Product_types and Custom Fields
macallf:
The point of this is not to ask questions about either, but what is perceived by product_types and the non-existant custom fields in VM.
So product_types, I think people misconceive the name! Product types are a way of adding extra information about a product e.g. a type of product.
You may have a store selling several different types of products, so creating custom fields in the core of VM for them would require many fields, for which some products won't use, some will use a couple another would use another 3! So lots of extra data that is never referenced and even harder to keep track of!
A product_type is a group of fields that belong to a certain product type. e.g. a computer store may need extra fields such as cpu make, speed, socket format etc, but a graphics card would also need ram, output socket types etc and there would be more and more extra fields to cover all eventualities! Not easy to manage and a nightmare to setup.
So with product types, in just the 2 cases above you could create 2 product_types called cpus and graphics_cards. You then create all the extra fields you require for each product and then assign them to the product.
So the question is do you really need custom fields added to the core of VM in order to store more product info in the main products database, when product types already exist to handle this situation?
We could go into naming conventions, so if we renamed product types as custom fields and told you to group them into groups to suit your products and the fact you could add more than 1 group of custom fields to a product, would that make understanding them easier?
The only downfall is the way that product types are displayed, in a table that you can't do anything about! Well you can with a small mod if have detailed here
Product types can also be further enhanced by what are called custom flypages. These are not templates but php scripts that process the info for that product type and enables you to display it as you wish e.g. Displaying icons instead of text for certain parameters dependant on their value etc. Or anything else for that matter. I have a site that uses product types to display icons, extract exif information of a digital information and extract exif information and display a google map according to it's co-ordinates.
So, I'll leave this for you to discuss, if you feel like it. I'll provide info if you are unclear on anything and hopefully enable more of you to use product types.
TonyG:
Mark many thanks for the clear and concise explanation of the use of Product Types, much appreciated.
I think renaming Product Types to perhaps Custom Product Fields in future versions will be a good idea, it will explained what the feature does much more better.
indiebindy:
is it possible to use th product type as a place to have additional product attribute form field with wysiwyg editor?
macallf:
Product types are not input fields. They are extra fields to describe a product to the shopper.
EquiProVM:
Macalif:
Thanks SO much for this GREAT explanation! I was very confused by "product types", "attributes" and "categories". This helps me to understand this just a bit more.
I have question for you: I have a very small product line (<10 products). The shopping cart function that I have used before made "attributes" sort of a list that you could attach to any given product. For instance, I have products made out of 1680D nylon, and products made out of 840D nylon. In my old shopping cart, I would make 2 separate attributes. #1 would be "made from 1680D "double-ballistic" nylon". #2 would be "made from 840D "ballistic" nylon". When I added a product, there would be a drop-down list of attributes. I would choose the attributes to associate with that particular product and they would appear listed with bullets on the product page. This made it quite simple to add or remove consistent attributes to any given product.
I am a newbie with VirtueMart, and when I was putting in my products yesterday, I found that the attributes function did not work, at all, in the same way that it did on my last site. Can you further explain the attributes function? I think that it is a matter of semantics, like your explanation of "product types" above.
Thanks!
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