Shipping suddenly not charged for attributes adding weight

We have made a discovery that in the lasy few weeks, orders which include options having weight are no longer included in the final shipping cost calculation.

Interesting that weight itself is displayed correctly in order summary, shopping cart etc, but there is no shipping suddenly charged for any option with a weight attribute defined. Items themselves having weight continue to charge shipping normally, only NOT if the wieght is assigned to an attribute instead.

As far as we can tell looking back through the orders, this behavious started when we added a paid third party module to our zen cart (about to the day). I therefore logically suspect the module for this changed behaviour.

My question is, would anyone be aware of any other circumstances, configuration or SQL glitch which could cause option weights to suddenly be excluded from the shipping fee calculation?

Well, the source of the problem turned out not to be the module after all. The timing was coincidental.

It seems that the behaviour is limited to products when priced by attributes. Is this a known bug for 1.3.7?

udos:

We have made a discovery that in the lasy few weeks, orders which include options having weight are no longer included in the final shipping cost calculation.

Interesting that weight itself is displayed correctly in order summary, shopping cart etc, but there is no shipping suddenly charged for any option with a weight attribute defined. Items themselves having weight continue to charge shipping normally, only NOT if the wieght is assigned to an attribute instead.

As far as we can tell looking back through the orders, this behavious started when we added a paid third party module to our zen cart (about to the day). I therefore logically suspect the module for this changed behaviour.

My question is, would anyone be aware of any other circumstances, configuration or SQL glitch which could cause option weights to suddenly be excluded from the shipping fee calculation?

What shipping module?
What was the third party module ?

Does you chosen shipping module share any of the same files with the 3rd party module?

Do these files need to be patched?

Sorry, lots of questions, but all are important in order to give a useful answer.

Cheers
Rod

Hi RodG,

We already discovered that the third party module is not is causing this problem. The timing was a coincidence.

Actually the option weight itself is always showing correctly, it is simply not being included as part of shipping cost. The problem seems to be universal to product options weight instead of the (product weight itself always works - that's wierd), and only when that product is "priced by attributes" (If not, option weight works which is wierd too).

In other words:
Weight ascribed to a product option is showing but not being included in shippign calculation when and only when the parent product is "priced by attributes".

So the question really is: was this a known bug in 1.3.7? Is there an admin setting controlling this behaviour?

Also, which php file actually reminds Zen Cart to include weight from products which a priced by attributes in the shipping cost preview and OT pages?

udos:

So the question really is: was this a known bug in 1.3.7? Is there an admin setting controlling this behaviour?

Can't say without knowing what shipping module you are using. The shipping modules are just that .. 'modules' They are not a part of the core zencart code, so it can't by definition be a specific 'zencart' bug. If anything it'll be a compatibility bug between zen-cart.X.Y.Z and shipping module A.B.C

As for the 'admin setting' ... each shipping module has its own 'unique' set of admin settings, so again, it is impossible to give you an answer without knowing which of the 50+ different shipping modules you are referring too.

udos:

Also, which php file actually reminds Zen Cart to include weight from products which a priced by attributes in the shipping cost preview and OT pages?

This is performed by the shipping modules themselves (and not by zencart).

The zencart code emits a 'quote' request to each and all of the active shipping modules. It doesn't care how or where these modules derive their quotes from. The modules then send the quotes and method_names back to the zencart code, where it is added/included into the payment module processing.

The only caveat is that when zencart 'asks' for shipping costs it sends the parcels' weight and number of parcels to the shipping module(s) as a part of the request. Most modules will use this data 'as given', but other shipping modules
(eg: ozpost) ignores these and will calculate the weights (and possibly the dimensions) itself, so as you can imagine, there is no definitive answer to your question without knowing which shipping module you are using, and even then, it is only the author of that particular module that will be able to give an authorative response.

Cheers
Rod

Thanks for the insight into the backend, no wonder difficult to follow in code :)

I am indeed using:
AusPOST Parcel Post auspost
AusPOST International Parcel Post - AIR auspostair
AusPOST International Parcel Post - Economy ausposteconomy
AusPOST Express Post Parcel auspostexpress
AusPOST International Parcel Post - SEA

I installed last year. Perhaps theer are newer versions that still support 1.3.7?

udos:

Thanks for the insight into the backend, no wonder difficult to follow in code :)

I am indeed using:
AusPOST Parcel Post auspost
AusPOST International Parcel Post - AIR auspostair
AusPOST International Parcel Post - Economy ausposteconomy
AusPOST Express Post Parcel auspostexpress
AusPOST International Parcel Post - SEA

I installed last year. Perhaps theer are newer versions that still support 1.3.7?

Heck, those modules haven't been updated since 2006.

I created a single module that replaced all of those modules back in Feb 2007 (AustPost - Improved) but even this module has now been superceded by an even newer module "ozpost", released in Feb this year (2009)

Both of the above modules will work with zencart 1.3.7, but the 'ozpost' module requires that your server be using PHP5

The question now is whether either of these modules will solve your problem of weights being assigned to an attribute.

The AustPost Improved module was using the weights supplied by zencart itself, and I'm really not sure if the weights by attributes were included in the figures or not.

The ozpost module has its own Weight/Dimension calculation code, derived from the items in the cart itself, again, I don't know if the weights by attributes are included in the item weights in the cart or not.

I think the best thing to do would be to install them and see how they go.

All modules (AusPost *, AustPost - Improved, and 'ozpost' are able to be installed (and even active) at the same time, which means you can try them all with little or no downtime of your store, just enable/disable them as deemed necessary.

Cheers
Rod

Thanks RodG,

Using PHP 4. OK, just installed Auspost improved, have to admit the format is greatly improved. But still does not include weight assigned to options if parent product is priced by attributes.

Again strange is that the weights themselves always display correctly. I am mystified by this seemingly arbitrary distinction.

NOTE: Adding multiple same "price by attributes with weight on option" products doesn't help, BUT if I add any other type of product to the cart that ISN'T "priced by attributes, some having weight" (i.e. fixed price, or having weight attribute directly "hard coded" to product itself instead of to an option) then ALL weight gets included correctly - even the weight of those mysteriously acting products not included before.

udos:

Thanks RodG,

Using PHP 4. OK, just installed Auspost improved,
.

OK, as long as you are aware that this module is no longer being supported, and some of the 'fixed price' costs are already out of date.

udos:

have to admit the format is greatly improved. But still does not include weight assigned to options if parent product is priced by attributes.
.

In that case I can only assume that it never did.

"There really isn't a simple test for what attributes are in the shopping cart ..." (Ajeh - July 24 2009)

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showpost.php?p=759332&postcount=5

udos:

Again strange is that the weights themselves always display correctly. I am mystified by this seemingly arbitrary distinction.

Text display is one thing, data values are another.

For example, by default, zencart will display all shipping weights as 'Lbs', - That is simply 'text'. If you enter a weight for an item, such as '25' , the display will show '25 lbs' but the shipping calculation will be based on either 25grams or 25Kgs (depending on the gms/kgs setting in the AustPost/ozpost modules)

I've never looked into the weights by attributes, but this may or may not be a 'text only' display and as such it doesn't actually change the already defined products weight. I could be wrong on this, but if it did change the actual products weight then that is what the shipping weight will also be calculated on.

udos:

NOTE: Adding multiple same "price by attributes with weight on option" products doesn't help, BUT if I add any other type of product to the cart that ISN'T "priced by attributes, some having weight" (i.e. fixed price, or having weight attribute directly "hard coded" to product itself instead of to an option) then ALL weight gets included correctly - even the weight of those mysteriously acting products not included before.

Sorry, but this one is really outside my realm of expertise. It could well end up as being something I'll need to look into for 'ozpost' (because it has its own weight addition code), but with the AustPost module which gets and uses the same data as most other shipping modules the issue really needs to be looked into by whichever developer is responsible for the weight by attributes code.

Perhaps one of the zencart developers will read this thread and offer a better insight in regards to the situation.

Cheers
Rod

Hmmmm....

So does anyway have an idea what changes, if any need to be made to this shipping module?