Chapter 5 - Checking out process.

When a customer is ready to checkout he needs to complete three dialog forms with personal information. You can use default forms or make your own customized additions. This includes purchase form that is displayed for each item on the item description dialog, checkout forms, email receipt message, state tax information, and shipping schedule. All these definition files reside in the Frm directory.

Purchase Form:

You can use default purchase form by specifying "*" in the catalog purchase form field. This default from will contain Quantity field only. You can customize each item to have unique purchase form. Or you can share forms among many items by specifying the same from file name on the catalog line for each item.

Examples:

A purchase from is an ascii file that resides in Frm directory and contains 6 lines of text. Each line describes a form field that can optionally appear on the form. First two lines describe Choice fields, next two describe Check Box fields, and the last two describe text fields. Order is important. Use '*' if you don't need to use it.

Format for each line:

Choice       : Name=Option1,Option2,Option3 etc.
Check Box : Name
Text           : Name=length value
 
Example with two lines of Choice, one Check Box, and one Text field.

Color=Red,Blue,Green,Purple
Size=Small,Med,Large,X-Large
*
Gold
Special Instruction=10
*
 
Check Out Forms:

There is a special file in Frm directory that controls checkout process. The name of this file is JSCChkOut.ini. It is a regular acsii text file and can be edited with any editor that created text files. Each line in this file has special meaning. First six lines define optional fields that can be displayed in the beginning of first checkout screens. The next six lines define another six fields that can be inserted at the end of last checkout screen. The thirteenth line defines credit card options. The fourteenth line defines state or province sales tax rates. The fifteenth line defines country (VAT/GST) tax rates. Next several lines define shipping and handling options. You can define up to 25 different shipping options here. If you have only one shipping option specify it on line 16. The files should be empty after that.

File Format:

01 Text Field=text length
02 Text Field=text length
03 Choice Field=Option1,Option2,Option3,etc.
04 Choice Field=Option1,Option2,Option3,etc.
05 Check Box Field
06 Check Box Field
07 Text Field=text length
08 Text Field=text length
09 Choice Field=Option1,Option2,Option3,etc.
10 Choice Field=Option1,Option2,Option3,etc.
11 Check Box Field
12 Check Box Field
13 Name of credit card1,name of Credit card2,etc.
14 State=Rate;State=Rate;etc.
15 Country=Rate;Country=Rate;etc.
16 Postage Option 1,Method,Base Rate,Max Ship Charge, Free Ship after Amount,Default,type1=value1,type2=value2,etc.
17 Postage Option 2,Method,Base Rate,Max Ship Charge, Free Ship after Amount,Default,File Name of Rates
18 Postage Option 3,Method,Base Rate,Max Ship Charge, Free Ship after Amount,File Name of Rates

You can use '*' if you want to suppress a specific field.

Important: This file MUST have specific number of lines.

Example:
Option1=30
Option2=30
Option3=select1,select2,select3
Option4=select1,select2,select3
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*Visa Card,*Master Card,*American Express,*Discover,By check
ny=8.25;new york=8.25;nj=7.5;fl=6.75;florida=6.75;ca=8
canada=7;germany=13;spain=13.8
First Class,1,4,100,500,2,a=1,b=.5,aa=2.50,c=.75
Forth Class,2,3,300,800,1,fedexsm.txt
Foreign Postage ,3,9,100,500,value1.txt

Payment Options other than credit cards:

If you wish to accept other payment methods you can disable Credit Card number validation. You can list your payment methods on the line thirteen.

For example:

COD,CHECK,*Visa Card,*Master Card,*American Express,*Discover

Notice the '*' in front of the credit card type. The '*' tells JSC to validate Credit Card Number. You must have '*' in the beginning of you Credit Card Type. Otherwise the Credit Card Number will not be validated.

The other payment methods should not have '*'. This way JSC will not validate the card number and will let the Order get through.

The "Credit Card Type" character string on the last check-out form can be changed to "Payment Method" string by modifying JSCStrings.ini file (see Chapter 7). Just find "Credit Cart Type" in the JSCStrings.ini file and replace it with "Payment Method".

State/Province Sales Tax:

If you are located in certain states and need to charge state sales tax for customers that live in the same state you can easily accomplish it by specifying State Code and Rate on the 14th line in the JSCChkOut.ini file. See example above. The state or province name on this line will be matched to the name entered on the check-out form. Upper/Lower case ignored. You can have multiple entries for the same state (fl=6.75;florida=6.75). This way if your customers enters FL on the check-out form you will have a match for FL or if they enter Florida you will have match for Florida.
The states are separated by ';'. You can have up to 100 entries for Deluxe version and 52 for the Free version.

Country VAT/GST Tax:

Some countries have state/province and national country tax (Value Added Tax or Goods and Service Tax) or just VAT by itself. On the 15th line you list countries and their tax rates. You can have multiple entries to cover all possible abbreviations that people might enter on the check-out form. Example: Canada=7;Austria=16.7;
The countries are separated by ';'. You can have up to 100 entries for Deluxe version. Free version doesn't support this.

Shipping and Handling:

The VSSD JSC Supports three different methods of calculating shipping charges. The first method is by Item Shipping were each item has a specific shipping price. The second method is by Weight method. It calculates total weight of your purchase and applies a charge to it from a rate table. The third method is by Value method. It will calculate shipping charge based on the total value of your purchase.

These three methods give you a lot of control and flexibility of how you can set up you shipping charges. They should accommodate most businesses. Starting in the line 16 you can describe each method according to you needs.

These methods work with the definition in the ShipHandleInfo field in the catalog files. It is a last field on each line or record in the catalog. The default value is '*'. You can specify item type, item shipping price, or item weight here. It all depends on which shipping method you choose to use.

Shipping amount and Sales Tax

Some states or countries require shipping amount to be included into the sales tax. To specify that put "*" as the first character of the postal option description.
Example: *UPS Ground
The "*" will be suppressed when  description  is displayed on the screen.

Method One Per Item Shipping.

Starting in line 16 you can describe parameters for this method. The ',' separates each parameter.

Format:
Postage Option Description,Method,Base Rate,Max Ship Charge, Free Ship after Amount,Default,type1=value1,type2=value2,etc.

Description of each parameter:

The ShipHandleInfo field can contain the actual shipping price that you want to charge to deliver this item. The VSSD JSC will use this price to calculate total shipping cost. Normal type=value logic will be bypassed in this case. This way you have an absolute control over each item in case it does not belong to any class of items and needs a special handling charge.

Example:
First Class,1,4,50,150,1,a=1,b=0.5
Second Class,1,3,50,150,0.75,a=0.75,b=0.40


Method Two Per Weight Shipping.

Starting in line 16 you can describe parameters for this method.
The ',' separates each parameter.

Format:
Postage Option Description,Method,Base Rate,Max Ship Charge, Free Ship after Amount,Default,Weight Rates File

Description of each parameter:

Example: One Lbs is $1.99, Two Lbs is $2.49 etc.
1=1.99
2=2.49
3=2.99
4=3.45

You can have as many lines of rates as you like with one weight=value on each line.

Example:
First Class,2,4,50,150,1,Rates1.txt
Second Class,2,3,50,150,0.75,Rates2.txt


If total weight value is between entries the higher charge will be takes. For example if total weight is 2.5 Lbs and you use the table from example above the $2.99 will be charged.


Method Three Per Value Shipping.

Starting in line 16 you can describe parameters for this method. The ',' separates each parameter. The shipping charge depends on the total order value.

Format:
Postage Option Description,Method,Base Rate,Max Ship Charge, Free Ship after Amount,Value Rates File

Description of each parameter:

Example: Order of $10 is $1.99 Shipping, Order of $20 is $2.49 etc.
10=1.99
20=2.49
30=2.99
40=3.45

You can have as many lines of rates as you like with one order value=charge on each line.

Example:
First Class,3,4,50,150,Value1.txt
Second Class,3,3,50,150,Value2.txt

There is no default '*' value in this method.

If total order value is between entries the higher charge will be takes. For example if total order is $25 and you use the table from example above the $2.99 will be charged.

Receipt File:

The receipt file JSCReceipt.ini is an ascii file located in Frm directory. It contains a message that will be appended to the email receipt that will be send to the customer.
Example:

Thank you for ordering our materials on-line.
You can visit us anytime.
1-800-777-8899
Copyright (c) Your company name.
 

This file will not be used if you choose FTP option to process your transactions.

Help File:

The help file JSCHelp.ini is an ascii file located in Frm directory. It contains User defined help information for your JSC. We provide standard help file that you can modify.

Example:

This Interactive Web Catalog enables to you view and order products.   After selecting specific menu option a list of products or a sub-menu will be displayed. If sub-menu is displayed just click on the next menu option
for further classification of the product that you are looking for. Or you can use search engine to find the specific item quickly by selecting [Search] option and entering search word(s).

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