ViArt shop makes setting up a shopping basket really easy until you hit the part where you set the postage charges. I want to let website owners manage their own sites but this bit is a show stopper for most of them.
 
The supplied shipping modules are not relevant to UK/EU users and there doesn't appear to be any information in the manual as to how to create a new one or documentation of the PHP variables which such a module will need to access or set. The only solution I have seen so far involves hacking an existing module until it returns the correct sort of result and hoping there are no side effects - hardly ideal.
 
What is needed is a simple *DOCUMENTED* template module which computes postage as a function of the number and total weight of items in the basket. The rates could be set in the module configuration 'parameters list' which would avoid recoding the module for each rate change.
 
It would then be easy to setup a shipping module for each postal region and service.
 
Comments?

Here here, I'm just about to walk away from Viart AND a customer who wants ME to setup their e-commerce site for them because shipping is impossible to set up. There is no documentation here worth reading - in fact it is a total joke. I have now wasted 2 days developing a mock system on a trial ViArt site to try to see (because the documentation is sooo bad) whether it will do what the customer needs it to do. I've come across the extremely obscure (sarcasm folks) task of trying to set a minimum order value (shock horror the system can't do this - or can it - maybe it is just not documented?) and to set some shipping bands; so £5p&p minimum, but free if order >£100 and I can't do it (or maybe I've just given up on ViArt) and I'm an experienced PHP/MySQL programmer with years of experience.

You can set the minimum order in the Order/Order Profile Page in admin.
 
You need to set up a free shipping mode with restrictions: min order value 100GBP, and It will appear in the checkout - the order is by cost, so the customer can select the free one, and will see, the original shipping price...

Thanks.. I want to like ViArt - it is clearly a very powerful system. But if only somebody could write some documentation for it... arrrggghhhh!!!
 
I had a cup of T and took the time to look at the code for shipping (somewhat a process of reverse engineering process) and here is some code in case it helps anybody else...
 
 
Set shipping free for orders>= £10 and offer express/standard if not.
 
In some respects I'm hoping I DON'T get this job: I had a quick look at hooking up the payment gateway and it scares me :(
 
<?php
 
 
 
$value=0;
foreach ($shopping_cart as $cart_item) {
$value += $shopping_cart[$cart_id]["PRICE"];
}
 
// The fields are as follows $row_shipping_type_id, $row_shipping_type_code, $row_shipping_type_desc, ($net_charge + $row_shipping_cost), $row_tare_weight, $row_shipping_taxable, $row_shipping_time
 
if ($value>=10) {
$shipping_types[] = array(54, '', 'Free delivery', 0, 0, 1, 0);
}
else
{
$shipping_types[] = array(54, '', 'Standard Delivery Charge', 5, 0, 1, 0);
$shipping_types[] = array(54, '', 'Express Delivery Charge', 10, 0, 1, 0);
}
 
?>

WebSanity - attempting to code complex PHP add-ons to ViArt could possibly make you change your screename to WebInsanity, just a warning

It might indeed :)
 
If only there were a simpler way to set the shipping rates!!!

WebSanity, actually I don't think you really need to change the code to make it work as it seems system already have what you need.
 
So when you editing some shipping method there available shipping restrictions like 'Total Goods Cost' with 'Minimum' and 'Maximum' values.
 
In your case I think you will need to create three methods:
 
1. 'Free delivery':
Minimin Goods Cost - 100
Shipping Cost Per Order - 0
 
2. 'Standard Delivery Charge':
Minimin Goods Cost - 0
Maximum Goods Cost - 99.99
Shipping Cost Per Order - 5
 
3. 'Express Delivery Charge':
Minimin Goods Cost - 0
Maximum Goods Cost - 99.99
Shipping Cost Per Order - 10

Thank you in bucket loads.. there it is! I just didn't click on shipping methods :(. I thought it bizarre that the system couldn't do this: apologies to ViArt for all the nasty thoughts I thought... but if only they could rewrite the manual, pleeeeeeaasse :)
 
Thanks,
G