ViaJcart - User Manual - Chapter 5 - Checking out process

Chapter 5 - Checking out process

When a customer is ready to checkout he needs to complete three dialogs 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 schedules. All these definition files reside in the Frm directory.

You can control Check Out default fields and the Credit Card year values by making changes to the JSC.ini file. Please read Chapter 2 - JSC.ini control file for more details.

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.

A Purchase Form 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 not need to use it.

There is a special file in Frm directory that controls Checkout process. The name of this file is JSCChkOut.ini. It is regular ASCII text file and can be edited with any editor (NotePad for example) that creates 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. The sixteenth line is for discount. 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 17. The files should be empty after that.

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.

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

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 ViaJCart version.

You can have default rate by specifying Default=rate at the end of the line. It must be the last parameter on the line.

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 300 entries for ViaJCart version.

You can have default rate by specifying Default=rate at the end of the line. It must be the last parameter on the line.

You can specify Discount percentage or fixed amount based on the total purchase amount. On the line 16 you can list TotalAmount=DiscountValue separated by ‘;’. Use ‘%’ to signify percentage or use a number to signify a fixed amount.

The total from the shopping cart must be less than or equal to the amount on the line 16 to qualify for this specific discount.
You can list up to 100 discount entries on this line.

The ViaJCart™ 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 17 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.

Postal Option Description	-- is a description of the shipping method that will be displayed on the last check out form. It should say something like "First Class Shipping".
Method	-- is a number from 1 to 3 representing the shipping method. It this case you put method 1.
Base Rate	-- is a fixed shipping charge amount that will be added to the order. It can be combined with other parameters to calculate correct total shipping charge.
Max Ship Charge	-- is a maximum shipping charge that can be applied to the order. If calculated shipping amount is larger than this maximum charge the shipping amount will be reduced to the maximum amount.
Free Ship after Amount	-- if total order amount exceeds this amount do not charge for shipping.
Default type	-- this amount will be charge for the item if default '*' character is entered in the ShipHandleInfo field.
Type=Value	-- this might need a little explanation. You can assign a type to each item.For example you can classify certain items as type 'a' and another set of items as type 'b'. You enter 'a' or 'b' character type in the ShipHandleInfo field for each item depending on its classification. Than on the shipping line you specify price for this type (a=2.25,b=3.45). This way you can change price in one place and effect all items with this type. You can specify up to 50 different types. The type must be a character string one or more bytes long (a=3,aa=5,abc=7.60). The value is the actual price itself.

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 17 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:

Postal Option Description	-- is a description of the shipping method that will be displayed on the last check out form. It should say something like "Third Class Shipping".
Method	-- is a number from 1 to 3 representing the shipping method. It this case you put method 2.
Base Rate	-- is a fixed shipping charge amount that will be added to the order. It can be combined with other parameters to calculate correct total shipping charge.
Max Ship Charge	-- is a maximum shipping charge that can be applied to the order. If calculated shipping amount is larger than this maximum charge the shipping amount will be reduced to the maximum amount. Free Ship after Amount -- if total order amount exceeds this amount do not charge for shipping.
Default type	-- is the default weight for the item if default '*' character is entered in the ShipHandleInfo field.
Weight Rates File	-- this parameter represents a file name that contains weight rates table in the format of weight=charge.

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 17 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:

Postal Option Description	-- is a description of the shipping method that will be displayed on the last check out form. It should say something like "Third Class Shipping".
Method	-- is a number from 1 to 3 representing the shipping method. It this case you put method 3.
Base Rate	-- is a fixed shipping charge amount that will be added to the order. It can be combined with other parameters to calculate correct total shipping charge.
Max Ship Charge	-- is a maximum shipping charge that can be applied to the order. If calculated shipping amount is larger than this maximum charge the shipping amount will be reduced to the maximum amount.
Free Ship after Amount	-- if total order amount exceeds this amount do not charge for shipping.
Value Rates File	this parameter represents a file name that contains value rates table in the format of order value=charge or value=number% when "charge" is a fixed shipping amount and "number%" is the percentage from the total amount.

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

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 (text) file located in Frm directory. It contains a message that will be appended to the email receipt that will be send to the customer.

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 ViaJCart. We provide standard help file that you can modify.