Free shipping issue

Installed USPS module but server is not recognizing my website yet...

What version did you install?

Did you check the checkboxes for National and International shipping methods?

It was the most recent download available...USPS v15 Ratev4 2013_0127 R2013_0327

National...yes.

I did not check international because my dropshipper does not do shipping to overseas without first contacting them for shipping and handling.

Just so you know...

My flat rate prices (as well as the other shipping methods) are hard coded via html (in excel formulas) into my product pages and not imported into the Zencart MySQL tables.

The only shipping info that is imported directly into the Zencart db is the free shipping column (which contains 1's and 0's).

I know very little about MYSQL...simple updates to the database is about as complicated as I get. I know very little of db design, table linking, and such.

I have a gut feeling that I need to create a table or column in one of the existing tables that will link the 5 different methods of shipping rates to the SKU but I don't even know where to start.

For USPS, what happens if you get from the Plugin add ons the USPS for January 27, 2013 released on March 27, 2013:
http://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=1292

For UPS are you using the UPS add on:
http://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=1293

or the UPS XML add on:
http://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=126

You have a field that indicates what shipping to use on a Product, correct?

What happens when you have a Mixed Cart of Products that uses different shipping methods?

I have the UPS and USPS files you mentioned above. I have not messed with the XML version...it does not have dimensional support. Will it work with the stock UPS module?

USPS is still not connecting to their servers...I'm working with them on that and awaiting a reply. There website is not recognizing my website when I try to register my website with their servers.....

I have three shipping columns on my datafeed...SHIP_METHOD, SHIP_PRICE, and ALWAYS_FREE_SHIPPING. There is another column with shipping dimensions as well.

I ran a test order with 3 products, one free, one flat, and one ups. At the first level of checkout, 3 shipping estimates apprear (flat, free, and UPS). At the second level of checkout, 4 radio buttons (flat, free, UPS, and USPS) appear of which only one can be selected.

This ain't gonna work without some major changes to the shipping module.

Is there a way to make the cart process only one order at a time? It is not optimal but it is better than what I'm facing.

Recommendations?

Thanks.

The EP4 module has a method of adding fields to the datatbase. I'm going to play around with that tonight and see if I can add fields for FLAT_RATE_SHIPPING_COST and SHIPPING_METHOD. That should link the method and price with the SKU.

Once they are in the database, how would I go about making them display in the products set up page in admin and in the various pages used to display the product in the webpages?

I feel a custom shipping module coming on...LOL.

Successfully added the two MYSQL fields to the products table via EP4. I did a test upload with one product and checked the values in MYSQL. It appears to be importing the new columns correctly!

Did a test download as well to see if the new columns were included...unfortunately they are not.

Do I just need to add two new rows to the arrays where the other product attributes are listed in the easypopulate_4_export.php file?

IGNORE THIS ONE...THEY WERE DOWNLOADED....JUST NOT IN THE SAME COLUMN AS THE UPLOAD.

USPS is connecting to servers now and estimates are showing up at the first level of checkout!

So, what and where are the meat and potatoes files for making a custom shipping module that will distinguish between shipping methods and prices?

The game plan is to:

1. Modify the shipping php code for estimating shipping at the first level of checkout. I will also need to have it calculate the totals for each type of shipping (free, flat, ups, usps, fedex, call for shipping price) and separate those values into each category.

2. Turn off the php code that gives shoppers an option to select a shipping method at the second level of checkout and simply show the total shipping for each category of shipping.

Any suggestions on how to get started?

I will gladly share this with the community if I can get it working.

You have a lot of criteria in trying to determine your shipping ...

You might want to look into the Advanced Shipper on a google search and see if it can manage your shipping needs ...

Tried to check them out but their store/demo username and passwords are not working.

Is shipping includes/modules/estimator.php and checkout_process.php the files I would need to modify? Any admin files need to be changed?

Turned estimator off in admin and disabled radio selects for shipping choices in /templates/template_default/templates/tpl_checkout_shipping_default.php by commenting out this line (and putting the modified file in my CUSTOM folder:

WARNING - This stops the checkout process from proceeding...

Need a way to make the product prices go into the correct shipping category based upon the new columns added to the database.

Need a method to have all of the (now hidden) buttons selected if items in the cart falls into each of the 5 shipping methods available.

Suggestions anyone?

Ajeh, Is this going to disrupt any of the critical data needed to process the checkout process?

Where are these variables declared (so I can make sense of the coding)?
$i
$n1
$n2
$j
$quotes
$checked
or any others used in tpl_checkout_shipping_default.php

Is there a FAQ file that tells how the code used in zencart is structured? I could probably avoid asking you tons of questions if I new the ideology of how it all fits together.

Zen Cart does not allow for multiple shipping methods to be used at the same time ...

You would either need to prevent mixed orders of Products with different shipping methods or write your own checkout process that can compute multiple methods ...

That is why I suggested the CEON's Advanced Shipping to see if that might be a possible solution to this ... it is not a free add on, but it has been known to handle a lot of specific customization needs on shipping ...

mikeel100:

Ajeh, Is this going to disrupt any of the critical data needed to process the checkout process?

<!--MIKE?php echo zen_draw_radio_field('shipping', $quotes[$i]['id'] . '_' . $quotes[$i]['methods'][$j]['id'], $checked, 'id="ship-'.$quotes[$i]['id'] . '-' . str_replace(' ', '-', $quotes[$i]['methods'][$j]['id']) .'"'); ?MIKE-->

Turning that off is going to prevent the options from being selected ... they will still all show but nothing can now be selected ...

Editing the individual shipping modules can allow you to determine when they each should be enabled/disabled but you would have to have some type of criteria for the mixed carts with multiple shipping methods to determine which one should be used under what ever conditions you want to define for managing it ...

You could try making it that the order has to only contain like Products for shipping, but that would really tick off customers when trying to shop and finding that if they want to order 7 things and they are not in the same shipping method they would have to figure out how to build separate orders based on the Product shipping method ...

Okay, got some studying to do. I'll try not to post anymore here until I get a clear understanding of how the shipping module fits together. Would the Zencart book be of any value to me in taking on this nightmare?

Oh, I did check out Ceon's Advanced Shipping as much as I could. I couldn't get past the log in page with the username and password they said to use on their website. I wrote them back and told them about the issue.

I'm still keeping it in my hip pocket to look at.

Thanks for your help.

Not for something like this ...

There are numerous ways to customize shipping, however, you are trying to, more or less, do them all simultaneously and that does not work well ...

If you were able to do something like test if a UPS Product is in the cart so regardless UPS is used or if a USPS is in the cart it would force USPS to be used etc. then you have a test and a result that can allow for checkout ...

But what you appear to need is how much shipping is UPS and how much is USPS etc. and combine it ...

Now you are getting into fuzzy areas where you have to determine what the partial order quotes are for the shipping and then what part of the partial quotes to use when combined together ...

Again, the suggestion to look into CEON's Advanced Shipper to see if it allows for the mix of shipping that you are trying to do ... I do not use it, but have heard numerous people with bizzaro shipping needs have found solutions with it ...