Combining shipping options

Can anyone please help. I have no problem adding my shipping costs from the database i.e. a stove costs 25 to ship and a stove liner costs 14.99 and a stove fitting costs 6.99 to ship. The problem comes that due to the heavy weight each of these costs also vary so not only do the products vary due to type but also due to area.

What is the best way to combine both factors as the only way I can see to do it is by having a session value that if not set forces the client to first register so I can then use:

SELECT cost FROM shipping WHERE category = 'stoves' AND country = 'country value from registration'

In summary is there a clean way to make shipping work on two factors, different weight values in combination with different shipping areas.

Hope someone can help as my current solution is untidy.

Thank you in advance, Fully

Since you want to calculate the shipping on the country it is being shipped to, you will need to use a database like you suggest. You don need to force registration though, the shipping country is stored in a session variable when the checkout form posts to the confirm page, so you can use the eCartCheckoutForm_shipping_country session variable in the shipping rate lookup recordset, store that shipping rate value in another session and use that session in the shipping charge.