AbanteCart Community

AbanteCart Development => Extensions and Add-Ons => Shipping Modules => Topic started by: jesus_automatic on April 24, 2013, 05:58:24 PM

Title: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: jesus_automatic on April 24, 2013, 05:58:24 PM
I have been very impressed with Abantecart and how everything just works. Except the Royal Mail extension which just doesn't. It doesn't show as a delivery option whatever settings I use. And it doesn't seem to have enough settings? It doesn't ask to charge by weight or have a box for the rates etc. Other shipping extensions work fine.

Has anyone had any success installing this module?
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: abantecart on April 25, 2013, 11:17:29 AM
Can you post example of the setting you use. I will check. Thanks
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: jesus_automatic on April 25, 2013, 02:44:13 PM
Store_default
Status_on
I have delivery methods
   second class post
   standard parcel
   airmail                    selected.
Weight_kilograms
Tax_none
Location_all locations
Auto Select_not checked
Accept these payments_none checked
Sort order_1

I currently have Parcel Force 48 installed and this shows a s delivery method but not the Royal Mail.
When I tried with only the royal mail, the second page of checkout went into a redirect loop and crashed.

Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: abantecart on April 26, 2013, 02:15:54 PM
Thank you. After you access shipping confirmation page on storefront, please check your admin -> System -> Logs -> error log.
See if there is any message related to Royal Mail
Possibly that Royal Mail responds with the error.

Post message here.
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: jesus_automatic on April 29, 2013, 04:05:51 AM
Thanks for taking the time to help me.

There are no error logs
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: abolabo on April 29, 2013, 10:08:18 AM
i set up your parameters on my localhost and see delivery options for  royal mail.
What's shipping address do you use for testing?
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: jesus_automatic on May 03, 2013, 05:05:37 AM
I use a regular UK mainland address. My store is UK based. My company is UK registered and my customers are in the uk. . But royal mail isnt shown as an option. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the extension. Still no good. Royal Mail is the obvious and cheapest delivery option, so I am keen to get it working.
I have also tried Citylink and this doesnt show either. And UPS does?
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: jesus_automatic on May 03, 2013, 03:16:09 PM
I appear to have solved it. I changed the master weight class from gram to kilogram in the settings.

So now it displays as an option but the costs it is showing are very small compared with the real Royal Mail costs. How can I edit this, and make allowance for packaging?
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: abolabo on May 04, 2013, 05:42:58 PM
please check weight of some product on it's edit page
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: jesus_automatic on May 06, 2013, 03:56:35 AM
Yes the weight is correct. But the shipping cost specified is absurd.

For example. One item 140gram 25x15x10 cm. It gives a price of £1.75. Royal Mail website gives it as £5.20. It also gives the price as a letter, when it is too big to be accepted as a letter. It also gives the option to send it airmail to a UK address for £2.38 which is obviously not a service available, but only £1.57 to send to Spain.

In other words the costs given have no connection whatsoever with the prices Royal Mail charge. The Royal Mail charge by size and volume as well as by weight. This could be where the problem lies. If I change the size of the product, it doesn't affect the price. And it would explain how it will allow a large box to count as a letter, as long as it is within the weight limit.

But if the Royal Mail extension doesn't reflect the cost of the service what's the point of it? Is there an extension where I can manually enter the delivery costs in the manner of cost A for first item + cost B for each successive item?



Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: jesus_automatic on May 09, 2013, 03:39:50 AM
"Bump"
I really would like some help with this. I have put a lot of effort building an online store with AbanteCart. But I currently dont seem to be able to find a way to charge for shipping what its going to cost me!
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: jesus_automatic on May 21, 2013, 04:15:49 AM
Well, a month down the line still no nearer a solution. Abantecart have done very little to help. It seems the problem has been ongoing and stems from the fact Royal Mail charges by weight, but in distinct size categories. For example. a small parcel of 100 grams is a completely different price to a large letter of 100 grams.
Abantecart's Royal Mail extension is entirely weight based so cant distinguish different size categories.

In february they said they would put it on their todo list  http://forum.abantecart.com/index.php/topic,611.0.html

But as it is. it is useless. Is anybody working on updating it?
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: abantecart on May 21, 2013, 07:47:42 AM
Yes. We are working on the extension fix. There are other priorities with new core release of AbanteCart 1.1.5 that are cumming to completion.
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: abolabo on May 21, 2013, 08:19:30 AM
Royalmail does not provide API to get the shipping cost based on the size of the parcel.
Unfortunately we can not calculate the cost of delivery otherwise.

We can move a table with prices of royalmail from controller to extension settings page, the administrator can modify them.
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: jesus_automatic on May 22, 2013, 05:41:14 AM
@abolado

I guess that would be the best fix. I could fiddle the rates to approximate the actual cost.
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: abolabo on May 23, 2013, 01:27:18 PM
i did changes. See pack in attachment.
1. Replace folder /extensions/default_royal_mail by given.
2. re-install extension
3. Go to menu system->localization->language definitions and delete all definitions for block "default_royal_mail_default_royal_mail"
4. Go to menu system->cache and clean language cache.
5. Go to on extension settings page and click "restore default".
you'll see rates for each delivery options.

Then save as you want and let me know about how it works.
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: abantecart on May 26, 2013, 09:05:35 PM
Good update. jesus_automatic did it work for you?
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: jesus_automatic on June 01, 2013, 11:30:14 AM
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Thank you for the work you have put in to rewriting this extension.

I have followed your instructions and the set up looks great. But I have a problem that the extension wont stay installed. By this i mean it installs, all the settings are there and I am excited because I can edit the costs if necessary, but when I go back to the extensions page it shows as not installed.

I have tried deleting it, uploading again and clearing the settings and cache as described but it is the same.

And I have tried processing an order on my site and it doesnt show any Royal Mail shipping options, so it really isnt there.

Any ideas
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: abolabo on June 03, 2013, 08:29:30 AM
hm.. strange.. what version of AbanteCart do you use? i tested on 1.1.5
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: jesus_automatic on June 04, 2013, 08:52:12 AM
I am using 1.1.4 I didnt want to try confuse the issue by upgrading whilst trying to sort out this.
Would you recommend upgrading to 1.1.5 at this time?
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: abolabo on June 04, 2013, 09:03:06 AM
I am using 1.1.4 I didnt want to try confuse the issue by upgrading whilst trying to sort out this.
Would you recommend upgrading to 1.1.5 at this time?

we will release version 1.1.6 with bug fixes of 1.1.5 soon. i think in next 2 week maximum. I recommend you wait, if you can and then upgrade up to 1.1.6
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: jesus_automatic on June 04, 2013, 09:12:21 AM
In the mean time, what to do about this extension. Can you re-create this problem on 1.1.4? Or can you suggest any steps I can take to identify where it is failing?

On a separate note, if I upgrade to a later version, what effect will it have on the layout and data of my site. Will I have to redesign it, reset extensions etc?
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: abolabo on June 04, 2013, 10:17:26 AM
In the mean time, what to do about this extension. Can you re-create this problem on 1.1.4? Or can you suggest any steps I can take to identify where it is failing?
i investigated it. problem is in core changes. there are a lot of files. i think upgrade of cart better and easier.

On a separate note, if I upgrade to a later version, what effect will it have on the layout and data of my site. Will I have to redesign it, reset extensions etc?
we don't change custom data during upgrade. Only files and sometimes database tables structure but doing that without effects on custom data (only adding).
If you changed some code files you need to care about your files. And do full backup of site every time before you decide to upgrade Abantecart .

Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: jesus_automatic on June 14, 2013, 05:40:26 AM
Any news on update to 1.1.6? When will it be released?
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: MagicMax on June 25, 2013, 04:09:20 AM
I have a similar problem, no matter what I do I cannot get this extension to show as a delivery option for a UK address.

The store is shipping to multiple locations from Thailand and the UK and I have tried turning off flat rate shipping, free shipping and store pickup then get an error saying there are no shipping options.

All the other extensions work fine against the shipping addresses except the UK which will only show Flat Rate.
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: MagicMax on June 25, 2013, 06:41:35 AM
OK I got it working and upgraded to 1.1.5 but now all the delivery options are blank. What is the format I need to enter?

Cheers
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: jesus_automatic on June 25, 2013, 08:14:08 AM
As per one of my earlier posts in this thread. Have you looked at weight classes? Set everything to Kilograms. I was using grammes for the product weight class and although it converted grammes to kilos as it should, various shipping extensions, including Royal Mail, didn't display as a delivery option until I changed both general weight class and product weight classes to kilos. No Idea why, but that was the solution to my original problem.
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: jesus_automatic on June 26, 2013, 05:34:37 AM
Just an update to the problem of getting the extension installed. I upgraded to 1.1.5 and it all worked as advertised. Thank you very much for all your help.

Whats happening with 1.1.6.?
Title: Re: Royal Mail shipping extension
Post by: MagicMax on June 28, 2013, 04:39:17 AM
I worked out the formats from other shipping options and mine is working with all weight classes now.  ;D