What is ShippingRateComputationMethodSystemName

I'm developing a shipping plugin and I'm not quite sure what ShippingRateComputationMethodSystemName do.

Can the value for ShippingRateComputationMethodSystemName be different from order to order? I will include some ID etc in the name saved with every order.

Would that be an OK approach?

ShippingRateComputationMethodSystemName is the name of the shipping method plugin used to calculate the shipping cost for an order and the name is stored in the order as ShippingRateComputationMethodSystemName
i.e. Shipping.UPS or Shipping.FixedByWeightByTotal

Within each ShippingRateComputationMethod you can have a number of Shipping Methods that the customer can select this shipping method is also stored in the order as the actual shipping method used as ShippingMethod

What is the ID you want to store refer to ?
Maybe it can be stored in Order.CustomValuesXML

I store things like the carrier id and the carrier product chosen by the customer.

But I think you are absolutely right about the Order.CustomValuesXML. I'll take a look.

Thank you very much for input !

Your shipping rate plugin can return multiple shipping method names.  Maybe you could embed your information in the method name (if you don't mind the customer seeing it).  It is stored in the [ShippingMethod] field.

Hi New York

Problem is I'm loading all shipping methods and rates in real time during checkout. I need to save what shipping method the customers choses. So the order isn't created yet. My best option as far as I can see is saving info in the ShippingRateComputationMethodSystemName. It works fine but maybe I'm missing something important :)

It's not clear to me what you are really trying to do.  By their very design, Shipping Rate Provider (rate calculation) plugins do return  "all shipping methods and rates in real time" and also the "shipping method the customers chooses" is what nopCommerce stores in the ShippingMethod field.
The ShippingRateComputationMethodSystemName is defaulted to the system name of your plugin.  Generally, you should not change that, as it is the 'reference' to your plugin for when nopCommerce needs to access it later (e.g. if you support Tracking).

My problem is I have many shipping possibilities at the shipping portal. Many Carriers and products I don't know of beforehand. So depending on what the customer buys and where he/she lives shipping methods are displayed with rates.

For me to get the selected shipping method I save something like this in the ShippingRateComputationMethodSystemName.

MyShippingPluginName-X62-328-38358-8-4856-87G

Shipment is created when customer have authorized payment and then I use all variables to create the shipment

X62 - Carrier
328 - Carrier specific product
38358 - Product variant
8 - Pickup Location
4856 - Some Other variant
87G - More stuff

I could also use the method name field, but it looks a bit ugly to the customers when shipping methods are displayed :)

I think I'll continue and maybe overwrite the ShippingRateComputationMethodSystemName when order is Shipped.

RE:  "38358 - Product variant"
But there can be many items in the cart, and the customer can only choose one shipping method for the entire cart (unless you've customized)

Thats right. But I dont know anything about this shipping method beforehand. I have to look it up later to order a shipping label. I dont know where else I can store info. Method names might be sligthly different does not contain info enough to fetch info later with only the name

As New York says the Method name is used later after the order is created to do certain functions
If the ShippingRateComputationMethodSystemName stored in the order can not be used to find the shipping method then it will create an error. If it can be used then no problem.
subtile wrote:
You have the ShippingRateComputationMethodSystemName stored and you have the you have the ShippingMethod option saved and you have the order number
What is the info you want to store that you need to use later ?