to 2Kg and standard parcels will still give a quote as I've overridden the Zen cart settings and now I'm going to have a look and see which other modules I did the override for, because I've forgotten. That should at least answer some of your questions and you should have a working shop quoting for posting as soon as you've changed those settings

Philip.

[need_help]

The first thing to do with any ZC store that is going to be used in the UK is to go to this file

includes/languages/english.php

and change the TEXT_PRODUCT_WEIGHT_UNIT and TEXT_SHIPPING_WEIGHT from lbs to Kg and magically all the weights in the shop are now displayed in kilograms. So you do have to edit a file but it's not that bad.

Next in Admin go to Configuration > Shipping/Packaging and then Package Tare Small to Medium which you change to 10%:0 and Larger packages - added packaging percentage:weight which is changed to 8%:0. Now what this does is change the packing material weight from the default USA rate which is to add 3lbs (and would add 3Kg to a UK shop) to adding 10% and 8% weight, you may have to tune this later based on your goods, but it works for the majority of people.

The 3:8.50,7:10.50,99:20.00 that you quote, is the same type of thing for every postal modules. It's the same format for every rate which is

MAX_WEIGHTRICE,MAX_WEIGHTRICE,MAX_WEIGHTRICE,....

so in the above example you have everything weighing to 3 Kg costs £8.50 everything to 7 Kg costs £10.50 and everything to 99Kg costs £20.00.

Now the uk courier modules can come into effect for items larger that the royal mail will ship (which is 20Kg for Standard Parcels but a measly 2Kg for Airmail) but if you want to specify a maximum shipping weight, the you co back to configuration in Admin, click on shipping packaging and click o Enter the Maximum Package Weight you will ship and put in 20Kg. This is a bad title for the option because it means that if the weight is bigger than 20Kg, it will split the package into smaller boxes. It's not a perfect system as it's very much built into zencart so if you have an order that weighs 23 Kg, it will split the price into two 11.5 Kg packages. This is "okay" in the sense that you would not undercharge for shipping as 2x 11.5 Kg packages costs more than one 20Kg package and one 3 Kg box, but there are cases where objects cannot be split into 2 boxes and there is no facility inside zencart to do that.

If you want to ship more than 2Kg abroad then the best setting is to put the maximum shipping weight down to 2Kg and standard parcels will still give a quote as I've overridden the Zen cart settings and now I'm going to have a look and see which other modules I did the override for, because I've forgotten. That should at least answer some of your questions and you should have a working shop quoting for posting as soon as you've changed those settings

Philip.

Your explanation of what 3:8.50,7:10.50,99:20.00 does is most helpful.

I have edited the files and they do now show Kg. Thats great.

I assume if something weighs grams like 750 gram and 2 items are bought it can calculate that into kilograms and doesn't get confused. I would guess i do it as in 0.75Kg or 0.5Kg to get it right. I know thats wrong - Is there a good conline calculator for grams and kilograms ?

If i set the maximum package weight at 100Kg so it basically covers everything and have Parcelforce module installed then i assume Parcelforce takes over if i have the Royal Mail module set to switch off as in hide invalid shipping option ?

Obviously the 100Kg is just an example and it might be 30Kg.

This will be shipping within the UK including Republic of Ireland.

Incidentally i had the UK Counties file installed and added your counties optional file from the Parcelforce folder and some UK Zones are duplicated. Is it ok to remove these duplicate ones manually ?

The final question.

I have installed Royal Mail and Parcelforce modules and i know there is an SQL update. If i get the update will it have the correct prices for each weight so when a customer checks out as long as i have the correct weight listed for each item the module picks the correct shipping rate automatically ? So all i will have to configure will be the minimum and maximum order values and any handling charge ?

So if a customer orders two items and the shipping weight increases the checkout always shows the correct shipping method is what i really want so no money is lost on postage costs being calculated wrongly. I know that requires accurate weights for each product though.

I personally like the simplicity of the standard flat rate but my friend is going to be stocking so many variables with items weighing differently that this needs to have accurate postage costs at the checkout and i think your modules can do this.

At least i assume they can do it as long as i always have the weight of the item inserted into the product page correctly.

Your help appreciated.

[need_help]

I sorted the duplicate UK counties values.

Where is Zetland ?

Thought you might like to know about one spelling mistake with Lothian in the United Kingdom section of the file.

It wasn't a big deal but thought you would like to know about it anyways.