I think I must have done, today, the most complex Wordpress/Woocommerce configuration in my life. OK maybe the last 5 years, because I've only been working with these two applications for a few years, so far. Now, I have been working with HTML since 1995.
Oh and btw my younger my sister is a great-grandmother, just to put things in perspective.
Here's what happened.
1. I got my first retail order on my new Wordpress site - www.feltedfibre.com today! However my shipping system didn't recognize her address in Alberta. Got the order sorted out and now I had to get the site sorted out!
2. Did my usual Google inquiry. Got lots of suggestions - nothing worked except I did pick up what I thought were "peripheral data." You now something that could be used in a rain storm maybe.
3. Spent two hours reading rather useless - non-rainstorm data.
4. Finally saw in a forum a note from a Canadian struggling with the Canadapost template in Woo Commerce. I had been too - between taking a break from reading google useless data and trying to work "things out on the site." Her magnificent phrase was, "I finally realized, I had to download the Canada Post plug-in." Who would have thought!
No where, believe me, no where was there any information that said: First download and install the plugin!
5. The revelation, although miraculously sent, (these are the days I believe in God) did not prepare me for the even more obscure information offered by the Canadapost plugin.
6. In attempting to configure the settings, I was told I had to join Canadapost - well at least it was FREE. I already had a Canadapost acct. My usual username & password did not work in these settings, however, I clicked a link and used the same username and password to get yet another user name and password, which I wasn't told were the ones I should be using in the plugin settings.
No where does anyone say - "Use these." In fact in desperation I entered the first set of numbers. Yes, I was given 2 usernames and 2 passwords, with no instructions. You got it! The first pair didn't work. I didn't immediately use the second set, because I was convinced I was barking up the wrong tree - not exactly the right metaphor, but after 3 hours of confusion, I could have used worse analogies!
Finally, with nowhere else to go, I entered the second set of numbers - Behold!! they worked. Well, sort of. I could now order from my site, get a connection with Canadapost and ship a 1 pound box to myself for $1.00. Hmmm...more work.
7. I deleted the snail mail option. That worked. I could now ship to Ontario, sensibly! But, I couldn't ship to Alberta. However, in all the useless information I took in today, I remembered that one of the problems could be that I hadn't set up a weight for this product. I checked. Sure enough there was no weight listed. I entered .01 of a kilo and Voila! I got an updated shipping option to Alberta.
Computer programming is not about logic. It's about intuition and my ESP was working overtime today!!
It availeth-ed!!
Have an applied day!!
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