Using Attributes to Narrow Available Shipping Destinations, Change Costs

Greetings, all,

First, let me say that if my questions have been addressed elsewhere and I simply haven't found them yet, if you'd just redirect me, I'll go off and read and hack away at this question until I understand how to do it myself (if at all possible).

Secondly, thanks in advance for any guidance or help.

Now, here's what I want to do. I've set up the inventory for an online science store - this is the online presence of a brick-and-mortar store located in Parkville, Missouri (HMS Beagle Online). One of the things sold by this store is chemicals (for hobbyist chemists, professionals, schools, et cetera). Some of these chemicals, while of course entirely legal, can be classified as hazardous materials, which means that they have to be specially packaged for shipping. We have hazardous materials shipping certification already, but, obviously, this need would in turn raise the shipping cost.

Additionally, two states have come up on our radar as potential problems for shipping of either chemicals or laboratory glassware (California and Texas) - due to the nature of state laws, we would prefer not to ship those materials into either of those states.

So here are the specifics:

1. we need to code specific chemicals as "hazardous", with a commensurate automatic increase in shipping. Our shipping module is working normally for UPS and USPS (the latter won't be an issue, they won't ship chemicals).

2. we need to code all items in the "chemicals" category with a warning message which, if a registered user is from California, will apologise for the inconvenience, but state that we cannot ship to California addresses at that time - this should appear both if they try to add something to their basket, and if they attempt to log in at checkout.

3. we need to achieve the same thing with all items in the "laboratory glassware" category, but this time for the state of Texas.

4. both (2) and (3) must be modifiable should we encounter difficulties in any other states.

And these conditions already exist:

1. all chemicals are already in the category defined as "chemicals"

2. all laboratory glassware is already in the category defined as "laboratory glassware"

3. the store is up and running, with zones and local taxes already defined.

So that's my - very specific - set of questions. Any guidance or pointers on the best way to approach this problem would be appreciated. Also, if there's another reference book that would help me out (apart from the ZC guide), I'd appreciate knowing that, as I really prefer to solve these problems myself - it's what I'm being paid for.

I've tried to be clear in my exposition, but if I've missed some vital data, please let me know that as well.

Many thanks in advance again for any help,
Bill

Perhaps this may help you and save you a heap of time and costs.

dev.ceon.net/web/zen-cart/advshipper

There is a demo of how this mod works as well - look at it. Yiou can configure shipping by product if necessaary, and by zip code, and a whole lot more besides!