Shipping methods wrong behavior

-- HikaShop version -- : HikaShop [1312231536]
-- Joomla version -- : 3.2
-- PHP version -- : 5.3.28
-- Browser(s) name and version -- : FF / Safari

Hello,
in the shop I manage international shipments and once selected products, in the checkout page the scripts shows shipping methods based on shop location. Destination drop down list field isn't pre-selected based on user location but based on shop location so the referred shipping methods are shown. The problem is they are not refreshed once the user select his destination. They are refreshed only when the user is logged in. The result is not logged in users see a wrong shipping cost and abandon the basket.

How can I fix this?
Thanks in advance

Hello,
I didn't totally understood your issue, can you give me more information about it through some screenshots for example, so that I can understand it and found out from where the problem is coming from ?
Thanks .

The user selects some products and goes to checkout. Now he has to register to the site or login. The user is not yet registered, so he has to register to the site.
He get the registration form with country and states pre-selected. This pre-selection determines which shipping methods are shown by default. The pre-selection of country and states (in registration form, so user is not yet registered or logged in at this stage) is NOT made using the user geo-location. Shop location is preselected instead and form is shown with its country and state. We have different goods stock place, so delivery can be made from the same user country at a much lower cost.
So, recap: the user has chosen the products and gone to checkout page; he get the registration form with country and state fields pre-selected with shop location and delivery methods/costs are show based on these information.
This is the situation. The user is not yet registered and has only chosen the products and he is in the checkout page.

Now he wants to know what is the delivery cost before complete the registration form and/or confirm the order. He selects the right country and state, the page is refreshed but the delivery methods are not refreshed as well. They still refer to the pre-selection country and state.
The result is the user doesn't like the shipping cost (of course) and abandon the basket.
Once the user is registered/logged in, instead, it works fine (as far as I know).
To fix it the pre-selection of country should be made referring to the user geo-location or shipping methods should be refreshed once the user selects his country.
How can I get it?

Hi,

That's a normal behavior, what I recommend is to make a checkout workflow in many steps.
In the first step ask the user address, and in the next step display the shipping methods.

By this way the shipping methods will have a price according to the user address.

Hi Xavier,
Thanks for your reply.

Can I kindly ask you why do you consider this behavior "normal"?
Shouldn't be normal to know what I'm going to pay (the total order) before to be registered?

And why it should be normal to not refresh the shipping method (on address change) when the user is not logged in, considering that the page is reloaded?

Don't get me wrong, I just want to understand what kind of "normal" shop you expect when you purchase. Are you happy to be constrained to register to know the shipping cost?

Hi Jerome,
Thanks for your reply and the time you taken for it.

I understand very well what Xavier try to explain. He did it perfectly.
What I try to explain you is that (your) customer's feedback is the most important value you can get. Much more than the money we (customers) pay for your products. It is not your products that will let you gain more money, but your reaction (in products developing speaking) to customer's feedback.

Said that, I have some difficulties to understand "normal" related to a software behavior that needs a specific shipping address to determine the appropriate methods (ok, so far so good) but at the same time it allow the user to select a "default" method (loaded by a default arbitrary pre-loaded data). Do we still want to call it normal? Ok.
But once the user selects a specific country, as the page is reloaded to populate the state drop down field, should be "normal" (from my personal point of view) to get a shipping method related to the user's country at least (now the script has it available). Yes, I know that some shipping methods requires a complete address to determine the shipping price and, for those, 2 steps process is the appropriate choice (may be the only one possible without an ajax function, and it would not be a bad development, btw).
Anyway, there are a lot of other shipping methods that just require the country to calculate the final price. For these, splitting the process in two steps it's an unuseful complication. The more simple is the selling process the more easy is the sale. I think everybody can agree to this.
If we consider that it "only" requires to pre-load a different data (detecting the user's geo-location) to fix it... or reload the shipping methods once the country has been submitted... yes, it requires some coding but, hei, we are talking about to refine your product, you should be happy to do it.

What I can't understand, and may be it is my own limit, is that must be the script's customers that have to change their sites to let the script working fine. This is something I really can't understand.
If a developer (in this case you as hikashop and not personally related to anyone, I really appreciate all your work and effort) instead to answer "it is normal" or "you have to change so and so" could answer "hummm, interesting, why do you require this? let us see what we can do. By the way, while we look for a more seamless solution, you can temporarily fix it by splitting the process in two steps. I'll be back to you with a timing forecast for a more efficient solution in a day or two." it would make the customer happy to be heard and to know that the developer thought to the problem from his point of view. This should be already a great result, but enhancing your script you not only fix a customer's needs making him happy, you also fit much more customers with the same needs (of which you don't know) and enlarge your target. It is a win-win situation.

So, below the line, every customer that accepts to change his site to let the script work fine hi lose the chance to let you know there is something you can do to enhance your script. Every time you answer "it is normal" or "you have to do so and so" you lose the chance to understand the customer (who use your product) point of view, think to the process from his point of view and develop a solution that enhance your script and make him (who buy your products) and all other customers (and willing to be) with the same problem happy.

Just my 2cents point of view.
Best regards.

Thanks for your feedback. Even if sometimes we are a bit direct and rude in our answers, you can be sure we take good note of what people want. We have regular discussions about what our customers and what they would like to see in Hikashop to make sure we focus on what's the most asked.

Eventually, we come up with solution, and it's the case for you . We actually have a geolocation plugin that can automatically detect the country of your users and fulfil the country field in the checkout based on what's detected. Since the shipping method are displayed according to this field, it should display exactly what you want.

Since it's a bit fresh, do not hesitate to give us feedback about it and we'll keep improving this feature!

Hi Elliot, thanks for your reply.

It's amazing to know about the plugin. Where can I find/download it?

Hi,

You can find it here:
www.hikashop.com/support/support/documen...hop-geolocation.html

Hi Xavier, thank you.

I've got the api key from ipinfodb.com and enabled the plugin. Then entered the authorized zones (comma separated) and left blocked zones empty but I get the following error:

Warning: Missing argument 1 for JDocumentRendererHead::render(), called in /home/******/public_html/shop/plugins/system/hikashopgeolocation/hikashopgeolocation_restricted.php on line 15 and defined in /home/*****/public_html/shop/libraries/joomla/document/html/renderer/head.php on line 34

I don't get any error if I empty the authorized zones field.

Have I also enter all the non authorized zones as blocked zones too? It would kill me...

Hi Jerome, Thank you.

Yes, it fixed the error.
However now I get another error message "you can't see this resource" in a empty white page.

Hi,
Can you tell me how and where are you having that issue ?

Hi Mohamed, thank you for your reply.
Herwith attached you can find the screenshot of the error. I get it in any page as soon as I enable the plugin.

Hi,

This error is probably displayed because you are in a not authorized zone.
Thanks to check your published zones, and see if you are not in one of them.

Hi,
today I had the time (and less site traffic, as it is on production) to do some test.
Yes, you right. I inserted the macro-zones I've created for shipping and tax rules but it didn't work. So I inserted any single zone, comma separated and it works (seems correctly).

I have to say only 2 things:
1. with all errors enabled I get the following error:
Strict Standards: Only variables should be assigned by reference in /home/*******/public_html/shop/administrator/components/com_hikashop/inc/geolocation.php on line 50
It could be only a '=&' forgotten.

2. From my point of view, if a zone is not specified in "Authorized" field (and not inserted in blocked field), it should be not automatically processed as blocked, outputting the error message. I had to insert all singles zones, it means more than 4000 code, comma separated in authorized zones field (I rmade a function to get the list).
So I kindly suggest 2 improvement:
a. let the plugin work with macrozones (a zone which includes other single zone, like Europe including all EEC members), so may be with only few macrozones the user can setup the plugin.
b. simply ignore the plugin if the user location is not in the authorized nor in blocked field (now he get the error and page breaks).

Thanks for your support!

Hello,

1. That error have probably been corrected through the last Hikashop version, so can you download it through our website, install it and test it again ?