RE: [PHP] integrating shipping with shopping cart site - OT

2010-01-20 Thread Angelo Zanetti
Thanks guys, yes in general we will go with a lookup for each country, it
wont be accurate but in future we can build rates for each province / state
for each country which an admin would have to complete for each product
(time consuming) but for now the solution will work.

Thanks for the responses and thoughts, they are much appreciated.

I see the UPS class is also quite interesting but its only if you using them
:)

Cheers
Angelo


-Original Message-
From: Jochem Maas [mailto:joc...@iamjochem.com] 
Sent: 19 January 2010 04:53 AM
To: Angelo Zanetti
Cc: 'php-general'
Subject: Re: [PHP] integrating shipping with shopping cart site - OT

Op 1/18/10 10:47 AM, Angelo Zanetti schreef:
 Hi all, 
 
 We are about to start a new project. Custom written shopping cart - quite
 simple actually. However we have a concern when it comes to calculating
the
 shipping cost for an order.
 
 For each product we can determine the base cost based on weight, therefore
 we can determine the total weight of an order. 
 
 However we are struggling to determine how to calculate the shipping based
 on where the delivery is going.
 
 In terms of DB and PHP would the best way to calculate it be done by
having
 a list of countries to ship to and a rate for each? Then you can apply the
 rate to the current order (calculate according to the order weight).
 
 Problems arise when shipping to different parts of a country EG: 
 
 New York vs California (quite far apart). Perhaps we should have a list of
 cities but that could be massive?
 
 I know there is a PHP class / system that integrates with UPS but I don't
 think the client is going to use UPS.
 
 Perhaps you can tell me how you have handled this issue in the past.
 
 Apologies if it is slightly off topic but it does still relate to PHP
 indirectly.

I'd start with defining shippingcost 'sets', each defining a number of
costs by weight bands, some 'table defs':

set:
-
id  name

set_bands:
--
set_id  upper_weightcost


then it would be a case of linking (many-to-many relation) 'regions' to
sets,
if you approach this with a tree of regions you can effectively set values
at
a continent, country, state/province level ... as such you would only need
to
relate a 'shippingcostset' to a state if the shippingcosts are different to
the given country's shippingcosts.

world
 - north america
   - california
 - south america
 - europe
   - france
   - UK

then your left with the problem of determining the smallest defined region a
given
address physically falls into .. using geo-spatial magic in the DB would be
one
way to do it.

this is a hard problem (unless, maybe, the client is willing to sacrifice
precision
and instead using highly averaged shipping cost definitions to cover the
real differences
in costs - i.e. a fixed fee for all of europe, whereby such fee is just
above the
average real cost the client pays for shipping).

my guess would be that building such a thing is hard, and would take lots of
time ... best bet is to hook into the webservice of whatever shipping
company the
client intends to use ... even if you have to build your end of the
webservice from
scratch it will be many factors less hard that building a user-manageable,
shipping cost
algorythm.

- sorry it's all a bit vague, I'm very tired :) my eyes are starting to
bleed.


 
 Thanks in advance.
 Angelo
 
 
 http://www.wapit.co.za
 http://www.elemental.co.za 
 
 
 


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Re: [PHP] integrating shipping with shopping cart site - OT

2010-01-20 Thread Ryan Sun
Just use the shipping rate web service of your client's shipping carrier
why border building a custom shipping rate calculator

On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 10:24 AM, Angelo Zanetti ang...@zlogic.co.zawrote:

 Thanks guys, yes in general we will go with a lookup for each country, it
 wont be accurate but in future we can build rates for each province / state
 for each country which an admin would have to complete for each product
 (time consuming) but for now the solution will work.

 Thanks for the responses and thoughts, they are much appreciated.

 I see the UPS class is also quite interesting but its only if you using
 them
 :)

 Cheers
 Angelo


 -Original Message-
 From: Jochem Maas [mailto:joc...@iamjochem.com]
 Sent: 19 January 2010 04:53 AM
 To: Angelo Zanetti
 Cc: 'php-general'
 Subject: Re: [PHP] integrating shipping with shopping cart site - OT

 Op 1/18/10 10:47 AM, Angelo Zanetti schreef:
  Hi all,
 
  We are about to start a new project. Custom written shopping cart - quite
  simple actually. However we have a concern when it comes to calculating
 the
  shipping cost for an order.
 
  For each product we can determine the base cost based on weight,
 therefore
  we can determine the total weight of an order.
 
  However we are struggling to determine how to calculate the shipping
 based
  on where the delivery is going.
 
  In terms of DB and PHP would the best way to calculate it be done by
 having
  a list of countries to ship to and a rate for each? Then you can apply
 the
  rate to the current order (calculate according to the order weight).
 
  Problems arise when shipping to different parts of a country EG:
 
  New York vs California (quite far apart). Perhaps we should have a list
 of
  cities but that could be massive?
 
  I know there is a PHP class / system that integrates with UPS but I don't
  think the client is going to use UPS.
 
  Perhaps you can tell me how you have handled this issue in the past.
 
  Apologies if it is slightly off topic but it does still relate to PHP
  indirectly.

 I'd start with defining shippingcost 'sets', each defining a number of
 costs by weight bands, some 'table defs':

 set:
 -
 id  name

 set_bands:
 --
 set_id  upper_weightcost


 then it would be a case of linking (many-to-many relation) 'regions' to
 sets,
 if you approach this with a tree of regions you can effectively set values
 at
 a continent, country, state/province level ... as such you would only need
 to
 relate a 'shippingcostset' to a state if the shippingcosts are different to
 the given country's shippingcosts.

 world
  - north america
   - california
  - south america
  - europe
   - france
   - UK

 then your left with the problem of determining the smallest defined region
 a
 given
 address physically falls into .. using geo-spatial magic in the DB would be
 one
 way to do it.

 this is a hard problem (unless, maybe, the client is willing to sacrifice
 precision
 and instead using highly averaged shipping cost definitions to cover the
 real differences
 in costs - i.e. a fixed fee for all of europe, whereby such fee is just
 above the
 average real cost the client pays for shipping).

 my guess would be that building such a thing is hard, and would take lots
 of
 time ... best bet is to hook into the webservice of whatever shipping
 company the
 client intends to use ... even if you have to build your end of the
 webservice from
 scratch it will be many factors less hard that building a user-manageable,
 shipping cost
 algorythm.

 - sorry it's all a bit vague, I'm very tired :) my eyes are starting to
 bleed.


 
  Thanks in advance.
  Angelo
 
 
  http://www.wapit.co.za
  http://www.elemental.co.za
 
 
 


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 To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php


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[PHP] integrating shipping with shopping cart site - OT

2010-01-18 Thread Angelo Zanetti
Hi all, 

We are about to start a new project. Custom written shopping cart - quite
simple actually. However we have a concern when it comes to calculating the
shipping cost for an order.

For each product we can determine the base cost based on weight, therefore
we can determine the total weight of an order. 

However we are struggling to determine how to calculate the shipping based
on where the delivery is going.

In terms of DB and PHP would the best way to calculate it be done by having
a list of countries to ship to and a rate for each? Then you can apply the
rate to the current order (calculate according to the order weight).

Problems arise when shipping to different parts of a country EG: 

New York vs California (quite far apart). Perhaps we should have a list of
cities but that could be massive?

I know there is a PHP class / system that integrates with UPS but I don't
think the client is going to use UPS.

Perhaps you can tell me how you have handled this issue in the past.

Apologies if it is slightly off topic but it does still relate to PHP
indirectly.

Thanks in advance.
Angelo


http://www.wapit.co.za
http://www.elemental.co.za 



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Re: [PHP] integrating shipping with shopping cart site - OT

2010-01-18 Thread Jochem Maas
Op 1/18/10 10:47 AM, Angelo Zanetti schreef:
 Hi all, 
 
 We are about to start a new project. Custom written shopping cart - quite
 simple actually. However we have a concern when it comes to calculating the
 shipping cost for an order.
 
 For each product we can determine the base cost based on weight, therefore
 we can determine the total weight of an order. 
 
 However we are struggling to determine how to calculate the shipping based
 on where the delivery is going.
 
 In terms of DB and PHP would the best way to calculate it be done by having
 a list of countries to ship to and a rate for each? Then you can apply the
 rate to the current order (calculate according to the order weight).
 
 Problems arise when shipping to different parts of a country EG: 
 
 New York vs California (quite far apart). Perhaps we should have a list of
 cities but that could be massive?
 
 I know there is a PHP class / system that integrates with UPS but I don't
 think the client is going to use UPS.
 
 Perhaps you can tell me how you have handled this issue in the past.
 
 Apologies if it is slightly off topic but it does still relate to PHP
 indirectly.

I'd start with defining shippingcost 'sets', each defining a number of
costs by weight bands, some 'table defs':

set:
-
id  name

set_bands:
--
set_id  upper_weightcost


then it would be a case of linking (many-to-many relation) 'regions' to sets,
if you approach this with a tree of regions you can effectively set values at
a continent, country, state/province level ... as such you would only need to
relate a 'shippingcostset' to a state if the shippingcosts are different to
the given country's shippingcosts.

world
 - north america
   - california
 - south america
 - europe
   - france
   - UK

then your left with the problem of determining the smallest defined region a 
given
address physically falls into .. using geo-spatial magic in the DB would be one
way to do it.

this is a hard problem (unless, maybe, the client is willing to sacrifice 
precision
and instead using highly averaged shipping cost definitions to cover the real 
differences
in costs - i.e. a fixed fee for all of europe, whereby such fee is just above 
the
average real cost the client pays for shipping).

my guess would be that building such a thing is hard, and would take lots of
time ... best bet is to hook into the webservice of whatever shipping company 
the
client intends to use ... even if you have to build your end of the webservice 
from
scratch it will be many factors less hard that building a user-manageable, 
shipping cost
algorythm.

- sorry it's all a bit vague, I'm very tired :) my eyes are starting to bleed.


 
 Thanks in advance.
 Angelo
 
 
 http://www.wapit.co.za
 http://www.elemental.co.za 
 
 
 


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