Parent product out of stock even though its children are in stock

[TeeJay.net]

Hello,
I think my title is clear, but anyway:

Let's say I have a product called AAA which has three children - A, B and C. Getting onto product detail page of the parent, I see "out of stock". I can't buy the parent product, I have to choose a variant first (a children). So I switch in a select box to one of its children (variants) and I can see that all three children are in stock.

I think that the parent product should show "In stock" as long as at least one of it's children is in stock. The availability of the parent product seems to be treated by it's own availability, but it makes no sense, it's not a product that can be bought. Only its children can be bought.

Are there any changes planned (maybe in VM3...) about this?
Thank you

[GuidoS]

I agree with this, I am also struggling with this. I also want some more control over the visibility of the children, I don't want to see the children in the product details when they are out of stock, and when the children are all out of stock I still want the parent to be visible but with a message sold out.

[TeeJay.net]

I don't really mind that out of stock children are visible (I'm not even sure about that), I just mind that the parent has "out of stock" message even though its children are in stock.

[Milbo]

There are some options in the vm config, to switch between this modes. You do not talk about it, therefore I think you just missed this options.

[TeeJay.net]

I think you're talking about these settings:



As you can see, I have set "Products Out of Stock are orderable, and the field 'Availability' below is displayed". There is no better option none of these settings does what I need.
- Hiding an Out of Stock Product would lead people from search engines to 404, I don't want to make any URL unaccessible once a product gets out of stock. But I still want to give people the chance to order it even though they will have to wait.

The option I miss there is "Products Out of Stock are orderable, and the field 'Availability' is controlled by children's availability. If all children are out of stock (or if the product has no children), display the field 'Availability' below."

Are we clear now?

[Milbo]

I fear so, yes

[TeeJay.net]

Thank you. Please, consider adding the functionality described above, I think that it is very reasonable.

[GuidoS]

I agree with TeeJay.net. I some cases it's also better for SEO, especially when a product is just out of stock for a short time.