Blog posts of '2012' 'December'

Here's a very simple free shipping scenario with fixed rates.  Customers in the "Free Shipping" role get an option for free shipping ($0).  If not in that role, they see regular shipping.  (The leading "!" is the NOT operator.)   Everybody sees an option for "Fast Shipping".  

(Update: 12/20/2021 - Customer.CustomerRoles won't work in 4.x and above.   Use Customer.GetCustomerRoles() to get the full collection, or to check a specific role, use helper property  Customer.IsInRole("role system name").  The below has been modified to use Customer.IsInRole() )

Order	Type	Name	Expression	Rate Expression
10	Option	Free Shipping	Customer.IsInRole("Free Shipping")	0
20	Option	Regular Shipping	!Customer.IsInRole("Free Shipping")	5
30	Option	Fast Shipping	true	10

 

So, if the customer is in the Free Shipping role, then she sees

Select shipping method

Free Shipping ($0.00)

Fast Shipping ($10.00)

And if she's not in that role she sees

Select shipping method

Regular Shipping ($5.00)

Fast Shipping ($10.00)

 

You can always add additional criteria.   If there are a lot of criteria, then create a variable to make it easier to read and maintain.  For example, let's also have additional criteria that the cart subtotal must be greater than $250

Order	Type	Name	Expression	Rate Expression
5	Boolean	HasFreeShipping	Customer.IsInRole("Free Shipping") and [$SubTotalWithDiscounts] > 250
10	Option	Free Shipping	[HasFreeShipping]	0
20	Option	Regular Shipping	![HasFreeShipping]	5
30	Option	Fast Shipping	true	10

 

Similar to adding an insurance surchargeto the shipping rate, one can provide a discount just by making the surcharge a negative amount.

In this example, we’ll use the “Shipping by weight” calculator for shipping, and set a discount of $2.99 if the cart’s total is $20 or more.

Order	Type	Name	Expression	Rate Expression	Surcharge Expression
10	Option	Shipping	true	Shipping.ByWeight	([$SubTotalWithDiscounts] > 20) ? -2.99 : 0

As mentioned in prior blogs, the " ? : " is the ternary if-then-else operator.  These can be chained together if needed - for example to have discounts based on amount like this:

Subtotal greater than	Discount
100	7.99
50	5.99
20	2.99

Then the expression would look like

  ([$SubTotalWithDiscounts] > 100) ? -7.99 :  ([$SubTotalWithDiscounts] > 50) ? -5.99 :  ([$SubTotalWithDiscounts] > 20) ? -2.99 : 0

Another simple example of having a reduced Ground shipping rate

Basically, you use the Surcharge to negate the Ground Rate and then add $5.   In this example, we do it for USPS.  (Read more about using Surcharge to adjust the rate here)

Order	Type	Name	Expression	Rate Expression	Surcharge Expression
100	Packing	Pack	true	Packing.FirstFitSingleBox
110	Option	USPS	true	Shipping.USPS	([$SubTotalWithDiscounts] > 50) AND !("AK,HI".Contains([State]) AND [$Name].Contains("Ground")) ? -[$Rate] + 5 : 0

For the most accurate carrier rates, set your package size - see this blog about packing 

If you want to use Free Shipping over ‘X’ but still charge “Additional Shipping Charges”, you can't use nopC’s built-in Admin > Configuration > Settings > Shipping >> "Free Shipping over 'X'" because it will ignore Additional Shipping Charges set on product variants.  The built-in Free Shipping over ‘X’ is always calculated last after shipping plugins return their options.   You can make this work with Shipping Director.  First, be sure to turn off "Free Shipping over 'X' " in admin.  (And as always when using SD, be sure that SD is the only Active rate calc method.)

This is really easy to do in SD – just calculate a 0 rate when the subtotal is over X!  Then, NopC will always add the additional shipping charges.  For example, here’s free shipping ($0) if the subtotal is more than $50:

Order	Type	Name	Expression	Rate Expression
10	OptionExit	Shipping	[$SubTotalWithDiscounts] >= 50	0

 

Of course, to make this complete, we'll add the second Option record to provide the rate if the cart does not meet the minimum amount.  And, to get a little fancy, we’ll use the Name Expression to show the customer “Free Shipping” if none of the items have any additional shipping charges, otherwise show “Shipping”:

Order	Type	Name	Expression	Rate Expression	Name Expression
10	OptionExit	Shipping	[$SubTotalWithDiscounts] >= 50	0	Items.Any(Product.AdditionalShippingCharge > 0) ? "Shipping" : "Free Shipping"
20	Option	Shipping	true	5

The second record above is a flat $5 rate, but you can of course use any type and number of additional methods/rates instead.

(P.S.  updated on July 2014 - ProductVariant -> Product)

Here are the new features (I'll blog about them in more detail soon :)

SortExpression setting
  An optional sort of the options after all records have been processed.
  You can sort the options by any expression involving the shipping option fields: Rate, Name, Description

Query Expression support for First(), FirstOrDefault() and Select()
  e.g. Instead of saying Items.Where(...).First(), you can just say Items.First(...)

More Extension functions:
  String
    Split(separator)
    IsNumeric()
    IsInteger()
  ShoppingCartItem
    GetAttributeValues(attributeName, valueSeparator)
    GetAttributeValues(attributeName)
    HasAttributeValue(attributeName, valueName)
    HasAttributeValue(attributeName)
    HasAttributeValue(valueId)
  Product
    HasCategory(categoryName) 
    HasCategory(categoryId) 
    HasCategoryMatch(categoryNameRegex)
  
Test
  A store owner or developer can test their shipping calculations in the configuration page.  Testing here is not limited to the 5 transaction limit in trial/evaluation mode.
  You can select a customer to use test cart/address. (You must take that test customer through checkout process to the point of shipping address selection for that address to be stored with customer.)

Export tab delimited
Import tab delimited 
  Export/Import is not only great for backup and migrations, but also allows store owner to use different shipping scenarios with ease.
  Additionally, you can work in Excel where data entry can be easier for advanced users - just save as "Text (tab delimited)".