flat rate shipping charges by state

I'm using eCart v6.1.3. I need to apply a flat shipping charge by state but I don't know where to start. I searched through the forum without any luck. I found a reference to "$_SESSION['eCartCheckoutForm_shipping_state_province']" but searching through all my pages did not return any results for that value. I am also concerned what happens if the visitor changes their address for shipping in PayPal after they complete the checkout form on the website.

Implementation depends on the payment provider you use. It can also be done with either individual ecart rules, or managed through a database table.

You do need to make sure that you update the shipping based on the paypal shipping state selected if it changes. That would be automatic if you use individual ecart rules, and can be easily accounted for by doing another lookup in the database table if you use that route.

If you .zip a copy of your checkout pages (checkout, confirm, pp_confirm, confirm_cart) then I can take a look and be more specific.

zip file attached

The state is stored as:

$_SESSION["WASF_CheckoutWizard_Sharp_Default"]["state"]

You could add an ecart rule with the trigges:
Session variable exists: WASF_CheckoutWizard_Sharp_Default
AND
Custom Expression evaluates to true: $_SESSION['WASF_CheckoutWizard_Sharp_Default']['state'] == 'CA'


Then set the charge to:
Flat rate: 22

or whatever flat rate charge you want for that state. Then duplicate that rule for each state you ship to.

That session variable is updated to the value selected in paypal when using paypal checkout, so it will automatically update the charge. I've attached a screen shot of how the rule should look in the eCart object.

thanks Ray, I'll do some testing tomorrow...

When testing, the shipping state from PayPal seems to be stored in WASF_CheckoutWizard_Sharp_Default']['State'] and the state from my checkout form is stored in $_SESSION['WASF_WA_Payments']['State']. Howerver, I was able to update the shipping rate using the value in $_SESSION['WASF_WA_Payments']['State']. Should I be using the value in WASF_CheckoutWizard_Sharp_Default']['State'] instead?

Also, I'm thinking I need to update shipping charges based on the state in my checkout form so the visitor knows exactly what their shipping cost is before they're sent to PayPal. In an attempt to send shipping information to PayPal, I opened the behavior "Process PayPal Express Checkout Transaction" and I added WA_getSavedFormValue("CheckoutWizard_Sharp_Default","State") from the Persistent Form to SH_StateOrProvince (etc. with the other fields) but I didn't see it any change in the values from PayPal. Is this the way I should be forcing PayPal to use my shipping information?

Yes... you should be using:

['WASF_CheckoutWizard_Sharp_Default']['State']

I had used the wrong variable set in my example. (I'll update it)

thanks again Ray... more testing tomorrow...

Okay, my shipping by state seems to be working now but I have a caveat. The cart summary is shown at the bottom of my checkout page and does not include shipping charges. When the shopper selects "Continue" they are then redirected to PayPal. How do I display a confirmation screen for the cart before it goes to PayPal so that the shopper can see the shipping charges first?

The latest version of eCart 6 checkout should refresh the Cart with shipping charges on the checkout page before they go to Paypal. If that isn't working, then probably some customization you made to the page broke it. If you post a URL for me to view the issue and give me FTP access then I'll take a look.