Drop Shipping Purchase Orders Module for v1.3.8

Me too. Even with the updated version. Here is how I fixed it for myself.

1. Cut, but copy, all of the text before the <? character that is right above the text that explains which lines to edit for admin.

2. Paste that text immediately after the line that says //echo TRACKING_CUSTOMER_DATA (basically, you're moving all of the header HTML beneath all of the require statements so that it doesn't get sent until the session data can be sent.

3. Enclose that text within these characters:

This is what it ends up looking like:

//echo TRACKING_CUSTOMER_DATA;

?>

<html>
<head>
<html>
<head>
<TITLE>Confirm tracking</TITLE>
<link rel="STYLESHEET" type="text/css" href="admin/includes/style_tracking.css">

</head>

<body>

<?

if($_POST['save']=='save')

Keepsake: I'm not sure if this is what you intended to do but if you send anything before a session cookie you'll get the errors shown below, and apparently when you require something here it tries to do session cookie stuff. I'm by no means a guru of PHP but I know this much from tinkering.

gabstero:

Gang,

I seem to be having slightly different error messages upon a click on the link at the bottom of a PO email (although everything seems to be working fine otherwise):

Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: Cannot send session cache limiter - headers already sent (output started at /home/admin/confirm_track_sub.php:10) in /home/includes/functions/sessions.php on line 108

jgarvas:

Keepsake: I'm not sure if this is what you intended to do but if you send anything before a session cookie you'll get the errors shown below, and apparently when you require something here it tries to do session cookie stuff. I'm by no means a guru of PHP but I know this much from tinkering.

I did know that much. :) I just didn't realize that the session cookie is sent from the files that are required in the script... To be honest I never even had that problem at all, I never saw that message on my setup, not sure why.

Did the solution you outlined work for you?

I've updated the code again with your suggestions.

Keepsake & Ggarvas -

YES! it worked for me! The only minor thing was that apparently the css formatting was not applied any more but everything else worked as a whiz!

Side question. Since the confirm_track_sub.php form submits user info, shouldn't that be using the https? Any tweaks for that?

Thanks a lot for the tips!!!

Gabstero

Dumb question #1:

SCs (Sub Contractors) are hitting the zencart ADMIN login page when clicking on the email footer link to enter tracking. Should I create an admin login for them??

Dumb quesiton #2:
Shouldn't the buyer receive a notification email with the tracking number?

Thanks!
Gabstero

Good point on the CSS. I was just happy to see it working so I forgot about fancy looks.

With #1 - I think the idea is to allow SCs to update the tracking number without giving them access to your store. Thats definitely how I'd like it to work. (Heck, I'd like to either automate send_pos.php or allow it to be manipulated without admin access to the entire store).

The only way the confirm script appears it will do anything is if a proper order is supplied, and once that order is updated it can't be updated again. (or so it looks), so brute forcing it wouldn't be that big of a risk. You could probably put it into a directory like /tracking/ and put an .htaccess on that if you wanted to be safe.

#2 - I am getting emails from my test environment:

From: Test Store

Test Store

Order Number: 5

Detailed Invoice:
{URL Redacted}/index.php?main_page=account_history_info&order_id=5

Date Ordered: 2008-02-14 20:20:00

The comments for your order are: Completed shipping this order.

Your FedEx Tracking ID is 4532432432
You can track your package at
http://www.fedex.com/Tracking?action=track&tracknumbers=4532432432

Your order has been updated to the following status:
New status: Delivered

Please reply to this email if you have any questions.

Good point on the CSS. I was just happy to see it working so I forgot about fancy looks.

Me too. I just went in and turned on the table borders to have some sort of a layout.

With #1 - I think the idea is to allow SCs to update the tracking number without giving them access to your store. Thats definitely how I'd like it to work. (Heck, I'd like to either automate send_pos.php or allow it to be manipulated without admin access to the entire store).

Agreed. It would be also nice to have a SC login of some sort of limited access to their previous orders, etc.

The only way the confirm script appears it will do anything is if a proper order is supplied, and once that order is updated it can't be updated again. (or so it looks), so brute forcing it wouldn't be that big of a risk. You could probably put it into a directory like /tracking/ and put an .htaccess on that if you wanted to be safe.

#2 - I am getting emails from my test environment:

MAkes sense. And yes, the user recives the email but only when I go into the order, and do an update of some sort like change the Status to Update, or by adding something in the Comments box. Or even adding a new tracking to the existent one.

But hey - it works so far! Thanks a lot!

G

gabstero:

Side question. Since the confirm_track_sub.php form submits user info, shouldn't that be using the https? Any tweaks for that?

It doesn't submit user info it pulls user info from the database. I don't think https here makes any sense.

Maciek

gabstero:

Me too. I just went in and turned on the table borders to have some sort of a layout.

For me, the CSS works just fine in confirm_track_sub - which CSS doesn't work for you, ie. in which file? Because in this one it works... Unless you redirected your admin which means you have to change the link href.

<html>
<head>
<html>
<head>
<TITLE>Confirm tracking</TITLE>
<link rel="STYLESHEET" type="text/css" href="admin/includes/style_tracking.css">
</head>

gabstero:

Agreed. It would be also nice to have a SC login of some sort of limited access to their previous orders, etc.

Well this module was a simple one in it's design assumptions, what you're talking about here is a whole new functionality that would be really complex to create. SCs should copy all emails to another folder for future reference and this would work as their order history.

gabstero:

MAkes sense. And yes, the user recives the email but only when I go into the order, and do an update of some sort like change the Status to Update, or by adding something in the Comments box. Or even adding a new tracking to the existent one.

That's how Ty_Tracker is designed it only emails the user if you change something in the order AND check "Notify user" - it allows you to perform order changes without notifying the user also.

My code turns on the notify user function and updates the comment and I also get emails to my test user account so it works just fine.

Keepsake:

For me, the CSS works just fine in confirm_track_sub - which CSS doesn't work for you, ie. in which file? Because in this one it works... Unless you redirected your admin which means you have to change the link href.

Is the CSS just drawing a box around the fields or does it bring in other theme related colors? If its just a box then mine is working.

Well this module was a simple one in it's design assumptions, what you're talking about here is a whole new functionality that would be really complex to create. SCs should copy all emails to another folder for future reference and this would work as their order history.

That's how Ty_Tracker is designed it only emails the user if you change something in the order AND check "Notify user" - it allows you to perform order changes without notifying the user also.

My code turns on the notify user function and updates the comment and I also get emails to my test user account so it works just fine.

Did you write most of send_pos.php or did you inherit that? The different language throws me off from variable names to comments in the code. I'd like to try to identify the query that shows all the un-sent POs and the code that sends them when they're checked.

I'd like to write an alternative to send_pos.php that generates a list of non-processed PO's and processes them along with their default SC as if all of the check boxes were marked. For the store I run the suppliers are fairly static and this simple hack would automate my store. (Everything is drop shipped)

Can you help me figure out what code I need in send_pos.php?

I updated with the latest code release, and everything is working fine so far!

Thanks for the help!

jgarvas:

Did you write most of send_pos.php or did you inherit that? The different language throws me off from variable names to comments in the code. I'd like to try to identify the query that shows all the un-sent POs and the code that sends them when they're checked.

I had it written actually.

I can probably still contact the original programmer to write this automated version for you, I'm sure we'll then be able to plug it into cron or after an order is placed for automation.

PM me to let me know what it's worth to you. I still have his ICQ and he's active so I can ask him if he'd do it.

Maciek

Does this module calculate shipping on a per-item zip code basis?

russmann:

Does this module calculate shipping on a per-item zip code basis?

No, it has nothing to do with shipping cost calculation whatsoever.

Maciek

wow, this mod roks. thanks. i just installed and everything seems to be working.
except: i need to resend a po to the "real" S/C. I originally set up the emails to come to me for testing. Worked great, so I changed to the company's order emails, but they still come to me with the fake/testing info.

how do i resend the po's to the new email address?

cowboyfred:

wow, this mod roks. thanks. i just installed and everything seems to be working.
except: i need to resend a po to the "real" S/C. I originally set up the emails to come to me for testing. Worked great, so I changed to the company's order emails, but they still come to me with the fake/testing info.

how do i resend the po's to the new email address?

I'm afraid you'll need to re-generate the purchase orders from scratch.

How do i re-generate the PO's?

also, is this mod listed in the downloads, if so where?

I had another idea for this mod. when i email my dropshippers, i send them an email and attach a pdf packing slip generated by viewing "packing slip" then save as .pdf, then attach it to the email. i don't have a lot of orders, so this works. but, with this mod it would be awesome to somehow generate the .pdf packing slip and then attach it to the email that is sent to the drop shippers along with the email PO that is already sent. then they just put the packing slip in with the order. Just an idea for the future.

cowboyfred:

How do i re-generate the PO's?

also, is this mod listed in the downloads, if so where?

You need to see in the database install file (db_script) which columns are added to the orders_products table in your system and clear those for the products you'd like to re-generate.

Something like

update orders_products set po_sent='0', po_number=null, po_sent_to_subcontractor=null, po_date=null where po_number=XX

where XX is the number of the PO you want to re-generate.

Sorry, there's no online form/link to do it without programmatic access to the DB. You can run this query from your admin/db tools.

Gang -

An idea popped up for a way of managing shipping for different manufacturers as a drop shipper:

I have a FedEx acct, that I could pass along to my manufacturers (subcontractors) and let them use it for whatever items they ship.
This way the shipping charges are calculated precisely from wherever the package is shipped and applied to my account.

Pro? Cons?

thanks,
gabstero

Thanks for all the work on this! This is a fantastic contribution.

One small problem -- The tracking seems to work fine from the email link. But, I can't seem to get it to work from Admin - Customers - POs-Enter Tracking Number. All I get is a blank page when I click this.

I can always enter them using the TY Tracker interface in my admin, but this makes it hard to deal with multiple shipments as it won't show what products shipped with each shipment.

Is anyone else able to get this to work?