Royal Mail Shipping Plugin

-- HikaShop version -- : 4.0.3
-- Joomla version -- : 3.9.6
-- PHP version -- : 7.2.18

Hi

I just wondered of anyone was aware of a Royal Mail plugin for shipping. I realise that I can manually create rates!

Thanks

Dave

Hi,

There is no specific plugin for Royal Mail. I think they don't have an API to dynamically calculate the shipping rates like UPS, FedEx or USPS.
So you need to manually create shipping methods for the different shipping fees you want to support on your website.
Note that BrainForge has an improved manual shipping plugin available here to better support UK post codes if you need to have shipping fees based on UK post code ranges:
brainforge.co.uk/shop/product/5-plg_hikashopshipping_bfmanual

I believe the Royal mail now have an API:

developer.royalmail.net/api

Can this be used to develop a Royal Mail shipping plugin?, after all these years and struggle

Hi,

Well, yes and no.
The APIs available there allow you to create an integration to send the order details to Royal Mail and get back a label (so that you can print the label to put on the package) and track the package.
It's basically the same function that can be done with the MyParcel shipping plugin:
www.hikashop.com/marketplace/product/245...shipping-plugin.html
So it doesn't help to calculate the shipping fees automatically. You would still need to manually enter the rates like before.

Nicolas,
Thanks for the reply. Yes I understand that I will need to add shipping fees in the backend of Hikashop with the relevant costs etc, I have already done that.

What I don't currently have is the ability to generate the label with the correct postage etc.

You mention the MyParcel plugin, this is for the Netherlands I believe and not the Royal mail? Could it be modified?

Hi,

Well, the MyParcel plugin is for the MyParcel shipping system.
So it would require developing a Royal Mail plugin for the Royal Mail shipping system.
It was just to give an understanding of what such plugin could do.
You could modify the MyParcel plugin for the Royal Mail plugin, yes. That would basically mean rewriting the whole plugin besides a few lines of code for the structure of the plugin. It's like payment plugins: they are all based on the same structure. So you can use the PayPal payment plugin to write the Stripe plugin, but if you look at their code, besides a few lines of code which the same because they use the same HikaShop triggers, same HikaShop variables/functions, most of the code is actually different.

Hi there, I read this post with interest as I am in the same boat! I was just wondering if there has been any new development on a royal mail plugin? I managed to manually create shipping zones but it's still not working as I would like. The ability to create labels directly from the orders on my website would be such a massive time saver rather than having to create an entire new profile on the royal mail shipping site. I would happily buy it if it was available!!

Hi,

There was no development on that end so far.

However, if you would like us to work on such a plugin for you, that's possible. That would require implementing the API here:
developer.royalmail.net/node/1877912
What we did with MyParcel is interesting:
Someone really needed for his website and proposed for us to work on it. He paid us and allowed us to sell it later on on our marketplace. The advantage is two folds for him:
- It is cheap based on the amount of work necessary (otherwise a plugin like that would cost thousands of euros to develop)
- we then keep on maintaining it down the road for everyone, including him
For us, it allows us to justify the development with the bare minimum of funds up front.
If that's something you would be interesting in, we can further discuss it via our contact form:
www.hikashop.com/support/contact-us.html

Hi Nicolas, thanks for the reply! (sorry, OP, for hijacking your post!)
that sounds very interesting. I will take a look at link you shared and see if this is something I can do. (I can get by with joomla but I am definitely no whizz so it is a bit of a learning curve for me but I am very keen to try it if it is within the realms of my capability.

Hi,

If you want to do it on your end, that's totally possible. I would recommend basing yourself on the MyParcel plugin code since you need to add the same kind of capabilities.

Oh no, this would be way out of my capability range and it would be far better to let the experts do the heavy lifting on this one. What I meant is that I am not sure how to implement the API and how to work with you like your previous client. I will just have to wait until a plugin becomes available for purchase.

Hi,

Well, if you want us to work on it, and you have funds (around 700€) and a Royal Mail account (so that we could run tests while developing the plugin), we could do it.
Otherwise, you would indeed have to wait for the plugin to become available in the future.

I appreciate all the work you put in to develop these things. I would be happy to support the development but sadly as a small business this out of my budget. Thank you so much for taking the time to communicate with regards to this.

Hi,

is there any interface between Hikashop and Royal Mail, or is it coming soon?

Best regards,
Dimitris

Hi,

What has been written throughout the years here still stands as far as I know.

There is already a plugin to setup shipping rates for Royal Mail here:
www.brainforge.co.uk/shop/downloads/prod...pping-extra-features

Regarding an integration with the label API of Royal Mail, so far, now one was willing to invest in its development.

Hi,

thank you!