Hi all,
Please, look at this topic: [url]http://forum.cs-cart.com/showthread.php?p=105489[/url]
The beta release of CS-Cart 2.1.3 Professional with the Multi-box shipment functionality is available for downloading and testing.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Any better idea of when exactly this upgrade will be available?
Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Cmund
[QUOTE]Any better idea of when exactly this upgrade will be available?[/QUOTE]
My bet is that we will see a “Release Candidate” sometime within the next week. 
[url]http://forum.cs-cart.com/showthread.php?p=106682#post106682[/url]
I need some clarification on this new shipment function. From what I can tell you can specify a box size and how many can go into the box for an individual product. What if you have several different products that will fit into a certain box size?
This is why I suggested in the beginning that there be a max box size and only specify the size of each product (not the size of the box for each product that x products will fit in) then calculate the total size of the products and if they do not all fit in the max box size, then create another box.
Does this sound correct or am I way off base?
Hello Tool,
[QUOTE]and only specify the size of each product [/QUOTE]
I remember that it was determined this would be far too difficult for the majority of users to list the actual product dims of all their products, (I think this was discussed in the “Beta Release” thread for actual testing) thus the “maximum number of items contained in a box was decided upon”. Example, what if your business sells nuts & bolts, try calculating that volumetrically! :o
There was no way to possibly cover every possible business shipping scenario, however, CS did an exceptional job with the new shipping features which were added! The ability to fine tune the whole process to each users needs is far greater.
[quote name=‘Struck’]Hello Tool,
I remember that it was determined this would be far too difficult for the majority of users to list the actual product dims of all their products, (I think this was discussed in the “Beta Release” thread for actual testing) thus the “maximum number of items contained in a box was decided upon”. Example, what if your business sells nuts & bolts, try calculating that volumetrically! :o
There was no way to possibly cover every possible business shipping scenario, however, CS did an exceptional job with the new shipping features which were added! The ability to fine tune the whole process to each users needs is far greater. ;)[/QUOTE]
I brought it up in the beginning but from what I recall, imac did not fully understand what I was talking about.
If you in the business of selling nuts and bolts then I doubt very seriously you are only selling 1 nut or 1 bolt. You would be selling in quantities that come in a certain size box. So lets take for example you sell 3/8" x 2" bolts that come in quantities of 25. The box size of that would only be about 4" x 4" x 4". Also you have the 3/8" nut that is in quantities of 25 which come in a box even smaller. If a customer wants to purchase 10 of each, are they going to each have separate shipping charges? You could fit all of them in a “max box” size of say 20" x 20" x 20" which would be 1 shipping charge. If they did not fit in that 1 box then there would be a separate shipping charge.
All of this nut and bolt talk reminds me of a slogan I had seen for a nut and bolt company…“We Screw, We Nut, We Bolt”. 
As far as fine tuning for each users use, unless I am missing something the new functionality is completely useless to me.
[QUOTE]You would be selling in quantities that come in a certain size box.[/QUOTE]
Or, if you were selling/shipping in wholesale volumes you be selling these fasteners by the pound with most likely some very heavy carton sizes!
But yes, there is far more flexibility in getting the realtime shipping methods fine tuned to most any business specific needs. For starters, the automatic address type detection (Residential vs. Commercial) for UPS realtime rate returns is a very lovely thing! There were loads of improvements made, all discussed in the Beta test thread.
Wish we could edit our posts in these threads!
[QUOTE]As far as fine tuning for each users use, unless I am missing something the new functionality is completely useless to me.[/QUOTE]
That is absolute horse crap & you know it! 
I know for a fact Tool you were one the of people (just like myself) complaining about the 150 Lb maximum weight restriction issue (Sorry, no shipping rates are availavle to your location blah, blah, blah…) The glass is now way more than half full! 
[quote name=‘Struck’]That is absolute horse crap & you know it!
I know for a fact Tool you were one the of people (just like myself) complaining about the 150 Lb maximum weight restriction issue (Sorry, no shipping rates are availavle to your location blah, blah, blah…) The glass is now way more than half full! :)[/QUOTE]
Well maybe I haven’t messed with it enough yet but I don’t see it being fruitful to me.
What I complained about is not the weight but the size of an item. Something like a product that only weighs about 5 pounds but has a dimension of 50 x 50 x 50. I most definitely get burned on those and yes, I know I can set that up now but not very easily since I have over 25000 products. I am not going to sort through all of those and add dimensions just for the oversized ones.
[QUOTE]Something like a product that only weighs about 5 pounds but has a dimension of 50 x 50 x 50.[/QUOTE]
No doubt, scenarios similar to this can be real killers (especially when an air shipment is being calculated)!
On a plus note, at least we do now have the ability to better deal with these situations! But then again, with 25,000 products, there is a whole lotta work involved, guess that will teach you to offer that many products, right?
Maybe it is time for us to just retire and live off the land (or something like that)!
[quote name=‘Struck’]Maybe it is time for us to just retire and live off the land (or something like that)! :D[/QUOTE]
I’m there! What are you waiting for?
[QUOTE]I’m there! What are you waiting for? [/QUOTE]
Just waiting to save up a little more money and find the best chunk of land to setup my Teepee on!
And no, we aint sharing the same Teepee, you need to set yours up across the pond!
Did UPS dimensional weight calculation get included? I remember it was under discussionn but don’t know if it made it into the final release. This is a critical calculation for UPS (don’t know why they can’t do it themselves when you supply the dimensions) but they don’t (or didn’t in the last API I worked with).
[QUOTE]Did UPS dimensional weight calculation get included? I remember it was under discussionn but don’t know if it made it into the final release.[/QUOTE]
Hello T, yes CS did get this into the 2.1.3 release. I have been quite impressed with the shear number of shipping improvements the CS-Cart staff added as well as the overall attention to detail they incorporated into these additional features, they truly did a remarkable job!
[quote name=‘Struck’]Hello T, yes CS did get this into the 2.1.3 release. I have been quite impressed with the shear number of shipping improvements the CS-Cart staff added as well as the overall attention to detail they incorporated into these additional features, they truly did a remarkable job! ;)[/QUOTE]
- Automatic determination of Residential vs Commercial delivery addresses
- Ability to have either Negotiated Contract or List rates returned
- The ability to add an additional “surcharge” to realtime rates is now fixed
The list goes on & on…
Essentially every single detail discussed in the shipping improvements thread was included in a very logical fashion.
Does anyone know how I can turn on the “Negotiated Rates” with UPS, I have seen several posts about XML etc. but I have not seen any clear instructions.
Thanks,
Chris
[quote name=‘Offline’]Does anyone know how I can turn on the “Negotiated Rates” with UPS, I have seen several posts about XML etc. but I have not seen any clear instructions.
Thanks,
Chris[/QUOTE]
Hello Chris, you don’t need to do anything with XML, it is a new feature built-in to 2.1.3 (What version are you currently running?)
From your site & can see you are on 2.1.3, so from within the “Configure Tab” of each of your realtime shipping methods, there is a checkbox “Use Negotiated Rates”… Check It & enter your UPS Shipper Account number
I know this is a complex issue, and this is an old thread… but…
Well this issue is marked as “completed” as of v2.1.3 in uservoice, … Im using v2.1.4 and although I see that the box dimensions can be entered for each product, and it seems the volume is used to calculate some realtime shipping costs like Australia Post, at least one more (reasonably uncomplicated) thing needs to be implemented.
- For manual shipping calculations like Australia Post [color=#b22222]eParcel[/color] and [color=#8b4513]Express eParcel[/color] there needs to be some form of “Volume Dependency” calculation in the Shipping Methods configuration.
AusPost calculates shipping cost based on whichever is the higher of either Actual Weight ($/kg) or Equivalent Volume-Weight ($/kg).
Equivalent Weight (kg) = Volume (m3) x 250.
So I feel that there needs to be further functionality in the shipping method descriptions for manual calculations.
Whilst a[color=#800000] Volume Dependency[/color] section may be needed for some shipping methods to define additional cost by volume, AusPost eParcel cost calculations by volume, actually need to be part of the “Weight Dependency” section.
To define cost by volume (equivalent weight), the Weight Dependency section needs:
a. An “Equivalency Coefficient” box allowing a numerical value to be entered.
for example, if dimensions are in cm, store weights are set to Kg so EC = 250/1000000 = 0.00025
b. A “Calculation Basis” Dropdown Selection Box with the options: "Greater of Actual and Volume-Weight ", “Actual Weight” and “Volume Weight”. (or similar)
c. If a product's Actual weight is not defined, the Volume-Weight will be used and vice-versa, thus overriding the “calculation basis” setting.
Id be interested to learn as to whether an addon is available to do this.
Without this functionality, I don't think it is possible to calculate shipping costs for Auspost eParcel with cscart.
Not much feedback, I guess Id need an eParcel realtime shipping module for this.