AUSTPost module

RodG:

Nah. The only 'pains' are those that ask questions and promply ignore (or worse, argue) with the answers.

The code relating to the image display (in the AustPost module) is/was badly thought out and poorly designed. (fortunately nothing that can't be tolerated).

An upgrade to fix this issue was planned for several months ago, but due to a failed RAID controller I lost a lot of code that needs to be reconstructed. I'm hoping I'll be back on track with it over the Xmas break.

Unfortunately, these characters are generated/inserted from various places in the zencart core code, so the only way to get rid of them is to use a find 'n' delete in any code where they are being produced. There's probably only a couple of places and files that need to be changed for this, but because they aren't part of the AustPost module (or its required files) it isn't something I've done myself. I've learned to live with them.

Cheers
Rod

Ok fair enough! Sorry to hear about the lost coding!

What is the broken link suppose to be in the invoices etc?

gee38l:

Well i thought it was my internet connection but it seems its not.

How regular do the intermittent connections occur?

Are there any other symptoms? examples: your paypal module (if enabled) exhibit similar problems, which may or may not occur at the same time, or perhaps the rest of the site seems to slow down at the same time. Intermittent problems are one of the most difficult faults to diagnose, and it is way to early to place 'blame' on anyone or anything yet.

gee38l:

Is there maybe some settings i need to change

Maybe, maybe not. The fact that it works at all is a very good sign that your have everything correctly set. Generally speaking, if your settings aren't correct the problem would be permanent rather than intermittent.

gee38l:

my hosting is net logistics.. they seem to be pretty good and have heard nothing but positive feedback. I received several orders today and have received no complaints.. so for now im going to assume its ok.

A reasonable assumption.

Anyway, if you do have any other clues or symptoms, please get back to me.
If you want me to check it out, send me the store URL.

Cheers
Rod

RodG:

How regular do the intermittent connections occur?

Are there any other symptoms? examples: your paypal module (if enabled) exhibit similar problems, which may or may not occur at the same time, or perhaps the rest of the site seems to slow down at the same time. Intermittent problems are one of the most difficult faults to diagnose, and it is way to early to place 'blame' on anyone or anything yet.

Maybe, maybe not. The fact that it works at all is a very good sign that your have everything correctly set. Generally speaking, if your settings aren't correct the problem would be permanent rather than intermittent.

A reasonable assumption.

Anyway, if you do have any other clues or symptoms, please get back to me.
If you want me to check it out, send me the store URL.

Cheers
Rod

If you wouldnt mind checking it out my store is https://www.truwater.com.au

gee38l:

What is the broken link suppose to be in the invoices etc?

I don't know. Mines not broken ;-)

Is it a missing image? If so, you'll probably need to copy whatever image it is that is missing from wherever it resides in the store file system and make a duplicate of it in the identical place under /admin
On a *nix based system a symlink will also work.

Cheers
Rod

RodG:

I don't know. Mines not broken ;-)

Is it a missing image? If so, you'll probably need to copy whatever image it is that is missing from wherever it resides in the store file system and make a duplicate of it in the identical place under /admin
On a *nix based system a symlink will also work.

Cheers
Rod

well i dont know because when i right click and get properties there is nothing there im assuming its the estimated days delivery?

gee38l:

well i dont know because when i right click and get properties there is nothing there im assuming its the estimated days delivery?

No, it wouldn't be that, because that's obtained at the same time as the quotes. Besides, any data that is provided on the invoicing page (not sure about the etc pages <grin>) comes from the database where it was stored when the transaction was made.

Cheers
Rod

ps. I've been checking you site for the last 10mins or so. no sign of any problem. Does it only occur at certain times of the day, or certain products? More clues needed.

RodG:

No, it wouldn't be that, because that's obtained at the same time as the quotes. Besides, any data that is provided on the invoicing page (not sure about the etc pages <grin>) comes from the database where it was stored when the transaction was made.

Cheers
Rod

ps. I've been checking you site for the last 10mins or so. no sign of any problem. Does it only occur at certain times of the day, or certain products? More clues needed.

Well i have no idea what it is!

Try this product... http://www.truwater.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_25&products_id=65

Like i said before the shipping estimator seems to work all the time its when you log in add something to cart go to checkout, there is an error dislayed next to shipping but if you scroll down all the shipping options are there

RodG, How can i remove the estimated delivery so only the type of postage is diplayed?

gee38l:

Well i have no idea what it is!

Try this product... http://www.truwater.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_25&products_id=65

Like i said before the shipping estimator seems to work all the time its when you log in add something to cart go to checkout, there is an error dislayed next to shipping but if you scroll down all the shipping options are there

I've done as you instructed. No problem. I added other products, I deleted products, heck, I even set up multiple addresses and switched between the two. No sign of any problem.

Unless you can find a reliable way for me to duplicate the issue then I'm afraid I can't be of much help.

Oh, I did have one issue, but not sure if its related. I took the checkout process through to the payments selection, chose paypal, and received this error:

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, [email protected] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

I've never seen PayPal suffer an internal server error before.

The fot plickens

Cheers
Rod

ps. I'm "John Smith" in your store.

gee38l:

RodG, How can i remove the estimated delivery so only the type of postage is diplayed?

You'll need to edit the code (austpost.php).

Cheers
Rod

RodG:

I've done as you instructed. No problem. I added other products, I deleted products, heck, I even set up multiple addresses and switched between the two. No sign of any problem.

Unless you can find a reliable way for me to duplicate the issue then I'm afraid I can't be of much help.

Oh, I did have one issue, but not sure if its related. I took the checkout process through to the payments selection, chose paypal, and received this error:

---

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, [email protected] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

I've never seen PayPal suffer an internal server error before.

The fot plickens

Cheers
Rod

ps. I'm "John Smith" in your store.

Thanks for testing! The only way i can think of replicating the problem is to change one of your delivery addresses to postcode 2075 NSW and see if you can get the error to occur.

Just tested paypal and i got straight through to paypal payment page.... So im not sure why you got an error :S

RodG:

You'll need to edit the code (austpost.php).

Cheers
Rod

sorry but im really scared of editing this mod i really dont want to break something can you tell me the places i would need to edit in the file?

gee38l:

Thanks for testing! The only way i can think of replicating the problem is to change one of your delivery addresses to postcode 2075 NSW and see if you can get the error to occur.

Still no problem.

gee38l:

Just tested paypal and i got straight through to paypal payment page.... So im not sure why you got an error :S

Worked ok for me the second time. As I said, I wonder if the problems are somehow related. Just a little more evident with the shipping estimator because that gets used a lot more?

The paypal and austpost modules share something in common, in that they both need to go 'off site' to obtain data (very few other modules need to do this) so there may be a connection.

Cheers
Rod

RodG:

Still no problem.

Worked ok for me the second time. As I said, I wonder if the problems are somehow related. Just a little more evident with the shipping estimator because that gets used a lot more?

The paypal and austpost modules share something in common, in that they both need to go 'off site' to obtain data (very few other modules need to do this) so there may be a connection.

Cheers
Rod

Im stumped! I guess if i turn off paypal and try an recreate the error again

gee38l:

Im stumped! I guess if i turn off paypal and try an recreate the error again

That won't help. All we are (were) trying to do here is identity the cause of the problem. This means that we need to identify or correlate the symptoms. Turning things off to hide the symptoms only makes diagnosis more difficult (in this instance).

To summarise, the problem you are experiencing can be caused by a problem in on of three places.

Your server.
The quotation server
The connectivity between your server and the quotation server.

Before even looking for a fix we need to discover which of these is causing the problem, and to do this we need to evaluate what little we have in the way of clues.

I haven't seen the problem. You and your customers apparently see it quite often. What are the differences? There has to be something, different because that is the way computers work.

Cheers
Rod

gee38l:

sorry but im really scared of editing this mod i really dont want to break something can you tell me the places i would need to edit in the file?

Even if I could tell you I doubt it'll do you much good because you'll still need to edit the file(s).

As for breaking things... Well, thats why you should make a backup before doing any edits. If you break something then you simply restore and start again.

Even the most experienced programmers will break things during development. It's the only way to prevent problems before other people find them. :-)

Cheers
Rod

RodG:

That won't help. All we are (were) trying to do here is identity the cause of the problem. This means that we need to identify or correlate the symptoms. Turning things off to hide the symptoms only makes diagnosis more difficult (in this instance).

To summarise, the problem you are experiencing can be caused by a problem in on of three places.

Your server.
The quotation server
The connectivity between your server and the quotation server.

Before even looking for a fix we need to discover which of these is causing the problem, and to do this we need to evaluate what little we have in the way of clues.

I haven't seen the problem. You and your customers apparently see it quite often. What are the differences? There has to be something, different because that is the way computers work.

Cheers
Rod

Well thanks for your help with this one.... I have had a few new customer order stuff and no complaints... I have just tested for the last 20 minsutes and i cant reproduce the error. very very odd. But overall im happy with the mod and confident it will work!

The only thing left that is really bothering me is the broken link and/or pic in my invoices :S You reffered prevously to the database... im pretty clueless with this stuff and im still trying to learn.... Could it be the sql input from the austpost module? Might need to be re done?

gee38l:

Well thanks for your help with this one.... I have had a few new customer order stuff and no complaints... I have just tested for the last 20 minsutes and i cant reproduce the error. very very odd. But overall im happy with the mod and confident it will work!

I'm still guessing that the users that are experiencing the problem have something amiss with their address details. eg, postcode missing.

gee38l:

The only thing left that is really bothering me is the broken link and/or pic in my invoices :S You reffered prevously to the database... im pretty clueless with this stuff and im still trying to learn.... Could it be the sql input from the austpost module? Might need to be re done?

There IS a known problem whereby the URL for one of the icons can be too large to store in the database field, and this MAY be your problem, but without knowing which of the many links is actually broken this is nothing more than speculation.

Having said that, if you locate the file /includes/languages/english/modules/shipping/austpost.php you'll see that the definition for the module title contains an image link. If you remove this link and see if the problem goes away or not you'll have your answer.
However, please note that this will only affect any new invoices. Existing invoices will still have the possibly overlong text string.

An alternative solution (if this is your problem) is to increase the size of the relevent data field in the database, again, this will only affect newly entered data, and I don't really recommend this is a solution (because the code causing the issue will eventually be rewritten).

Cheers
Rod

ps. the autpost.php file mentioned above is a very simple file to edit. It doesn't have any actual 'code', it only contains the various text strings used by the module. (another reason why the image link is misplaced).

Hi

I've installed the module and it looks great. Just a few questions (I've searched and can't find similar).

I plan to use the parcel post (500g and 3kg) and the express post (500g and 3 kg). As you can register both prepaid parcel post and prepaid express post I was wondering if there is an option somewhere to be able to choose all of the following:

Parcel Post 500g
Registered Parcel Post 500g
Parcel Post 3kg
Registered Parcel Post 3kg
Express Post 500g
Registered Express Post 500g
Express Post 3kg
Registered Express Post 3kg

I've tried using the registered parcel option but it seems to calculate the item as a parcel only and not using the prepaid satchel.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated ;)

Megan

Has anyone managed to solve the problem of domestic quotes working okay and all international ones not working?

Have checked the weights and ensured international address and postcode are valid but international estimates always fail with all domestic ones work perfectly.

Interionational quotes are returning:
ERROR:Unable to obtain a valid quote from the Australia Post Server.
You may still checkout using this method and we will contact you

Using zen cart 1.37 and latest Australia Post module (3.02). Fails with previous version of module too (3.01).