[Old] Royal Mail Modules

[philip_clarke]

Zetland is the old name for Shetland some old timers use it.

[philip_clarke]

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 you a customer buys 2 x 0.75 Kg items then Zen Cart automatically calculates it to 1.5Kg + whatever extra weight you have for packaging materials. It then quotes the weight from the shipping modules and gives a range of delivery services depending on how you have set things up.

Go to google and type Convert 2 lbs to Kg and you'll find that Google has a convertor built in.

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.

ParcelForce goes up to 40Kg anything above that is well into having to calculate dimensions of shipped packages and takes Bulk into account, which ZC cannot do.

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 ?

Yes

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 ?

Yes, you need to set the charges but the rates are all correct until next year.

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.

This is one of the most accurate modules as long as you configure it correctly and has worked for over 3 years. The only thing you really need to do is put a % in that will correct the weight for your packing method and the handling charge. The rates are always spot on, as long as the weights of the item are correct then everything is transparent.

Philip.

[philip_clarke]

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)

I have had a very in depth look at whether it is possible to change the text of the shipping module to truncate it on different pages through the module. I would say "no", the easiest way is to alter the text itself is to edit the define pages under english the second easiest way to change the text is if you edit your zen cart template.

You specifically requested being able to put something like "shipping" on one specific area. The issue arising is that zen cart pulls the text from the module through in multiple places, the 3 checkout pages, the invoices, the packing slip, the order review page, the title of the module in the administration section, that adding a new "define" constant would mean recoding all 30 modules to know where exactly they are (including bits that you don't see like when your payment gateway tells the order is paid and the shipping module is then called to add the text to the final order) and then display one of either two constants is just too much work for very little benefit, when you could just alter the template tpl_checkout_success_default.php for example and just write the word "shipping" wherever you wanted it.

The other change that you could introduce is wrapping in the stylesheet for the pages you want to change so that the text is allowed to break up and not overflow, as well as truncated the text using ISF for international Signed For and using

<span title="International Signed For" style="color:blue">ISF</span>

in your define file so that if someone puts the mouse over the text it would display the full title.

I've tried to provide you with a variety of options that should make what you want to achieve easier.

Thanks

Philip.

[sadwargamer]

Hi Philip,

Just a quick question on your awesome mod - dos it support Royal Mail "Surface Mail" - as I simply cannot find this option.
If not is it likely to support in a future release?

Many thanks

Regards
Andy

[philip_clarke]

I finiished Surface Mail this weekend and will be working on surface mail international signed for today and possibly tomorrow. It will then be ready this week to download from my website and then whenever the ZC guys put it in the add-ins section.

Thank you
Philip.

[philip_clarke]

Hi Philip,

Just a quick question on your awesome mod - dos it support Royal Mail "Surface Mail" - as I simply cannot find this option.
If not is it likely to support in a future release?

Many thanks

Regards
Andy

The latest 2.3.8 release of the royal mail modules is here:

http://########################.co.uk/versions/b...ail_v2.3.8.zip

until it is added to the add-ins section above. The changes are as follows:

version 2.3.8
06/06/2009
Added Royal Mail Surface Mail and Royal Mail Surface Mail International Signed For Modules.
03/06/2009
Standard parcels (all 4 insurance versions) had a bug with the minimum weight for Guests using the shipping estimator so it would quote inappropriate rates and then when they logged in the rates would disappear.

With regards to the surface mail modules, as they are new, there is updated sql available to those that bought it recently or you can add the rates yourself from here:

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/c...3&catId=400037

Thank you
Philip.

[borobabe]

I have no idea what the problem is but I have upgraded to the latest version of this module as a customer from Brazil was not given the correct shipping options, and yet I still can't get it to work. Any ideas? All it is showing is my store pick up and table rate options which are UK only.

[borobabe]

Ok this is strange, I have added in airmail signed for options and they are working, why aren't airsure options working? It must be my error.

[philip_clarke]

Airsure may not deliver to Brazil, it is a limited service defined by the royal mail to only 28 countires that they really turst to be able to give them the feedback and the service times. e.g. They don't do airsure to Italy either.

International Signed for works to everywhere apart from Chad, I believe,

Philip.

[borobabe]

Well that would explain why it wasn't working, will have a closer look at it all. Thanks for the quick reply.