VirtueMart Forum

VirtueMart 2 + 3 + 4 => Product creation => Topic started by: netboard on July 12, 2011, 22:02:10 PM

Title: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: netboard on July 12, 2011, 22:02:10 PM
Hello,

I downloaded 2.0 RC  and tried but I didn't understand about that custom fileds. is there ant inventory control option for attributes ?
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: Milbo on July 14, 2011, 21:37:57 PM
You need to combine that with childproducts.
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: woonydanny on July 15, 2011, 10:03:51 AM
Sorry i don't understand how to do this either.

Can someone please elaborate/ provide a little tutorial.

thanks
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: Milbo on July 15, 2011, 10:07:45 AM
This is not 100% done yet.

The idea is that you use the customfields and there the child products. A customfield linked to a child has an inventory. So how do you start?

Create a product, create childs for it. Go back to your parent and play around with the customfields. I ask Patrick to answer here, because he knows this part better.
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: Studio 42 on July 16, 2011, 15:14:14 PM
HI,
Look in \components\com_virtuemart\views\productdetails\tmpl\default.php
    /* Product custom Childs
     * to display a simple link use $field->virtuemart_product_id as link to child product_id
     * custom_value is relation value to child
     */
as comment and read the next code to view how to display it.
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: Studio 42 on July 16, 2011, 18:08:50 PM
Quote from: netboard on July 12, 2011, 22:02:10 PM
Hello,

I downloaded 2.0 RC  and tried but I didn't understand about that custom fileds. is there ant inventory control option for attributes ?

THis are no stock control for custom attributes exept for child.
You can set custom relation with Child and parent, then select it and add a "relation word" for each child/parent relation. Use images or list(because is an object you can reuse the value easy)
YOu only have to input the difference from parent to the child.
Exemple for Tshirt :
You wan't only a name change Eg. Red T-Shirt then you change the name from product
but you can set the price or what you want(image , manufacturer ....)
look on the Hand Shovel in the example database this have child/parent
when you click on the handshowel you can see the child handshowel (1st Tab product info >go down to the end)
If you have set custom types : Child (this is set in the sample datas) then you can choice the relation.

This permit to add attributesVERY FAST with price, illimited variantes and modify easy the display with joomla templating.
And of course Stock control ....
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: netboard on July 20, 2011, 01:10:26 AM
it is not possible to make like joomshopping. They have very good attribute with inventory control. I use virtuemart and want to continue with it but there is problem with new shop about attributes because products has so many size and color attributes and I have to control inventroy all color with size.  joomshopping makes my job easy but they don't have enought module, plugin etc.. and there is no support like virtuemart.
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: aravot on July 20, 2011, 22:47:23 PM
Joomshopping looks good, I had never seen it before very well done specifically the attribute portion.
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: netboard on July 21, 2011, 05:16:12 AM
Yes, attribute part is very good.  Easy to configurate and don't need to set child product etc..  Maybe in the future virtuemart will have same attribute control :)
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: woonydanny on July 26, 2011, 14:05:47 PM
So just to confirm - VM2 cannot do inventory control for attributes?

For example i sell tshirts, the tshirts come in multiple sizes as well as multiple colours. So i want to keep track of the amount of stock I have of each shirt.

So i have 63 shirts in total:
8 x Green Medium Shirts
4 x Green Large Shirts
6 x Green XLarge Shirts
3 x Green XXLarge Shirts
8 x Red Medium Shirts
4 x Red Large Shirts
6 x Red XLarge Shirts
3 x Red XXLarge Shirts
8 x Blue Medium Shirts
4 x Blue Large Shirts
6 x Blue XLarge Shirts
3 x Blue XXLarge Shirts

How can i do that? If it is not possible, it is a feature that VM desperately needs. I know Redshop does it quite well, not sure about JoomShopping
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: Studio 42 on July 27, 2011, 11:04:13 AM
Quote from: peetree21 on July 26, 2011, 14:05:47 PM
So just to confirm - VM2 cannot do inventory control for attributes?

For example i sell tshirts, the tshirts come in multiple sizes as well as multiple colours. So i want to keep track of the amount of stock I have of each shirt.

So i have 63 shirts in total:
8 x Green Medium Shirts
4 x Green Large Shirts
6 x Green XLarge Shirts
3 x Green XXLarge Shirts
8 x Red Medium Shirts
4 x Red Large Shirts
6 x Red XLarge Shirts
3 x Red XXLarge Shirts
8 x Blue Medium Shirts
4 x Blue Large Shirts
6 x Blue XLarge Shirts
3 x Blue XXLarge Shirts

How can i do that? If it is not possible, it is a feature that VM desperately needs. I know Redshop does it quite well, not sure about JoomShopping

Sure you can do that !

Eg. add a new product : Tshirt
Do 3 children (green,red,blue)
go in first children(red)
add 4 children(medium,Large,Xlarge,XXLarge)
go in "sub" children(green/medium)
add 8 children ....
go in "sub" children(green/Large)
add 4 children ....
...

To have relation :
add "new" custom fields in administrator/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=custom
Title : color
Custom Field Type :Child product
and save it

Now go on the main product( first tab)
look for "Parent & Child Products"
you have the 3 "main" child
and a select list for each child product
select "color"
to see the "color" as title relation
-  input the color(eg. green red or blue)

now for "sub" children do same

add "new" custom fields in administrator/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=custom
Title : Size
Custom Field Type : Child product
and save it
Now you have to go on go in first children(eg. red)
in "Parent & Child Products"
select "Size"
to see the "Size" as title relation
-  input the color in the field(eg. Medium, Large .... )

YOu have Stock option.price .... as all products, But you have only to add your changes(title or price ...) not to fillout all the porduct fields

But of course you have to put a Stock value for each child product or the stock are the same as the main product!!

To explain this in some words , you have only to do :
- add child relation> add children, in each children change stock and relation name

(and you can use translation for cusmtomfields, if you add it on the language file)

Patrick
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: aravot on July 27, 2011, 20:18:05 PM
Does this has to be done for every product? If so a site selling clotting it will take a lot of time adding managing products.
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: Milbo on July 27, 2011, 20:18:52 PM
Did you actually tried it?
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: netboard on July 29, 2011, 20:30:02 PM
is it not visibile to see how much time it can take ?
There is no option for stable inventory control. You have to create every sizes and colors for each product.

is this small work ?
I have 600 products and half of them have 3 colors and 10 sizes. (lingerie shop for men and women)

how can I manage them without inventory control ?

I think that joomshopping best choise for me.
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: Milbo on July 29, 2011, 22:11:11 PM
It seems you did not understand what a child product is.

I think you dont even know that you can create a product pattern in vm2.

A child product is inheriting ALL attributes of the parent, if not overwritten by the child.

There is no big difference compared to the others systems. In fact the creation of the child will later be done in the background maybe  ( a kind of wizard doing that for you).

to underline, what you have todo is ONLY - add child relation> add children, in each children change stock and relation name.

In every system, you must define the stock and the name and add something. The others add variants, we add childproducts.

Why we do add childproducts? you can show different images for every variant. Every variant can have its own description or is taking the description of the parent.

You can have 50 stocks in your storage and present them as one product.

Sorry that I sound angry, but this is really a bit stupid. You did not even tried it and why do you constantly state that there is no inventory controll, when in fact there is an inventory controll, hmm.
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: netboard on July 29, 2011, 22:53:45 PM
I tried it and can't understand how it works. I try and try.
I don't say that another systems are very easy and virtuemart is not . You have to same work but not as hard as vm.
There is no select option for child just select box ?
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: woonydanny on July 30, 2011, 07:11:46 AM
Quote from: Milbo on July 29, 2011, 22:11:11 PM
It seems you did not understand what a child product is.

I think you dont even know that you can create a product pattern in vm2.

A child product is inheriting ALL attributes of the parent, if not overwritten by the child.

There is no big difference compared to the others systems. In fact the creation of the child will later be done in the background maybe  ( a kind of wizard doing that for you).

to underline, what you have todo is ONLY - add child relation> add children, in each children change stock and relation name.

In every system, you must define the stock and the name and add something. The others add variants, we add childproducts.

Why we do add childproducts? you can show different images for every variant. Every variant can have its own description or is taking the description of the parent.

You can have 50 stocks in your storage and present them as one product.

Sorry that I sound angry, but this is really a bit stupid. You did not even tried it and why do you constantly state that there is no inventory controll, when in fact there is an inventory controll, hmm.


Hi Max,

Maybe if you could do a quick video tutorial it would help clear this up for alot of people.

:)
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: Studio 42 on August 10, 2011, 02:31:29 AM
I think whe do a tutorial and a video.

The system is simple but the way to do it, is sometime confusing the first time.

Advantage of the system is you can do child relation as image or value or in next times with plugins(color picker or flash or image uploading.

The new system is "writing from scratch" and is not totally perfect but think not harder to understand as vm 1.1.x series.

What you don't understand he's you can use the Cloning products to setup your child
create a clone of a child , edit  it (name, stock) and voila you have your second child.
YOu set each variant in 2 minutes and if you use update/migrate for your medias( after uploading it to your product images folder ) you can set the images for each childrend in 10 secondes.
If you use the right methodes you can't do it faster ;)

But sure the first time you loose a litle time, but you win it after

Patrick
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: Awerso on September 06, 2011, 21:23:56 PM
I'm trying to setup the product colors but it won't work for me...

How do I make something like http://demo.virtuemart.net/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_default.tpl&product_id=20&category_id=11&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=6 ? From that view I want to "copy" the color choose.

From another demo view: http://demo.virtuemart.net/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_default.tpl&product_id=22&category_id=11&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=8
I want to use this view for a couple of products where the amount in stock is important.

Using: 2.0.0-RC-2F / Joomla 1.7
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: cas on September 09, 2011, 08:57:42 AM
I am also trying to setup products with attributes with Joomla 1.7 & Virtuemart 1.9.8F, but cannot seem to get the Custom Fields to work properly.  I don't need inventory control or all the other features child products allows.  I just need simple attributes.  Besides, I have thousands of products, and each product could have a hundred different options, so creating child products is just not practical.  I just need the easiest way to create attributes and attach them to the products.  Some of the attributes need to be images with radio-button selection, and others just drop-down lists.  They need to have + - price adjustments.   Since I have so many products & attributes, I don't want to create the attributes over and over again for each product, so hopefully there is a way to create the attributes once and then attach them to the products as needed.  Here is a product page from the website I am trying to rewrite in Joomla:  http://www.designerdirectresource.com/shop/sofa-p-1931.html   Can this be done with Virtuemart 1.9.8F ?

Thanks,
Chuck
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: Milbo on September 09, 2011, 09:01:50 AM
Cas I think you mix up with stocking or not.

When you have stocking there is no other way than a child product. Why? because every real stock is a real product. When you have a lot variants without stocking, you dont need child products.

Quote from: cas on September 09, 2011, 08:57:42 AM
I just need the easiest way to create attributes and attach them to the products. .... I don't want to create the attributes over and over again for each product, so hopefully there is a way to create the attributes once and then attach them to the products as needed. 

The system works exactly that way, you define a custom field and you can reuse it for other products.
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: cas on September 09, 2011, 09:33:23 AM
Hello Milbo,

Thanks for your fast reply!  To explain again, I do not need stocking levels, so I just tried to use the Custom Fields to define simple attributes, but they don't seem to be functioning properly on the site.  I'm sure it's just something I don't understand about how to setup Custom Fields properly, but I cannot find any documentation on setting up Custom Fields as drop-down and/or images.     

Maybe you can explain how to attach images to each Custom Field?  When I define the custom field as Image, I don't see any where to upload & attach the new image I want to use for that Custom Field.  In the product drop-down to pick the image for the custom field, it only has the main product image to pick from.  Where do I add the new image for that attribute?

For the attributes that I want in a simple drop-down list, I don't see how to do that.  When I added a couple of attributes as Custom Fields and picked List as the type of Custom Field, the attributes just display on the site as separate items and not in a drop-down.    How do I setup Custom Fields to display in a drop-down list?

Please take a look at this link to see the product options I need to setup:  http://www.designerdirectresource.com/shop/sofa-p-1931.html

Thanks,
Chuck
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: Awerso on September 09, 2011, 13:05:32 PM
Quote from: Milbo on September 09, 2011, 09:01:50 AM
When you have stocking there is no other way than a child product. Why? because every real stock is a real product. When you have a lot variants without stocking, you dont need child products.

The system works exactly that way, you define a custom field and you can reuse it for other products.

How does the variant without stocking work in Virtuemart 2? In virtuemart 1.19 you can edit it at the main product, in virtuemart 2 I don't see this option.

When doe you expect a documentation about the stocking variant? A page like: http://demo.virtuemart.net/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_default.tpl&product_id=22&category_id=11&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=8 is important for my comping shop.
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: Milbo on September 09, 2011, 20:49:11 PM
We are sorry, we work on a manual soon.
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: cas on September 09, 2011, 22:57:27 PM
Hi Milbo,

Yes, a manual would be great.  But for now can you just list the steps to add attributes to products using the new Custom Fields, similar to how attributes were added to products in previous VM versions with the Title & Property fields.  The main 2 types of attributes I need is an attribute with an image, and also for non-image attributes to display as a list of attributes in a drop-down as in previous VM versions.  Did you look at the link I sent in previous post so you can see exactly what I need to create?    I tried to get it to work, but I could not see how to upload and attach an image to each attribute, and I could not see how to get the non-image attributes to display in a drop-down list.   I think the new approach is much better because it separates the definition of attributes outside of the products so we can reuse the same attributes for multiple products, but now I just need to understand how to set them up.  Anything you can document here as far as the steps would be greatly appreciated.   

Thanks,
Chuck   
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: dimkoup on September 10, 2011, 09:08:36 AM
that would also be helpfull for me, thank you guys  :D
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: cas on September 12, 2011, 23:19:36 PM
Please, can anyone list the steps required to add attributes to products using the new Custom Fields as we did in the previous VM version.  Be sure to include how to set the price adjustments (+ -) per attribute, and have them listed in a drop-down on the frontend website.   I also see we can now have an image attached to an attribute, which is great news, so please include the steps to upload and attach an image to an attribute, and how to have a price adjustment (+ -) with the image attribute.   Also, how to group image attributes together so the customer can select one of these image attributes via radio button.  I gave it a try and got parts of it to work, but I need help to make it work completely.   I have thousands of products and each has almost a hundred attributes with images, so I want to get it right the first time, so please help list the steps to make it to work properly.   

Thanks,
Chuck
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: shimi on September 14, 2011, 05:42:01 AM
Attribute contorl should be similar to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya0Ekxbf1qM
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: cas on September 14, 2011, 06:28:35 AM
Hi Shimi,

That link is for for osCommerce.  I don't need concepts about attributes.  That I fully understand.   I need specific steps that someone has successfully done with the new version of VM to get the new Custom Fields to work like the Attributes worked in the previous version of VM.  I tried to get it to work and either there are missing fields & functions in the user interface, or there is something I am doing wrong.  That's why I hope someone who really knows how it works can help us.

Regards,
Chuck
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: Milbo on September 14, 2011, 10:39:25 AM
Take a look her http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=90833.msg298101#msg298101
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: cas on September 15, 2011, 06:21:50 AM
Hi Milbo,

I got the simple Custom Field attribute to work, but I have thousands of products and dozens of repeating attributes for each product, so is there a way to define all the values for a Custom Field outside of the product, and then just attach the Customer Field & its set of values to the product as a group?  For example, in osCommerce before I enter any products, I first define the Options (ie, Color) and then for each Option I define its set of Option Values (ie, Red, White, Blue).  Then I go into the product and just select the Options & Option Values I want for that product, and then enter a price adjustment (+ -) for that specific Option if needed.  This makes entering products with lots of repeated attributes very easy and very fast.  If I have to enter every attribute over and over again inside each product, it will take forever and make ongoing maintenance a nightmare when attributes change and I have to go into every product to change them, rather than just changing the attribute once outside of the product and it automatically is changed for all the products.  I know I could clone a product once I have it all the attributes defined in it, but that won't help with the ongoing maintenance when an attribute changes.  I would still have to go into every product to change it.    Is it possible with VM to define the attributes and its values outside the product, and then just attach them as I can do in osCommerce?   

Also, when defining Custom Fields, I see there is an option to pick "Is a list?".   But then how do I put the values in that list?   

And finally, I see I can define a Custom Field as an Image, but then how do I upload and attach an image to a Custom Field attribute?  The only image in the drop-down selection in the Product/Custom Field is the product image.  I need to have a unique image for each attribute.  Also, these attributes with images need to be related in a group so the website shows the images with a single selection radio button?   Also, these image attributes needs to have a price adjustment (+ -) for each attribute.  is this possible?   

I know you guys are working hard, so thanks for all the effort.  I just hope the attribute entry and ongoing maintenance of attributes can be improved in v2 for large sites.     

Thanks,
Chuck
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: Studio 42 on September 15, 2011, 12:07:23 PM
Hi Cas,

You can give a parent to the custom fields (see eg. group of fields in the sample datas).
then you have to add the parent to have all your custom fields setted in one time with the defaut value.
Only the price is to change.

You can set this to add in one time priced customfield and cusmtomfield with no price.

TO add images for your customfields variants simple add it in product folder and synchronize it in Media menu.
all your missing image are added in one time.

The price can be set by images

The best way to setup fast your product is to use the Clone product for similar products, because all the setting from this product are in the new one(and customfields to).
Clone , edit the new one and set your change save. This is very fast for  product with only some changes.
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: newtybar on September 17, 2011, 00:01:20 AM
I'm so confused...is there any way to get a step by step video up?

I'm by no means tech challenged...this just seems very unintuitive to me.
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: Milbo on September 18, 2011, 11:52:47 AM
Will follow, but when we are ready with it. It is also interesting for us to know that it is not self explaning. We are on it. But we already explained it somewhere in the vm2 board.
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: p.barg on September 23, 2011, 14:21:32 PM
Hi all,

well, I've taken some time to play around with Virtuemart 2 and I really like
many of the new features. Unfortunately, I'm not happy with the realisation
of variants (formerly called child products). I may have obverlooked or misunderstood
some of the features (yes, we definitely need a doku here!), but these are my first
impressions:

Let's take the T-Shirt example with size and color variations and stock control.

1. Backend:
As others have pointed out, the creation of products, child products (on 2 levels here) and establishing the
relations (size, color) in the parent products is very time consuming (more than it used to be in VM 1.1),
even if you use the clone function. If you have e.g. 5 sizes and 5 colors you end up with 31 (max.) different products
for 1 T-Shirt (including parents and children). If your shop contains e.g. 100 T-Shirts (which is not much for a realistic shop),
there might be as many as 3100 products (for T-Shirts). Apart from the time-consuming input it is hard
to find the products in the backend then, as they are all on the same level. There should be at least a sort of
tree representation instead of a flat list.
But, what's more important for me is the frontend, that is what the shoppers see:

2. Frontend
-  Parent products can be added to the shopping cart: If the shopper finds a T-Shirt he would like to bye,
he might try to buy the parent product (which was not possible in VM 1.1). But what's the result of
bying a T-Shirt without color and size? There might be other products where it makes sense to bye parent
products, but I would like to have a choice in the backend for that.
- no drop-down lists for variants: I didn't find a possibility to present the child products as drop-down lists
(which are most common for attributes like size), only as links (how can you get rid of the image btw?).
So, if the customer detects the size variants he has to click on a link and a new page opens (or did I miss the AJAX?).
- shopper doesn't see what variants there are: Before he clicks on a size-variant, the shopper is not even aware that there
are any different colors for this T-shirt and again he has to click to finally reach the right T-Shirt.
- two many clicks: As many investigations show, the more a user has to click the more likely it is that he
aborts the process...
- stock of parents seems to be independant of the stock of the children (btw, although not enabled by me,
products that are out of stock are shown and can be added to the cart; also, stock is not reduced after sale)

So, as I have said before, I may have missed or misunderstood various things, but I really hope, that some
of the my points will be of some interest for the developpers.

Best regards

Petra
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: Studio 42 on September 23, 2011, 16:31:13 PM
HI barg,

We are working hard to change the render in BE and FE(but you can use a different render/template as default with some php knowledges).
We try always to simplify this, but it's so flexible/extandable that we must include some complex settings.

But we read all your posts and try to do it Better ;)

Greets,

Patrick
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: cas on September 25, 2011, 23:51:02 PM
Hi Guys,

I made some progress based on your feedback.  Thanks! 
Here is what I did and what still needs to be answered:

I setup a parent Custom Field called Color and added 3 children Custom Fields called Red, White & Blue as Image type.  My first question is what type should I select for the parent Color?  It does not need an image since it's just the parent of Custom Fields that will have images.  It should only be used as the group title/heading above the 3 children Custom Fields red, white & blue which will have images attached.   Second question is once I add the Color custom field with the children to the product, do I remove the Color custom Field and just leave the red, white & blue custom fields, or does the parent Color need to stay in the product?   If I leave Color in the product it shows up on the website as a drop down with no items and doesn't make sense. 

To continue, I then uploaded the Red, White & Blue images into the Product folder on the host server with Filezilla, and then Synchronized the images in VM.  Third question is there a way to add the Custom Field images within VM or do I need to add them outside VM?  I then went into the Product and into the Custom Fields and added Color custom field to the product, and the Red, White & Blue custom fields were added automatically.  Since I already Synchronized the images, the images where now in the drop-down for each Custom Field, so I picked the appropriate image and adjusted the price as needed.  So far so good.

On the website the red, white & blue Custom Field images are displayed, but then I realized the images are not related within the group Color, and all the images have the radio button selected.  The website needs to show these images within the parent group Color, and with a single selection radio button within this group Color, so the customer can select which color they want to buy. 

How do I make this work properly? 

My final question is a suggestion... can you add to the admin Configuration/Shopfront/Media Files Settings... a separate folder image location for Custom Field images?  Call it the Custom Field Media Path.  Currently Custom Field images are included in the same Product Media Path.  For larger websites, it would be great to have a separate folder to hold the Custom Field images.  This will make the long-term maintenance easier to manage.

Thanks,
Chuck
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: cas on September 28, 2011, 23:28:08 PM
Hi Electrocity and Milbo,

Any help on my Custom Field post above?  I have a deadline and need to get the Custom Fields working.  Your help is much appreciated. 

Thanks,
Chuck
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: Milbo on September 29, 2011, 01:05:46 AM
we are working on it. I think we will release tomorrow or friday. The last problem is afaik the custom fields.
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: cristi on October 04, 2011, 07:36:55 AM
Cas, I have a similar situation with yours. I sell custom fabric shades. Each shade have many attributes, width, length, border, fabrics and more. I was able to configurate it before in version 1.1... using "custom field hack" ( you can find it on the forum). In fact I have 5 stores all using this hack. It's easy to use and best of all  its FAST to configurate attributes.
I hope this help!

I played with vm2 for the past few days as I need to make a new site and I found it nicer as previews versions, until you get to the attribute part. At the moment it don't make sence to me considering the fact that I have about 50 products with about 400 fabrics each + 3-8 extra attributes. I'll play with it more in the next few days but please let me know if you have any progress on your side and what steps did you follow.
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: cas on October 04, 2011, 08:45:38 AM
Hi Cristi,

Yes, I use the Custom Attributes Extension hack for my older sites.   But now I'm building a new site and really want to use the newer version so I don't have to convert anything down the road.   According to Milbo they are releasing a new version with Custom Field updates any day now.  I really hope it works.  I like the new version of Joomla and VM2 much better.  I'll post my findings when the new version is released.

Regards,
Chuck
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: cas on October 07, 2011, 05:48:33 AM
Quote from: cas on September 25, 2011, 23:51:02 PM
Hi Guys,

I made some progress based on your feedback.  Thanks! 
Here is what I did and what still needs to be answered:

I setup a parent Custom Field called Color and added 3 children Custom Fields called Red, White & Blue as Image type.  My first question is what type should I select for the parent Color?  It does not need an image since it's just the parent of Custom Fields that will have images.  It should only be used as the group title/heading above the 3 children Custom Fields red, white & blue which will have images attached.   Second question is once I add the Color custom field with the children to the product, do I remove the Color custom Field and just leave the red, white & blue custom fields, or does the parent Color need to stay in the product?   If I leave Color in the product it shows up on the website as a drop down with no items and doesn't make sense. 

To continue, I then uploaded the Red, White & Blue images into the Product folder on the host server with Filezilla, and then Synchronized the images in VM.  Third question is there a way to add the Custom Field images within VM or do I need to add them outside VM?  I then went into the Product and into the Custom Fields and added Color custom field to the product, and the Red, White & Blue custom fields were added automatically.  Since I already Synchronized the images, the images where now in the drop-down for each Custom Field, so I picked the appropriate image and adjusted the price as needed.  So far so good.

On the website the red, white & blue Custom Field images are displayed, but then I realized the images are not related within the group Color, and all the images have the radio button selected.  The website needs to show these images within the parent group Color, and with a single selection radio button within this group Color, so the customer can select which color they want to buy. 

How do I make this work properly? 

My final question is a suggestion... can you add to the admin Configuration/Shopfront/Media Files Settings... a separate folder image location for Custom Field images?  Call it the Custom Field Media Path.  Currently Custom Field images are included in the same Product Media Path.  For larger websites, it would be great to have a separate folder to hold the Custom Field images.  This will make the long-term maintenance easier to manage.

Thanks,
Chuck

I just updated to the new version H, but all the items I pointed out above are still not working.   Can you help me by answering the questions above?

Also, when I add a Custom Field to the product that is of type image, where can I enter the name/description for this custom field in the product?   Without a name/description, when the product is added to shopping cart, how do I know which custom field the user picked?  In the cart it just shows the the Custom Field type name, ie Color, and then it shows the item number they picked, ie #7.  But how do I or the customer know that #7 is the color Red that they picked?   Please add another text field to the Custom Fields of type image when adding to products to allow us to enter a name/description that carries forward into the cart and the order.

Thanks,
Chuck 
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: Milbo on October 10, 2011, 18:26:15 PM
A start for a manual http://dev.virtuemart.net/projects/virtuemart/wiki/Hints_for_the_use_of_the_product_customfields

not finished, but may show new ideas
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: cas on October 10, 2011, 20:42:33 PM
Hi Milbo,

Glad to see a manual is underway.  In the meantime, can you please help me by answering my questions in my post above.  I have a deadline to deliver and really need your help. 

One of the most important questions is how to add a Name/Description to an image-type Custom Field when adding it to the product.  It only has the ability to add the image and a price adjustment.  We need to be able to add a Name/Description that goes along with this image.  Otherwise when the customer adds the product to the shopping cart, it only shows the ID, so does the customer confirm they selected the correct item.  Also, how do we know easily which custom field they selected?  Do we need to go back to the admin to figure out that image ID #7 is really the Red color?  Hopefully you can see that we need to be able to label the custom fields with a name/description when adding it to the product.   

Thanks for your help.
Chuck     
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: cas on October 13, 2011, 01:37:20 AM
Hi Guys,

Any answer to the question about how to name a Custom Field of type Image when adding it to a product?  This is the last critical item keeping me from moving forward on my project, so please let me know if there is a way to do it in version H, or if a Name field will be added in the next release.     

Thanks,
Chuck   
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: Milbo on October 13, 2011, 09:11:50 AM
It is in the H version, but the stock is not working (lowering stock and so).

We want that it works for the final, no question. We hope that we can provide a solution soon.
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: cas on October 13, 2011, 09:57:16 AM
Hi Milbo,

Just to make sure we are talking about the same thing since I don't have any requirement for stock control of custom fields...  I am just requesting an additional field be added that is called Name to the Custom Field of type Image when adding a Custom Field to the product.  For example, if I have a Custom Field named 'Color' that is of type Image, and then when I add this Custom Field to the product 2 times, I can name the first product Custom Field 'Red' and attach a red image, and then for the second product Custom Field I can name it 'Blue' and attach a blue image.  Is that what you are saying is already in version H?  I do not see any place to enter a name when attaching the Custom Field of type Image to a product.  It only allows me to attach an image and do the price +/- adjustment.   

Thanks,
Chuck
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: Studio 42 on October 13, 2011, 14:05:45 PM
hi,
i added now an "auto description" with the image type.
<span class="vm-img-desc">YOURMEDIADESC</span>

you have to manage the display as you want or use default virtuemart css

set css .vm-img-desc{display:none;} for eg. to hide
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: cas on October 13, 2011, 21:34:30 PM
Hi Electrocity,

Do I understand you correctly that in the next release there will be a new field where we can name/describe image-type custom fields when we add them to the product?   If so, that's great!  Thanks so much!!!   

I'm just curious what does "auto description" mean?   Does it default to the image file name and then allows us to edit it, or is there some other way it works? 

Thanks,
Chuck
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: cas on October 15, 2011, 21:57:45 PM
I updated to the latest version i, and I see it now displays the image name, which is better than the number, but the name shows .JPG extension on the website.  Shouldn't image-type Custom Fields have a new field added for the name/description?   We need to be able to name the Custom Field whatever is required.   

Thanks,
Chuck
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: cas on October 21, 2011, 20:54:26 PM
I see now that we are suppose to use the Media File editor to name the media whatever we want.  This is very good.   The only problem is that when using the Media File editor, the Role (File Type in database) does not save in the database.   When changing any media field values (Displayed title, Displayed description, Role, etc), the Role (File Type) gets removed. 
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: cas on November 09, 2011, 07:10:45 AM
I updated to version M, and the Media File editor now saves the Role (File Type in database).  Thanks. 
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: margorita on December 22, 2011, 18:54:42 PM
Hi Guys,

I made some progress based on your feedback.  Thanks!
Here is what I did and what still needs to be answered:

I setup a parent Custom Field called Color and added 3 children Custom Fields called Red, White & Blue as Image type.  My first question is what type should I select for the parent Color?  It does not need an image since it's just the parent of Custom Fields that will have images.  It should only be used as the group title/heading above the 3 children Custom Fields red, white & blue which will have images attached.   Second question is once I add the Color custom field with the children to the product, do I remove the Color custom Field and just leave the red, white & blue custom fields, or does the parent Color need to stay in the product?   If I leave Color in the product it shows up on the website as a drop down with no items and doesn't make sense.

To continue, I then uploaded the Red, White & Blue images into the Product folder on the host server with Filezilla, and then Synchronized the images in VM.  Third question is there a way to add the Custom Field images within VM or do I need to add them outside VM?  I then went into the Product and into the Custom Fields and added Color custom field to the product, and the Red, White & Blue custom fields were added automatically.  Since I already Synchronized the images, the images where now in the drop-down for each Custom Field, so I picked the appropriate image and adjusted the price as needed.  So far so good.

On the website the red, white & blue Custom Field images are displayed, but then I realized the images are not related within the group Color, and all the images have the radio button selected.  The website needs to show these images within the parent group Color, and with a single selection radio button within this group Color, so the customer can select which color they want to buy.

How do I make this work properly?

My final question is a suggestion... can you add to the admin Configuration/Shopfront/Media Files Settings... a separate folder image location for Custom Field images?  Call it the Custom Field Media Path.  Currently Custom Field images are included in the same Product Media Path.  For larger websites, it would be great to have a separate folder to hold the Custom Field images.  This will make the long-term maintenance easier to manage.

Thanks,
Chuck
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: cas on December 22, 2011, 19:26:15 PM
Quote from: margorita on December 22, 2011, 18:54:42 PM
I setup a parent Custom Field called Color and added 3 children Custom Fields called Red, White & Blue as Image type.  My first question is what type should I select for the parent Color?  It does not need an image since it's just the parent of Custom Fields that will have images.  It should only be used as the group title/heading above the 3 children Custom Fields red, white & blue which will have images attached.   Second question is once I add the Color custom field with the children to the product, do I remove the Color custom Field and just leave the red, white & blue custom fields, or does the parent Color need to stay in the product?   If I leave Color in the product it shows up on the website as a drop down with no items and doesn't make sense.

I found it works best by just defining Color as a Custom Field of type Image just once... do not create any children.  Then upload your images (red, white & blue) to the server using Filezilla.  Then go to the Media File manager in VM and do the "Synchronize Media to VM".  You will then see the 3 images in the Media File manager.  You should edit each image by updating the Unique Filename, Displayed Image Title, Image Alt-Text, as follows: the Unique Filename will be what you see in the admin dropdown, the Displayed Image Title is what will display on the website, and the Image Alt-Text is what will display on the website if the image cannot be found.  Next go to the product's Custom Fields tab, and add the Color custom field to the product 3 times, and then for each Color custom field you just added, pick Red from the dropdown for the first one, and White for the second, and Blue for the third.  Be sure to save the product so you don't lose your changes. Now check your website and it should work!  If you want the images formatted nicely, use the file from the topic: 92777 Reply #34:  http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=92777.msg306147#msg306147

Check out the results using this approach:  https://www.hairextensionsfair.com/shop/full-head-clip-in/pp-straight-16-in-detail

Hope this helps.
Chuck
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: G. Billionaire on January 31, 2013, 11:49:20 AM
I use a joomla plugin called Easy Inventory Control.
It is limited to just 2 attributes- Size and Color.
But thats all I need for the ecommerce shops that I create.
The attribute disappears from customer sight when the stock for that attribute goes to zero
Title: Re: Is there inventory control for attributes ?
Post by: tuki on August 30, 2013, 10:06:41 AM
I have the same problem. I need a custon field for the size of my product, and need to be able to handle the stock. I found this tutorial for solution. Not the best (no ajax refresh), but it working well. http://awebsupport.com/vm2-set-up-child-product-with-stock-control