integrating shipping with shopping cart site - OT

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: 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_weight cost


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: integrating shipping with shopping cart site - OT

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:jochem@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_weight cost


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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Re: integrating shipping with shopping cart site - OT

--0015176f115cf8119b047d9ba1a3
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

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 wrote:

> 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:jochem@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_weight cost
>
>
> 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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> PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/)
> To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
>
>
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