I've been reading and searching, but I'm not clear on how the Custom Fields threads relate to this question. It is quite possible I've missed something, but perhaps someone could help me out here. It may be that this is not possible, but I would like to know.
I'm looking to sell nuts. So my roasted nuts come in 3 sizes. 6oz, 10oz, and 18oz. Each has a different price and as you can see they are not multiples of each other (like 8,16,24). I want to display Roasted Nuts but have the product contain no price and display a drop down for size with the price depending on which size is chosen. I have about 100 variants that all come in 6/10/18oz, but at different price points for each size, so each variant's price will have to be set in the product.
How do I achieve this as opposed to making 3 separate products for each variant.
I think I may have found my answer. I found a lot of people asking questions like this one and not a lot of answers, so in case someone stumbles upon this trying to answer the same questions...
This answers both problems I was trying to solve.
- Wanting to display a "dropdown" of product variants that really determine the actual product to be shipped (like different size bags of nuts), and
- The issue of requiring a variant be selected in order to move forward (validation - required field)
These solutions may still leave something to be desired. I'm still working on it, but I think they have me on the right track. There is light at the end of the tunnel.
These solutions do not answer issue of making a true attribute or multiple attributes required like color and size of shirts, though it may suffice for that as well.
Instead of attributes or variants, think of child products, so the trick is to make the parent product display with no price and not able to be added to the cart, and a display of all of its child products which can be purchased. No validation issue. The user can only buy by choosing a variant, and you can make it a dropdown or display in a number of ways.
I found help here:
http://www.swaysearch.com/blog/item/18-creating-generic-child-products-with-virtuemart-208 (http://www.swaysearch.com/blog/item/18-creating-generic-child-products-with-virtuemart-208)
and I found this useful:
http://www.dkpictures.si/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=26&Itemid=14 (http://www.dkpictures.si/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=26&Itemid=14)