FedEx Advanced & LTL shipping

I just completed a new version of the FedEx Advanced for Merchant 5.x module which adds LTL as a shipping method.  It is handled in much the same way as the freight methods that were already in the module.  I.e. a single order’s shipping can be split between regular FedEx methods and LTL and the shipping option will be displayed to the customer  showing how much they are paying for each (and the total shipping).    Options associated with the LTL method include being able to specify the weight cutoff over which a package will be restricted to LTL shipping (the FedEx api will actually return LTL shipping quotes for packages of only a few pounds!), the freight class of the package, and the FedEx LTL account number (FedEx maintains a separate account number for LTL shipping…it’s optional for the module to be able to calculate LTL shipping).  And as with other shipping methods these otions can be configured individually for products configured to ship in a separate package.

In accordance with the options offered by the FedEx LTL api the module can now prompt the customer to select which of the LTL options they need (e.g. “Lift gate required”).

In addition,  this new version also adds a  tab to the order details (under  >Order Processing in Merchant admin) which displays the shipping cost alloted to  various methods (if there was more than one they are listed separately) as well as which options the customer selected.  This same feature has also bee added to  the UPS Custom Integration for Merchant 5.x

An update for Order Status Manager for 5.x

I have modfied the 5.x version of the Order Status Manager.  This update adds two new features:

• Support for displaying the data  collected during checkout (the “note” and other data as detailed in this FAQ) in emails sent to the customer by the stock notification email modules (and third party modules if they support the evaluation of variables) and on the invoice (INVC) page.  Details on how to go about it can be found here.
• Support for displaying customer customer and product data (configured for the customer and products using Merchant’s stock “Custom Customer Fields” and “Custom Product Fields” modules) in the Order Status Manager’s various templates.  Details on how to go about this can be found here.

-Mike

A New Years update for Inventory Manager 5.x

I have done a poor job of posting here since we put up the blog.  It always seemed like such a time and energy consuming great hill to write up something worth reading.     That hasn’t changed but we do need to do a better job of “getting out the word” on the goings-on at VikingCodes.  So I have decided to drop the “worth reading” criteria and will be going with shorter, more frequent posts with the main goal of keeping you informed.

On that note, I have just completed a modification to the Inventory Manager for 5.x that permits the tokens intended for use with the VC Attribute Template module to be used in the “Product Attribute Template”  area of the page templates in Merchant 5.x.  With this change the VC Attribute Template module is no longer necessary for adding inventory information to your attributes and controlling attribute option dispalys based on inventory status.   The use of component tokens as discussed in the  Inventory Manager 5.x documentation applies to  the token use in the  “Product Attribute Template” area as well.   You’ll find more information in the documentation and a brief FAQ on the matter.

-Mike

They Funny

Zappos takes a humorous approach to getting visitors to their site: $50,000 cease and desist

…and I guess it just worked!

(via twitter)

SEO tools…so many, so little time

I had no idea there were so many search engine optmization tools around.

(Article from my brother’s boss–his newsletter and blog are regularly packed with good info).

Sitepoint CSS book giveaway

Sitepoint can be a little too pushy at times but they often have some good material. At the moment they are giving away their CSS book The Art and Science of CSS if you follow them on twitter. Details here

Interesting shopping cart ideas

Smashing Magazine is a great resource for design ideas. Here is a collection on shopping cart examples and good practices

Help Desk Hiccups

Please reply to tickets via the help desk directly, not via email. (Email is also not a secure medium to be sending logins and the like). We are still working out a lot of kinks, so please bear with us.

Hole in the Helpdesk

Our helpdesk sprung a nasty leak and we’re handling support manually at the moment. We hope to have a new desk up today.

Free Shipping Add-on Module

We have just finished up a new module, Free Shipping 5, that makes it easier to display when you have free shipping in your store.

Free Shipping 5 is built on top of our suite of shipping modules - UPS Custom Integration, FedEx Advanced and USPS Advanced. The module reads the settings of any of those modules you have installed and allows you to place some simple SMT Code in any location where a product is displayed in your store. You can use the module on product, category, product listing, basket and other pages in your store.

An ancillary benefit of Free Shipping is the ability to quickly test whether or not free shipping is working in your store (without having to go through the checkout process). So, if you were to flag a product is set to ship for free and you are tinkering various override settings at the category and product level, you could easily test if shipping were working as you anticipated. (Note, however, Free Shipping 5 doesn’t take into account price point free shipping, e.g. if you set products to ship for free on orders greater than $50.)