Ubercart

So the real problem is that Ubercart doesn't have a way to tell when you want to combine shipping quotes and when it should present a choice to the customer. Since most shipping providers return multiple rates that are choices (2nd day air vs. overnight vs. ground, etc.), this was the model that was chosen.

I recommend writing up a small custom shipping method that acts as a wrapper for flatrate and UPS. Its shipping method callback will call the others' functions with the appropriate products and then combine the results in the correct way.

Have there been any developments on this? I have a similar situation on the site I'm developing. Our products have different shipping rates dependent on product class. Books have a different shipping rate than Posters. Also Poster shipping costs are in groups of 5 (5 posters can fit in one mail tube). I have all the quotes set up based on delivery destination and quantity, but I need to develop something to combine the rates if a shopper has Books and Posters in one cart.

I don't mind doing some coding to get this set up, but I'm not sure where to start.

EDIT: It would seem most logical to be able to set up distinct Shipping Types for each product class rather than everything being stuck at "Small package." However, it seems that shipping types are hard-coded and I would need to create a module implementing hook_shipping_type() to add more types. Am I missing anything?

Just wondering if there have been any updates on this one.

I have the same type of problem, but I need to have the UPS quotes only for products that have shipping charges while not charging shipping for products that have free shipping. Right now, if a the cart contains a product that has shipping charges and one that has no shipping charges, the customer gets an option for free shipping or one for UPS. What I need is for only the UPS option to show up with charges for the products with shipping charges.

I had a guy write a custom shipping module about a year ago for Estes Express to pull quotes through that freight carrier. $2000 later, we decided to shut the Estes shipping module off because we couldn't combine the UPS items and the Estes items into one single shipping price. We don't currently give shipping options such as 2nd day air, ground etc. Everything UPS goes ground as a "customer supplied package". A year later, I am now trying to accomplish the same thing through flat rate quotes, but running into the same issue of not being able to combine the rates and remembering why we shut the Estes shipping off in the first place. My solution? Add a paypal buy-it-now button to the specific freight products, which presents its own set of undesirable problems...

I know the "answer" is to write a custom module. The problem is that I don't know how to program... I have a feeling that there are a lot more of us that use Drupal, who have been able to make it work, without knowing a syntax of programming, but we feel inferior to speak out and express our lack of knowledge in that area for fear of being lambasted by the folks who CAN program (Drupalers are pretty good about being nice, but past experiences with other softwares have dictated otherwise)... In my case, I have to rely on others to make the stuff work BUT, the problem with adding custom code is that you then run into the issue of maintenance of the module. If a module isn't actively maintained, I won't use it. I don't even like the idea of using the Ubercart contrib modules for fear that future updates will break the contrib and cause all sorts of problems that I can't even begin to troubleshoot, let alone fix... You might be saying to yourself "Well, learn to program!" Yeah, I've tried... I just can't wrap my head around it...

Sorry for the rant... I'm just a bit frustrated with the issue at hand and my own incompetence, but hopefully it will shed some light on the fact that not everyone has the knowledge to just go in and create some custom code to make it work.

Has anyone figured out a workaround?

Hi Jim,

Speaking as somebody who is a programmer, with some experience writing custom Drupal modules, this problem has me stumped as well. The reason being that the module has been designed in a very specific way, and its structure just doesn't easily lend itself to being modified for this particular requirement.

I looked at what it would take to allow the flat rates to be combined, and settled for persuading my customer to change their rate structure instead.

If we make enough noise here, possibly somebody with experience in this particular module will take notice.

Regards,

Jeremy

I'm having a Purolator module finished in the next few days and will be hiring someone to do some changes to shipping. It wont' be elaborate but what I need is to be able to have at least Flat reat shipping products to be added to the line item while normal products have the option between UPS/Pur/Canada Post.

I have a programmer working on a "combine shipping" module right now and as soon as we get a few bugs worked out, I plan to release it to the community. Hopefully within the next month or so.