• From: Worksop/UK
  • Registered: 04-03-2006
  • Posts: 1

Topic: Things I'd Like Zen Cart To Do

Not sure if this ought to be in this thread or a seperate one (Kevin please move it if it's wrong).

I am thinking of setting up a business delivering animal feed around the local area.

I want to be able to group postcodes together so that on Monday I would deliver to this geographic group, on Tuesday I would deliver to this other geographic group etc.

Also restrict customers so that if they live outside the area then they cannot order goods, unless they contacted me first & asked for that postcode to be added.

If they wanted the feed delivered on that  geographic area's day then delivery would probably be free, if they wanted it on another day then a charge would be raised.

This is all hypothetical as I have no idea if the business is feasible or not but I think it would be a very interesting addition to be added to Zencart anyway.

On a personal note I have no PHP/programming skills but will help wherever I can.

  • From: Suffolk/Essex
  • Registered: 01-03-2006
  • Posts: 165

Re: Things I'd Like Zen Cart To Do

That's the beauty of Zen Cart - anything is possible.

Hi Phaeton, thanks for posting.  While your post isn't a request or suggestion that will  'directly' go in to affect the UK template I'm going to leave it here.  Two reasons. 
1.   It will get people thinking about what they do want to see in the UK Zen Cart Template System and 2. ....  I can't work out how to move the post smile  ... Yet.

I like the business idea and I can tell you that there are quite a few feed delivery businesses in Essex and Suffolk, so someone is making money from it.  Also I agreed with you - it would be an interesting ZC contribution.

Don't panic about your skill levels with PHP etc, part of the fun is the learning experience ... and then if you ever want commercial help to help speed things up, you can find it.

Thinking about it, (other readers note) this type of question would be better in the General Chit Chat section.

I'm off to find a 'move mod' for the forum - aint Open Source great?

Kev

P.S.  I Just found a mod which allowed me to move the post to here smile

kevinpolley's Website

  • From: Plymouth, Devon
  • Registered: 02-10-2006
  • Posts: 5

Re: Things I'd Like Zen Cart To Do

I can sympathise with Phaeton.

I've created a site for a Chinese Takeaway that delivers.  However, they would really like to break down delivery charges into areas, rather than the primary postcode areas - or find someway of calculating distance from the shop to the customers full postcode address.  Our orders have to be delivered immediately, you can't wait until tomorrow morning or three days hence for a Chinese meal.

So from that, I'm sure you can understand how unwieldy the system is for us.  Customers don't need to enter city districts, and getting them to select their district from a drop down list could result in them selecting the wrong place (either accidentally, or to help them save a quid or two).

Any ideas on how I can refine what I have at the moment.

http://www.chinesevista.co.uk/maya is the site if you'd like to try it out.

Thanks,

RobAnt
Service Site
Personal Site

RobAnt's Website

  • From: Plymouth, Devon
  • Registered: 02-10-2006
  • Posts: 5

Re: Things I'd Like Zen Cart To Do

Continuing with my previous post.

I have found this website, which shows how to calculate the distance between two postcodes:

SlooMedia Tutorials - Click here

Unfortunately, I have no idea on how to incorporate this into Zen Cart so that it can accurately calculate a delivery charge between our shop and the customer's home.

Any ideas?

RobAnt
Service Site
Personal Site

RobAnt's Website

  • From: Suffolk/Essex
  • Registered: 01-03-2006
  • Posts: 165

Re: Things I'd Like Zen Cart To Do

Hi Rob

Short of a custom programming job I would probably hack what is already available to do the job.

As yours is a local site you have no need for any counties other than yours (I assume)  so you can clean up your data base and leave only what you need.
You deliver to three postcode areas so you 'could' change the counties fields into designated 'postcode' delivary areas.

Then download the MZMT shipping contrib and set up your three zones using it.  (swap the counties for the post codes) and set the correct price for the zone.

If people try to beat the system call them back to confirm the order (nice touch anyway) and ask them to have the extra 50p delivery charge ready or send them a nochex bill for the difference.

Alternativly ask if Philips Royal Mail contrib could be modded to do what you want as it is based on MZMT.

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46450

Just a few thoughts - hope they help

Kev

kevinpolley's Website

  • From: Plymouth, Devon
  • Registered: 02-10-2006
  • Posts: 5

Re: Things I'd Like Zen Cart To Do

We do that, more or less, at the moment, only somewhat more simply - I forget the name of the module I use, but I have implemented 3 copies of it, giving the customer the ability to select a delivery zone manually.

The postal one won't work for us, I don't think, it doesn't actually allow you to make a fine enough adjustment of the distances from the shop.

I have found a tool that allows you to calculate the distance between two post codes - which is so fine that you could measure 100's of a mile! (As the crow flies, of course).  Using that tool to calculate the distance from the shop to the delivery address would be the best idea - as it removes all responsibility from the customer - but I don't know how to make a module for Zen Cart (yet).

Click here for more details

I just want a module that will look at the customers postcode, works out the distance, and posts an amount in the checkout:

Something like :

if distance <= 2 then delivery charge = 0
if distance > 2 and < 3 then delivery charge =

RobAnt
Service Site
Personal Site

RobAnt's Website