[Old] Royal Mail Modules

A point of interest here, the new codes add:

+--------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+-------------------+
| countries_id | countries_name                | countries_iso_code_2 | countries_iso_code_3 | address_format_id |
+--------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+-------------------+
|           80 | Georgia                       | GE                   | GEO                  |                 1 |
|          115 | Kyrgyzstan                    | KG                   | KGZ                  |                 1 |
|          150 | Netherlands                   | NL                   | NLD                  |                 1 |
|          160 | Norway                        | NO                   | NOR                  |                 1 |
|          175 | Romania                       | RO                   | ROM                  |                 1 |
|          228 | Vatican City State (Holy See) | VA                   | VAT                  |                 1 |
+--------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+-------------------+

So you spotted Norway correctly, but it's a bit of a surprise that no-one's mentioned the Netherlands has been missing from Europe. It appears that the Netherlands and Norway both appear in international signed for and airsure already.

International signed for will get the same treatment, I "think", but airsure has strict country limitations and so will not be changed for the same "IF in europe" process.

Philip

Further Investigation reveals that over the last 3 years the royal mail has added to it's airsure service:

You can send mail by Airsure® to 30 destinations in the following three geographic postal zones:

Europe: Andorra, Austria, Azores, Balearic Islands, Belgium, Canary Islands, Corsica, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Madeira, Monaco, Netherlands, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

World Zones: Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand and USA

So I'll add the new countries to the list. It's interesting to see that Italy still has not made it to the list. When I was running a shop which eventually sent out items to 48 countries at 20 items a day, Italy lost more packages than any other country with the USA and Australia coming second and third, where the packets were either delyaed massively or damaged in transit. With the USA in particular, it happened very suddenly as if new regulations came into force and was about the time of all the new patriot laws.

The lateste version 2.3.2 has been released.

http://exploitingit.co.uk/versions/big_royalmail_v2.3.2.zip

Upgrade for 2.3.2

VERY IMPORTANT - please physially remove the files big royal mail will not work if these are present on the system.

includes/languages/english/modules/shipping/international_datapost.php
includes/languages/english/modules/shipping/international_standard.php
includes/languages/english/modules/shipping/eurozone_48.php
includes/modules/shipping/international_datapost.php
includes/modules/shipping/international_standard.php
includes/modules/shipping/eurozone_48.php

version 2.3.2
15/03/2009 - All airmail countries have been altered to move from Royal Mail's 2006 definitions to 2009. Airsure countries have been corrected, The code base for Airmail and International Signed has been altered to create a cleaner more accurate code, reflecting the Royal Mail's change from Europe, World Zone 1 & World Zone 2, to Europe & the Rest of the World.
12/03/2009 - International Datapost, International Standard and Eurozone 48 all have to be upgraded because or a bug in the filename and bigroyal mail will not work unless the old files are removed before installing this release. See INSTALL.txt for the files to remove.

Please note, Norway has been removed from Airsure deliverys now although the list has expanded, and the correct countries from the royal mail website here:

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?mediaId=22700571&catId=400034#13300225

have been added.

The SQL updates for the Royal Mail postage rates from 6th April 2009 are now available. The following services are covered.

• Royal Mail 1st Class Letter
• Royal Mail 1st Class Large Letter
• Royal Mail 1st Class Packet
• Royal Mail Recorded Signed For 1st Class Letter
• Royal Mail Recorded Signed For 1st Class Large Letter
• Royal Mail Recorded Signed For 1st Class Packet
• Royal Mail 2nd Class Letter
• Royal Mail 2nd Class Large Letter
• Royal Mail 2nd Class Packet
• Royal Mail Recorded Signed For 2nd Class Letter
• Royal Mail Recorded Signed For 2nd Class Large Letter
• Royal Mail Recorded Signed For 2nd Class Packet
• Royal Mail Standard Parcels
• Royal Mail Standard Parcels £100 insurance
• Royal Mail Standard Parcels £250 insurance
• Special Delivery
• Special Delivery 9am
• Special Delivery £1000 insurance
• Special Delivery 9am £2500 insurance
• Special Delivery £2500 insurance and Special Delivery 9am £2500 insurance

and European and World Wide Rates for

• Royal Mail Airmail Small Packets
• Royal Mail International Signed For Small Packets
• Royal Mail Airmail Airsure Small Packets
• Royal Mail International Signed For Small Packets up to £500 insurance
• Royal Mail Airmail Airsure Small Packets up to £500 insurance

Hi, im new to using zen cart and have the most up to date version, i have installed Big Royal Mail but when making a test purchase i get the following msg on the first class, second class large letter options - "this shipping rate could not be determined at this time" plus on the packet option it is calculating my product weight at a much higher weight than it acually is. what do i need to do to get Big Royal Mail working properly?

Big royal mail is working properly, but your shop is mis-configured (a subtle yet important difference). The most likely cause is that your shop is adding weight to your items. In Zen cart's Admin click on configuration > shipping packaging and you'll find out how ZC is adding weight to your packages. Because ZC is American/ Canadian based and they use pounds, on new shops they add 3lbs to the shipping weight, whereas the royal mail works in kilos so adding 3 Kg exceeds the royal mail's weight criteria. The settings I recommend are

Package Tare Small to Medium - added percentage:weight should be set 10%:0 which will add 10% to the weight of your items for small objects and Larger packages - added packaging percentage:weight should be set to 8%:0 which will add 8% weight to larger items.

Ignore that ZC says lbs in the boxes, as the unit is irrelevant the royal mail is in kilos, the "lbs" is justa bit of text stuck on the end and can be changed by editing

admin/includes/languages/english.php
and
includes/languages/english.php

where you change TEXT_PRODUCT_WEIGHT_UNIT and TEXT_PRODUCT_WEIGHT_UNIT and TEXT_SHIPPING_WEIGHT to kilos so that it shows the correct text in your shop.

Philip.

Hi Philip,

I have just upgraded to V2.3.2 -- Thank you for the time and work, you are spending on this module.

I have noticed that the cost of 1st class packet and 1st class packet recorded are the same price, have I forgot to do or add something here?

Were do we get the SQL file with the new postal prices?

Thanks

Tropheus

I'll check the zip file through this evening in case I've made an error.

Philip.

Tropheus:

Hi Philip,

I have just upgraded to V2.3.2 -- Thank you for the time and work, you are spending on this module.

I have noticed that the cost of 1st class packet and 1st class packet recorded are the same price.

I've had a look and the prices are different for both services by 72 pence, when you installed did you click on each one and "remove" and then "install" ? the handling fees are maintained and are not overwritten. I've checked the zip file and then also run the file through on a new site. In the "old" way the prices were the same and then the signed for had a bit of hard coding that incremented the amounts by 0.72 or whatever it was at the time, but that was removed because it made the prices much more difficult to update, so I suspect that you are seeing old date through the new modules, and need to hit remove and then install,

Philip.

If when installing a module from version 2.3 and above you get an error similar to the following:

1062 Duplicate entry 'MODULE_SHIPPING_RM1STLARGELETTERSF_HIDE_SHIPPING_ERRORS' for key 2
in:
[insert into zen_configuration (configuration_title, configuration_key, configuration_value, configuration_description, configuration_group_id, sort_order, set_function, date_added) VALUES ('Hide Invalid Shipping', 'MODULE_SHIPPING_RM1STLARGELETTERSF_HIDE_SHIPPING_ERRORS', 'False', 'Hide this shipping service if it is not valid (either due to exceeding the maximum weight or the min & max order values).', '6', '0', 'zen_cfg_select_option(array(\'True\', \'False\'), ', now())]

then click back, click "remove" onn the module (as it will only be half installed) and then click "install" again.

What is happening, is that the previous modules did not uninstall cleanly and so left information in the database and inserting new information fails BUT un-installing and then re-installing works as the new modules correctly clean the database up.

I am currently working on a "blank" set of royal mail modules that will nisert the bar minimum into the database for people that have modified their own installations or have had the SQl patch installed and do not want to overwrite their data. It should be finished over the next couple of days.

Philip.

Hi Guys
I am having installation problems, check out this link below, everything went into each folder fine and the sql enterted fine but i have errors any ideas how to put right cos that looks a mess?:

https://www.canvas-style-art.co.uk/index.php?main_page=login

Cheers
Egg

Hi,

Yep that's a mess.

Which SQL did you put in ? because there is no need with a standard installation to put any in at all, and it looks like you may have put the uninstall sql in and then killed the constants in your database.

I think you should PM me or email me, quickly and we'll try and sort it out, as I'm free now but tied up later.

Philip. (the creator or the modules)

Hi Philip,

Would just like to thank you Philip for installing the postal updates for me on my websites, its saved me hours of work!

Cheers and keep up the good work.

And I would like to say that him up there ^^Tropheus^^ is the first ever person in 10,000+ downloads to have donated any funds to the modules and it was a pleasure to have installed the updates.

A new update will be available this weekend, it's going well and one of the "cool new features" is something that should have been done years ago by myself, namely putting the version numbers in admin so that people can see if they are up to date. There's also a new module, ukcourier that is a very simple courier module for those that don't want to set up zones and have fixed price/ weights. Under the hood all modules will try and clean up any of the erroneous data left from previous installations, and the legacy code is going to be removed since that last "bug" was due to someone installing and then running the legacy SQL without reading the instructions which then wiped the database or the royal mail values.

Philip.

Probably not the best time to ask, but if you dont ask you dont get !

On Next Day Special Deliveries that are booked late Thursday and On Fridays I would like to be able to collect the £2 that the Royal Mail charge for Saturday deliveries.

Also have a secondary issue in that I offer 1st, 2nd class and Standard Parcels options. Customers keep choosing standard parcels for lightweight items even though the cost is double and takes twice as long for delivery. I send parcel 1st Class instead, but because I offer Nochex which doesnt give partial refunds, I have to keep writing out cheques to refund the postage and put them in with their order.
Is there anyway that Standard Delivery could not be shown if its more expensive than 1st or 2nd class.

I assume the sentence:

Is there anyway that Standard Delivery could not be shown if its more expensive than 1st or 2nd class.

should be

Is there anyway that Standard Parcels could not be shown if its more expensive than 1st or 2nd class.

The answer would be "no", the modules are independent of one another so standard parcels cannot tell if first is going to be more expensive, the only way to get close to it, its to "nobble" (technical term that) your modules, and work out at which weight 1st class become more expensive and then remove all the weights afterwards and turn on hide invalid shipping, that would at least remove any 1st class options that were more expensive than standard parcels which is the opposite to the specified problem.

The issue with standard parcels is that it's banding goes from 0 to 2 kg. In theory I could put in some could to specify a lower weight limit which seems sensible as we have lower and higher price limits so we could have 1st class quoted to 1.5 Kg (by nobbling) and standard parcels quoted above that weight by setting a minimum limit in admin. Since I am working on the modules for most of this weekend, I shall see which is the best way to implement this (if possible).

With regards to the saturday module, it is possible, but it would run concurrently to all the special delivery modules because someone in an office address may wish to order an item to arrive at their workplace on Monday, whereas someone else may want something delivered at home. The postal modules have no facility to add a supplement with a tick box in the current set up which is a pity as it means duplicating the modules. I would say that Thursday 5:30pm to Friday 4:30pm would be the only time it should initiate as that is after the post office would be closed for taking orders leaving the ordering window as large as possible, although it may be possible to set a time in the module. BUT this is dependent on the server time being correct which is something beyond my control.

Philip.

Hi Phillip
Thanyou for all your hard work and support here fella!!

I've just installed the 2-3-2 version.. I am just useing the Royalmail 1st and 2nd class signed for modules and the special delivery next day modules..

So far all I'm getting from the checkout screen is (The shipping rate cannot be determined at this time) For all 3 of these modules.

http://harwichhomebrew.com/

Is there something I still must do.. :dontgetit

Thanks in advance for your help..

Steve..

Things to do:

• Check your shopping cart is under £32.00 as there is a maximum order value for both of those modules.
• go to Admin > Configuration > shipping/ packaging you should have Package Tare Small to Medium - added percentage:weight set to 10%:0 and Larger packages - added packaging percentage:weight set to 8%:0
• check that your weight are correct in that they have been put in kilos when netering product data

You can read the blurb about shipping /packing weight and make your own choices later, the basic USA zen cart dumps 3 Kg onto each package (It thinks its in lbs) and then pushes the shopping cart out of the max weight values for the postal service, if the fault persists then I'll have a look and it is probably worth while turning on Display Number of Boxes and Weight Status in shipping/packaging so you can see what the weight is being calculated.

Philip.

Thanks Philip, it was indeed the max value... My test cart was £42

I'm not entirly sure of RM rates or indeed there max weights. I do believe it all changes anyway in a couple of weeks with RM Increases taking effect..

The £32 max value on them modules... is this set by RM for them services.. I do see where to change this, but should I.

Thanks Again for your help..

The £32.00 is the maximum the Royal Mail wil pay out in the event of the package being lost. The choice is yours whether you wish to send out the items under thoses terms and conditions, that's why it's placed like that, so that you are aware of the Royal Mail's position.

All rates change on 6th April and there is a SQL patch available.