VP-ASP Shopping Cart supports numerous shipping routines. Here we will attempt to answer common questions related to shipping routines and assumes that you have read the shipping section in the developers design guide.

Two tables are involved. The Shop Configuration and the shipmethods tables. The Shop Configuration specifies what type of shipping calculation you want and the shipmethods tables may have the actual data values.

VP-ASP can be set-up in a number of ways:

• The customer can select the shipping method
• The customer has no choice
• Shipping by country

It is possible to mix one of the standard shipping methods and any number of special shipping methods. For example you can use FedEX, USPS and UPS in the same shop but with only one standard other shipping method such as Lookup.

Built-In Shipping Calculations

VP-ASP supports different types of shipping calculations and can easily be modified to support just about any calculations you need. The shipping calculations are controlled by the VP-ASP configuration value xshippingcalc. The following values can be used.

Lookup	Customer selects shipping method but the amount is fixed regardless of what is being ordered. This is the default.
Fixed	No shipping selection box is displayed and customer has no choice over shipping methods. Shipping price is one fixed price regardless of what is ordered.
PriceRange	Shipping is calculated by the total price of products ordered and selection made by customer
WeightRange	Shipping is calculated by weight of products and selection made by customer
Weight	Weight * Quantity * amount . Customer selects shipping method which determines the amount multiplier
Quantity	Quantity * amount . Customer selects shipping method which determines the amount multiplier
Other	This is used for shipping routines where a special shipping file is to be used. These are supplied either as free add-ons or as special customizations. Examples include: UPS, FedEx Australia Post, USPS and Canada Post.
Product	The actual shipping cost is in the product record. By default the weight field is used
QuantityRange	Difference prices based on quantity purchased

Lookup

Simply add your shipping names and prices to the shipmethods table. The shipmethods table can be edited from the "Edit Shipping" admin page. The shipping methods are then displayed on the shopcustomer.asp page and the customer selects the shipping method to be used from the list. Fields that need to be set in shipmethods table. If the smprice field is 0 or empty, the shipping is consider to be free:

shipmethod	smprice
Express	$4.00
Normal	$2.00
Airmail	$9.00
Download	$0.00

This would create 4 selectable shipping methods on the shopcustomer.asp page, the shipping cost is determined by the smprice field.

Fixed

For this you need to change two lines to VP-ASP Configuration.

xshippingcalc	Fixed
xfixedshippingmethod	US Postal Service
xFixedshippingcost	3.00

If you do not want the normal shipping methods form to display, set the following.

xshippingdatabaserecords	No
xshippingform	No will stop shipping form from being display Yes will display the shipping form but customer cannot select method since it is fixed.

The xfixedshippingmethod is any words or method you pan to use.

Calculating by weight

Set the following value in Shop Configuration.

xshippingcalc

Weight

VP-ASP will calculate the shipping price automatically by reading the shipmethods table. You need to update this table to reflect your shipping methods and costs.

For example the following values:

shipmethod	ShipBaseCost	ShipExtraCost
Airmail	5.00	2.00
Standard	3.95	1.00

ShipBaseCost is the amount that will be charged regardless of weight.

ShipExtra Cost is multiplied by weight and quantity

The total is the sum of these amounts.

If ShipBase cost is 0, then the base cost is SMPRICE

Calculating by Quantity

In shop configuration set

xshippingcalc

Quantity

VP-ASP will calculate the shipping price automatically by reading the shipmethods table. You need to update this table to reflect your shipping methods and costs. For example the following values

shipmethod	ShipBaseCost	ShipExtraCost
Express	0	$2.00

ShipBaseCost is the amount that will be charged regardless of quantity.

ShipExtraCost is multiplied by items

The total is the sum of those amounts

Calculating by Quantity Range

Set the following value in Shop Configuration.

xshippingcalc

QuantityRange

VP-ASP will calculate the shipping price automatically by reading the shipmethods table. You need to update this table to reflect your shipping methods and costs. For example the following values

shipmethod	ShipBaseCost	ShipExtraCost	ShipOther1	ShipOther2
Express	0	$2.00	0	5
Express	5	$4.00	5	10
Express	9	$6.00	10	999
Normal	0	1	0	5
Normal	2	$2.00	5	10
Normal	3	$3.00	10	999

The customer will see two selections: Normal and Express.

VP-ASP looks up the quantity by comparing values in the Shipother1 and shipother2 fields. When it finds the correct range, it uses that to claculate the cost. Notice all the shipmethods are the same.

ShipBaseCost is the amount that will be charged regardless of quantity.
ShipExtraCost is multiplied by items
The total is the sum of those amounts

Calculating by Price Range

In shop configuration set

xshippingcalc

PriceRange

The total cost of the order is compared against a range set in the shipmethods table. The lower limit for the price range is set by the Shipcost1 field and the high limit is set in the ShipCost2 field.

The price is whatever is in ShipBaseCost within that price range.

shipmethod	ShipBaseCost	ShipCost1	ShipCost2
Express	0	0	5
Express	5	5	10
Express	9	10	999

Calculating by Weight Range

In shop configuration set

xshippingcalc

WeightRange

The total weight of the products is compared against a range set in the shipmethods table.The ShipOther1 field contains the low limit and shipother2 is the high range limit. The price is whatever is in ShipBaseCost within that price range.

If there is an amount in ShipExtracost, it is added to the base cost using the following formula

The shipping routine subtracts the lowweight from the total products weight so please note that this shipping routine assumes that the base cost includes the shipping cost for a product which has a weight the same as the lowweight (shipother1).

Remainingweight=Totalweight-Loweight (shipother1)

extracost = RemainingWeight*ShipExtraCost

Total Shipping Cost = ShipBaseCost + ExtraCost

shipmethod	ShipBaseCost	ShipExtraCost	ShipOther1	ShipOther2
Express	0	$2.00	0	5
Express	5	$4.00	5	10
Express	9	$6.00	10	999

Calculating by Product

In shop configuration set

xshippingcalc

Product

Each product being purchased is read from the database to retrieve the shipping cost. The cost can be stored in any unused field in the products table.By default the weight field is used as the cost.

Other Shipping routines

VP-ASP supplies free add-ons for other shipping types. For those types specify "OTHER". The routines names that handle these special shipping types are defined in the shipmethods table field "shiproutine". Separate instructions come with these other shipping methods.

The others are available, as free add-ons, but do not form part of the official supported product. It is possible for example for UPS or FedEx to change their rules and we do not guarantee that VP-ASP will support these changes. Any or all of these extra add-ons may require that you register with the appropriate companies. Most of the real time interfaces require the Microsoft XML DLL to be installed. This is normally on most modern Windows servers but may not be on your server.

• UPS Real-time

• UPS by Database Lookup

• Australia Post real-time

• Canada Post real-time

• FedEx database lookup

• USPS Real-time lookup

• Intershipper Real Time

Shipping By Country

Most of the methods can also be set-up specific to a country. Countries that are not specifically listed have a special entry where the country is "other". To to shipping by country set the shop configuration

Set the following value in Shop Configuration values

xshippingbycountry=Yes
xincludecountries=Yes

For each specific country, create the appropriate records as described about but put the country abbreviation into the shipmethods record.

Create one set of records and put "other" into the country field so that those countries that do not have specific record will obtain their shipping rates from the "other" set of records.

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