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[icw]

Anybody home, or we all off fishing ?

[deneb]

the first post by Soeren briefly details the steps...but all expand a little...

In VM, parent/child products allow stock levels based on attribute differences.
we agree that the attributes will be used to define the different versions of the child products.

VM may be a little more difficult to set up with respect to parent/child products than other carts, but allows MUCH more flexibility. You will see once you get used to it. 

terminology:
Product = Parent Product
Item = Child Product

note: you will never sell the parent product...only child products if they exist. So, you may want to define the Parent SKU in a generic fashion (in your case, maybe parent SKU would be "CM000") and the parent price might be set as the price of the lowest priced child, so the customer sees low price and gets excited... you make the decision.

How to set up child products (items):
===========================================
I will detail your first child product (trail size Cleaner Milk) the rest is up to you...just repeat!

1. create a product (or use an existing one.) this will be the parent product. (so, in a sense, all products are parent products.)

2. add an attribute to the parent (eg. Size) by clicking the Add Attribute button at the top of the product form. Type in "Size" in the Attribute Name box..( you can also set the list order if you want)...then save.

3. Go back into the parent product form. Click the Add Item button at the top of the product form. This brings up a new product form to enter the details of the child product.

4. Put in your unique item Name (Cleansing Milk - Trial Size), SKU (CM30t), Item  price (5.95) (yes, also quantity based prices as well if you wish), and descriptions on the first tab of the form.

(Note: Notice how the tabs on this form are named "Item Information", Item Status", etc..instead or "Product Information", "Product Status"...?  this indicates that you are editing a child product (item.)

5. Then click over to the second tab, "Item Status". Look toward the bottom and you will see a text box to fill in labeled, "Size". This is the attribute you defined in the parent product. Now type in the "Size" of your Item. (in this case, 30mL)

6. Continue to fill in the remaing data on the rest of the tabs (if you want.)

7. Click the Save button at the top. You will be shown a summary of the Item details.

8. Click "Product List" link on the summary and you should see the entire product list. Look at your Parent Product, it should have "[Item Information]" link next to the name.

9. To add another child (item) go into the parent and repeat steps 3 thru 7 above. OR, to view the list of that Parent's childs, click the "[Item Information]" link next to the name of the parent.

=================================================

The way this cart is designed gives you so much flex....you can make a child item have its's own description, look &  feel, weight, yada yada...AND keep track of inventory...unlike other cart software!

[icw]

I've follwed this as explained, but when I select a product from the pull down, it does not flip to the correct size as select nor does it allow me to add to the cart and states the message at the top of the item

Info: Please select a special item



I have one attribute called Format upon where I added 3 product size choises, when I list the attributs it shows correct for the parent product as having 3 other child products but fails to allow selection to add to the cart,,,

What am I doing wrong???

[deneb]

Info: Please select a special item

You should see that when you try to add the parent product to the cart.

It is asking you to select a child product from the pull-down in the parent product details page.

[icw]

Ok, for some reason if there is no wieght set, it will not allow a select resulting in this as stated in last post.

Also, I've noted that I have 4 prices for the different sizes, but the prices do not give a logical order.

Example

5.95
19.95
39.95
9.95

I've tried different ways, but cannot set the order.

Now a pulldown is fine for many other type of product, but is there a way to set this as a checkbox with all prices shown rather then creation of one parent then 4 other products. this in terms of a dual language setup is a nightmare having to translate 4 times rather then once with attached attribs for selection.

Remember this is a cosmetic choice product and must be as simple and clear as possible.

Having setup carts using OSC and Zencart, one creates a master product and then adds attribs without the need for master and child products. Lots of extra work for a product with requirements for different sizes would you not think?

Setting up attribs for other carts as mentioned above allow style of the attrib, pulldown, checkbox, radiobutton plus allowing a default pre-selection if so required.

If one has hundreds of products this could take months before a store is fully online. Having setup Zencart with 170 products and attribs took close to two weeks in both French and English. For me using this method will take much longer and more risk of typos or other errors being possible.

[mk__]

i‘ve set up parent and child products – stock level works fine. but how can i get rid of the attributes names in the pulldown menu? "color" "size" ...

productX - color(blue) - size(big) - 25.00€

to

productX - blue - big - 25.00€

thanks eM

[deneb]

hack ps_products.php class file

[icw]

Any ideas about my last post ?

[turok]

Hello,
Actually, it's not the ps_product.php that you want to hack.
The file is ps_product_attributes.php.

You need to replace

Code:

$html .= $db_item->f("attribute_name") . " ";
$html .= "(" . $db_item->f("attribute_value") . ")";

With

Code:

//$html .= $db_item->f("attribute_name") . " ";
$html .= $db_item->f("attribute_value");

That's it.
Make sure to backup your original file before doing this.

[mk__]

perfect! 

[redlens]

I have items that also as you stated in your April post have to have attributes independent of eachother - everything else in this cart (mostly) is managed by the GUI but somehow attributes must be input through a string that has to be carefully coded (i.e. you must you SEMICOLONS, COMMAS, and BRACKETS) or else all the attribute settings could go out of wack.

Does anyone have a more streamlined approach to this? The closest thing would be editing the CSV, but that would still call for entering these carefully written strings of attributes, which is time consuming - and I cannot put an employee on the task cause they could easily mess up.

Please email any help or guidance to: redlens@gmail.com

[vector]

Hi anyone can help me?
I'm working on a clothes store and on some clothes in the catalogue has 10 colours and 10 different sizes
I've to keep every combination as a unique product with a unique SKU (for stocking matters)

The solution could be using parent/child items, but this will generate a select box with 100 different rows! A little too much for a good shop experience...

There is a way to split the selection dropdown in two different dropdowns, one for the size and one for colours?


Any suggestion  is welcome...

[RJ]

Is it possible to attach child attributes (products) to multiple parents?  I have 300 items which are essentially sold in packages.  The packs themselves contain multiple sheets, each with their own product id) as well as some other pieces.  When a package is ordered from the website, our warehouse picks all the appropriate pieces from raw inventory and assembles the package for shipment.  The only problem is, some of our raw inventory is used to build hundreds of packages, so I need the store to recognize if one piece is out of stock, many packages are effectively unavailable until we restock that raw piece.  I know from reading that this subject has been beaten to death, but I saw that the original post saying child attributes cannot be tied to multiple parents was dated December 2005.  Has this changed since then?  If not, is there anyone who might have some tips as to how I would approach this?  I am going to be working on this for the next month or so, but I am not a strong coder, so if anyone has any ideas, I would greatly appreciate the help.  Regardless, I will be making whatever hack I come up with (if any) available here in hopes of future improvements, and or new thoughts how to approach.

Regards

[bunglehaze]

So by doing this can I now set my products up to have stock control on amounts or packages of products??

For instance my client sells crabs and snails in minimum quantities of say 6 items but then single increments after that, right now we have attributes set for 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 20 and 30 items but obviously this leaves an issue with stock control as any of those choices only remove 1 item from stock.

Is there a method within VM that will allow set packages and also control the stock level for each? I am in quite a hurry to get this sorted for my client so all help is appreciated.

regards

leigh

[vicTOR goddard]

do you add a stock number amount or price for the parent product.also when i order the items thorugh my site it does not limit my stock to what i have..for example if i have 1 red keychain on my site i am able to order 3 how do i fix this