[Old] Royal Mail Modules

Hi Philip

it's more wrong than I first thought. When I swapped countries in the shipping estimator the error message did disappear. However when I went to check out my whole screen went a bit weird and it picked airmail instead of domestic.

Also my checkout screen went a bit weird - the font went really big and everything was out of place. I have switched the modules back off now but if you name a time I am happy to switch them back on for a few mins for you to have a look.

thanks
John

You are completely correct there is a bug in all of the airmail modules at least and it must stem back years, (thanks you the offer of letting me look at it though), the "default" for Zen cart is to hide errors, and there is certainly a loop skipping one, I can't recreate it exactly but I can see what you mean, I can suppress it quite easily and may choose to do so this weekend, but if I have the time, I would prefer to rewrite some quite substantial sections of the modules.

It ties in quite nicely with some groundwork I've been doing, I want to put in a "banned" countries list. When I ran a shop I never used to ship to the USA because small packets got lost too many times, but currently there is no facility to ban a country in the modules as everything is shoved into the "other" category if it isn't in Europe, hoefully I should be able to tie the two sections in together. The original code is based on a loop for splitting the country in Europe, World Zone 1 and World Zone 2, but a couple of years ago the royal mail reduced it to Europe and "the rest of the world", When the modules were modified to account for this, the World Zones were removed but not the underlying loop, since it is now a "is it in Europe" or "the rest of the world" question, the loop can be removed which should solve the problem, there just happens to be a lot of modules to do this. There will be a solution by Monday morning.

Thank you for bringing it up,
Philip.

Better later than never (should have been last night), Big Royal Mail 2.3.6 is available to download from here

http://exploitingit.co.uk/versions/big_royalmail_v2.3.6.zip

until it is approved in the add-ins sections. The updates are

version 2.3.6
17/05/2009
Bug fixes to royal mail standard parcels modules.
Undefined constants errors removed in all Airmail modules.
Beta - ability to exclude countries added to Airmail Small Packets
Beta - Server Time correction now added to Special Delivery Saturday.

Airmail Service

The undefined constants that were resulting in troonorth's errors have been removed or altered in all modules.

If the ability to exclude countries from Airmail, e.g. the shop does not deliver to the USA, is popular, then it will be migrated to the other 5 Airmail modules.

Special Delivery Saturday

The Special Delivery Saturday module is now coming along very well. The module only enables on Thursday's at 5pm after the post office has closed and stops on Friday at 5pm. The "problem" was that some people host their shops on machines where the server time is not english, so there is not a time correction facility, where you enter the current time and date and it works out the difference and the module "just works".

The next step will be to give shop owners the ability to turn if on and off at their own times

I still use Zen-Cart 1.3.7. Will the new modules work with 1.3.7? I intend to update but not until the new version of Zen-Cart (v2) is released.

Is there and upgrade 'how-to'?

Many thanks for your effort and time on this.

Okay two things,

Point 1) These modules work all the way down to 1.3.0 with the exception of the optional templates, these (the templates) will probably work with 1.3.7 but do not work with 1.3.5.

The structure of the modules themselves has not changed in function since 1.3.0 so they should work fine. Normally upgrading only means you put it on your system and if you have any blank areas in the area to the right, when you click on the module's row in shipping, then you just remove and install. The "blank areas" mean that a new facility has been added to the module and that the modules can't find it, if you click on "edit" for a non-upgraded module, you tend to get a blank area and a blank textbox.
If you have changed anything like min or max order values or countries that you don't ship to, then the remove and re-install does not affect them, the only "problem" with that may be that because airsure changed it's countries this year, you may need to ask for a bit more help. I've always tried to construct the modules so that they don't overwrite any settings shop owners have put in.

Point 2) I cocked up airsure in 2.3.6 and it no longer recognizes USA and Canada, this is the link to 2.3.7

http://exploitingit.co.uk/versions/big_royalmail_v2.3.7.zip

which fixes the bug, and also adds the ability to exclude countries from the International Signed for services. Airsure is limited to specific countries so ifone wants to exclude them from the service, one just removes them from the already existing country boxes.

Ok... help me please, somebody.

just downloaded and installed Big royalmail 2.3.4 and the install seems like it went ok.

I then clicked on the Upgraed_SQL folder and uploaded the sql patches in this order:

upgrade_1.2_to_1.3.sql
upgrade_all_to_1.5.sql
set_sort_order.sql

When i installed the first patch, upgrade_1.2_to_1.3.sql I got the message that it couldn't upgrade as they already existed.
I then installed the other 2 patches as described.

Was this normal?... I initailly got the error at the top of the screen saying that there was an update and to follow the link and download the latest sql patch. however I've refreshed my cache and the error message appears to have gone. i've now checked again and it has returned. what needs to be done?

Now i need to complete the configuration.

Obviously the postal methods etc are worked out via item weight. Where do I enter the weight of each item so that it knows how much to charge? Is it done in the usual way via catalog / catagories/products in the admin.. Or is it done elsewhere?

Afternoon,

The first thing is that you shouldn't have used the upgrade SQL unless you were upgrading rather than installing. I'll have a look but I believe that SQL is for people using very old carts and very old versions of the modules e.g 2~3 years ago. The next thing is that the RM modules are at 2.3.7 and there is a link above, and it would be better if you installed that version.

Be back soon,
Philip.

just checked and have discovered that the latest sql patch is a purchasable item. My client is in the process of purchasing these from you as i type. hopefully you can install these asap.

My clients name is debbie shailer and she'll be purchasing the both royal Mail updates.

I've upgraded to version 2.3.7 everything now looking good in the modules section.

Hello Philip,

Firstly, thank for the terrific modules, they do exactly what it says on the box!!

We have just installed Royal Mail 2.3.7 and DataPost 2.3.5 into Zen Cart 1.3.8

When we go into modules, shipping and select one of the modules for install we get this..

The rates for the Royal Mail Shipping Modules increased on 6th Apr 2009. A SQL patch is available to update them.
The support thread is here, click on the "Last >>" link on the right to get to the most recent post.

I have read the posts here, and it seems that we shouldn't (and haven't) used the SQL files provided in your package. But on checking the rates as currently set, I can confirm that they dont match the current rates with DataPost or Royal Mail.

Please can you advise where the updated tables are, and how I obtain them?

Many thanks in advance,

Bob

I've just PM'd you, no you should have installed those SQL patches apart from maybe the UK counties one and only if you had not installed that type of thing before. I really should remove them from the next release, those atches are only relevant for 2~3 years ago when major changes happened between versions 1.2 and 1.5

Philip.

Sorry Philip I meant Parcel Force NOT datapost!! grrrrrr

hmmm I am sure we must have gone wrong somewhere. We backed up all our databases, and processed UKZR_Total_Uninstall which is resident in the parcelforce2.3.5/optional folder, and then processed upgrade 1.2 to 1.3, upgrade_all to 1.5 and set_sort_order from the Update SQL folder in the big royalmail 2.3.4 set as there isnt any SQL updates in the 2.3.7 set.

Still we are getting SQL updates required on all of the modules.

Please can you advise where we may have gone wrong?

Many thanks again,

Bob

See that link at the top of the page which says Private Messages your answer lies within that, the SQL updates are not the ones in the package those updates could remove everytrace of the royal mail modules from your system or do some very strange things, especially if you've installed the counties update more than once, which would result in duplicate UK counties in your drop downs for people's addresses.

The SQL updates for the prices are something entirely different.

Just a quick question... Big Royal Mail handles weight in kg.... Zen cart by default deals weight in Ib.... How do i change it into kg???

in the file includes/languages/english.php you will find

define('TEXT_PRODUCT_WEIGHT_UNIT','lbs');

and

define('TEXT_SHIPPING_WEIGHT','lbs');

chaning those will list your items in Kilos,

then you should go to configuration > shipping/ packaging and look at the things with Tare in the rows, it;s the amount you add to each pakage to compensate for the increased weight due to the box or envelope. I normally recommend 10%:0 for the smaller items and 8%:0 for the larger ones, you'll need to take some items yourself just to work it out but generally that works, otherwise you'll find that zen cart adds 3 Kg to your packing for each item which creates ratehr a jolly mess.
https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=85

Also after you've tested everything, the current recommendation is to to set "Hide Invalid Shipping" in each of your shipping modules to "True", they are set false by default so you can see your shipping modules are working like Airmail when you are using a UK estimate to test, but this morning a fault was reported with Paypal Website Pro (putting things in bold so people will bother reading them) where if the friendly messages like "Airmail does not ship to your country" are on, then Paypal charges £0.00 for the shipping as it goes for the lowest cost option, even if that option is invalid.

Thank you
Philip.

Hello
Im a total beginner in adding modules etc.
Can some give me detailed instructions on adding this royal mail module to my site.
https://www.jewellerysensations.com

Many thanks in advance.:clap::clap:

There is a file INSTALL.txt in the zip file, about 20 lines down is Installation - Quick, (you can ignore Upgrades or installing any SQL files) which is the fastest way to set it up.

Philip.

Hi this module seems to be causing problems for my shipping esitmimator once you have added a product to your cart and use the shipping esitmator on that page nothing shows up where the shipping estimator should be, then once you click update cart it shows up then once you have changed the country and click update it goes blank again, then you have to click update cart for it to work, obvioulsy not all customers will think to try such a thing and shop else where.

Hope you can help with this the only shipping modules im using is the latest paid for Big Royal Mail pack.

the shop link is www.anctgroup.com/store

Hmm, I do not think so, as in I do believe you but something is in the wrong place. The old shipping estimator was based on zc 1.3.5 code and had a problem in that it needed two goes to ge the session variable to register. This was then upgraded in one of the recent modules to 1.3.8 standard and worked perfectly. What I "think" is that you have an older version knocknig around in the template override system somewhere that is still causing the problem.

I'll have a look soon,

Philip.

agelec:

Hi this module seems to be causing problems for my shipping esitmimator once you have added a product to your cart and use the shipping esitmator on that page nothing shows up where the shipping estimator should be, then once you click update cart it shows up then once you have changed the country and click update it goes blank again, then you have to click update cart for it to work, obvioulsy not all customers will think to try such a thing and shop else where.

Hope you can help with this the only shipping modules im using is the latest paid for Big Royal Mail pack.

the shop link is www.anctgroup.com/store

Just to confirm to anyone following the thread, this is not a royal mail module bug. The original bug came from a 1.3.5 php page called shopping_cart.php installed on a 1.3.8 shop, and then there is a secondary bug where the estimator refuses to change country from the UK which seems to be caused by a change in templating system. The templating system bug is something that I am looking into, but it's not a priority since it's not a bug caused by these modules.

Thank you
Philip.