Some Custom Fields in Parent do not populate Children.. Why?

[scottshort]

Summary of Question:  Why some Parent [or Grandparent] fields populate Children products while others do not and how to get them all to pass through. e.g. Product Dimensions & Weight, Related Categories, Related Products

Question in Detail:
Hello,

I am running VM 2.0.22a and Joomla 2.5.16 on my development site ready to go live in a few days.  I have question to understand why some parent data will populate its children and for some reason other parent data will not.  I am not a developer and have learned as I go and am working with a developer who is handling the shopping cart, payment gateways, & shipping.  I have been responsible for entering and formatting all product data and info.

My scenario:
I have a number of shoe styles in many colors and sizes
I have installed the VM Custom Stockable Variants Plugin and have set up a grandparent - parent- child relationship where:
The grandparent is a particular shoe style; e.g. "Classic Shoe" - [note that this Grandparent is not published as there are is inventory for this - it acts more like a category]
The parent is a particular color; e.g. "Classic Shoe - Black" -  [Note all parents are published but again no inventory]
The children are each size; e.g. "Classic Shoe - Black - Size 36, etc. - [all published and sizes visible via drop down box]

This is all setup and is working very well allowing me to show each shoe and color on my product page and when a shoe of any color is selected you can choose the size.  I have a number of different photos for each shoe color so this works well for me.

My question/frustration is this.  I have for one model over 20 colors.  For each color I have 6 sizes [120 products].  I do not want to have to go into each individual product [say red color size 36] in order to make changes for items and descriptions that are the same for all of these 120 products... This is what the parent is for, right?  I have many items that I want to enter into the Grandparent only one time and have it populate all 120 children [or grandchildren].  For some fields this is working but for some others it is not.  I am thrilled that most are working but I would like to know why for some yes and others no and see if there is a way to get it to work for all of them so I can avoid this repetitive data entry.
The following are two lists - the first of the fields that I am successfully populating from Grandparent to Child, and the second of those fields which I want to populate and are not.

AWESOME: Fields Successfully Passing from GrandParent [unpublished] to Children [published]
    Product Short Description
    Product Description
    Product Price - entered only once in Grandparent and it passes through to all Children
    Select Size "Stockable Variants Plugin" [this may actually pass from Grandparent to Parent to Child as the custom field is also visible on each Parent page after it is setup on Grandparent page]
    Additional "Editor" type Custom fields that my template populates as additional tabs next to product description, e.g."Size Guide"
    Additional "Editor" type Custom fields that my template populates as Side Bar modules next to product , e.g."Shipping Notice"

NOT SO AWESOME: Fields NOT successfully passing from Grandparent to Children
    Product Dimensions and Weight - the same for all 120 products, It will not pass from Grandparent to children.  Here I must enter the dimensions and weight into each Parent [each color, e.g. "Classic Shoe - Black"] and then they pass through from Parent to Children.  Why Is This???
    Related Categories - I want to select the same shoe model categories to display beneath each of the 120 products as related categories.  I have selected these in the Grandparent but they will not pass to the Children.  I am forced to enter them into each of the Parents [colors] as only then will they pass to the Children.  Again - extra work
I was unsuccessful in searching for answers so I am posting in hopes of some help.  I hope my question is clear and I appreciate any assistance you may offer.  Thanks

Scott

[jenkinhill]

That is an old and insecure version of VM (and Joomla) and should not be used on a live site unless you want to invite hackers in.  It is possible that your issues are already fixed if releated to bugs, so you should test an update on a backup copy of your site.  http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=118683.0

[scottshort]

Hi Thanks for your reply.  Changing topic a bit, but as it relates to upgrading we tested 2.6.6 on a backup copy of site, but ran into the documented problem where I can not add anything to cart [no inventory error message].  We are using stockable variants plug in.  So not able to test other potential bug-items to see if they are fixed in 2.6.6 since we can not get the items into the cart.  We currently have the following problems that may be solved with upgrades:

• overstock problem - can order multiples of the same item at the same time
• child order / re-ordering problem
• weights & dimensions not passing from parent to child

Is there a working fix for 2.6.6 so that we can add to cart?  If so, we can proceed with trying to get 2.6.6 to work.  If there is not yet a working fix for this important problem, can you recommend which lesser version we can upgrade to that will not lose the add to cart functionality? 

Thanks again for your assistance.

[Milbo]

You may try vm2.9.8a, which has this fixed.

[scottshort]

Hello Kelvyn and Milbo

Excuse me if I am breaking forum rules, but I thought it might make more sense to post my reply in the forum Topic What bugs do you know of in stockable variants plugin .  I am trying to upgrade to best stable version for Joomla 2.5 without having any bugs but am still running into problems.....  If you have time to view my post there, I thank you.

Regards
Scott

[Milbo]

The stockable plugin is obsolete and will be removed in vm3. Please use the generic variants. http://docs.virtuemart.net/tutorials/product-creation/186-derived-products-product-pattern-child-products.html