Stockable Child Variants & other related issues

[sandstorm]

I have installed on a test server Joomla 3.3.6 & VM2.9.9f with the sample data.

I have read a lot about there being no stockable variant plugin anymore in VM3 & am wandering how I go about getting the same effect using Child variant or generic child variant.

Say you have a T shirt with 3 colours, each in 3 sizes.
I used to create A parent product, 9 children products and then use the stockable variant plugin to show 2 dropdown fields in the FE for "Color" & "Size" . When you selected these, the price changed to suit the child product, but also the URL of the product remained the same - I feel this was important for not having duplicate content.

Testing VM2.9.9f with J3, this now seems impossible to fully achieve.

I can set my T shirts up as 1 parent, 9 children. But I can only seem to have one dropdown, which displays the child products name - Instead of being able to select colour & size.
But also the URL, changes for every change combination, which means, my product page will eventually show in search engines as 10 separate URL's and therefore duplicate content.

I am missing something or set something up incorrectly here?
Is there a away to have multiple dropdowns for size,colour & other possible variants.
Is there a way to only display the parent product URL?

Happy to help and test these things if I have missed something or if this is still under development.

Andy

[GJC Web Design]

easiest is to do a quick install of 2.9.9 and install the example data..

there is an example of just about every possible combination of custom field etc -- and work backwards from these

[sandstorm]

Yep, Ive done that & there doesnt seem to be a product where you can choose colour/size (or equivelant idea), without having the page refresh with a new URL.

For a product with 4 possible sizes and 4 possible colours, this will create 17 URL's all with duplicate content (in most cases)

Using the Stockable variant plugin fro VM2, allowed for just one URL, which is the only reason I used it

I have read other discussions in this forum thread that suggest, it may not be possible or needs further developing after VM3 is launched.

[sandstorm]

So is there any way to use dynamic children, where the URL doesn't change?
Thats my main aim, as I think, the URL changing will cause problems with duplicate content reports in Search Engines.

Anyone think this could be done as a bespoke custom field plugin?

I am not a developer, but would look at getting this created if it could be done?

[GuidoS]

The don't have any plans to introduce the plugin again. they are trying to make something else for this but as far as I can see it still in progress.

http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=119177.msg428204#msg428204

http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=125866.msg431112#msg431112

http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=125217.msg428969#msg428969

[Milbo]

The child variants provide that.

the only thing missing is the migrator for stockable to the "child variants".

[kiterida]

I'm still struggling with this myself. Same issue, I need to list clothing with size and colour as variants.

The "Generic child variant" seems to only support one variant at a time (size for example) and I can't figure out how to setup multiple variations.

I've read a lot of tutorials, but they are all for older versions.

Any more ideas for VM 3 and multiple stockable variations?

[balai]

I decided to develop a plugin for creating stockable combinations from custom fields.
Possibly some pre-releases will be ready at the end of the month.
Btw. It will be free of charge

[zuotoski]

I decided to develop a plugin for creating stockable combinations from custom fields.
Possibly some pre-releases will be ready at the end of the month.
Btw. It will be free of charge

Any chance of having a video tutorial showing how do it in VM 3.0.62?

That would be fantastic!

[balai]

There is a very detailed manual.
http://breakdesigns.net/stockable-customfields-manual
I don't think that you need something more

This is a free project so if anyone wants to contribute in coding, translation, documentation/videos is welcome

[GJC Web Design]

Any chance of having a video tutorial showing how do it in VM 3.0.62?

As balai says (and I agree) - I really don't think you could have a better tut than this -> http://breakdesigns.net/stockable-customfields-manual

You could make some screen shots though - reduce them down to 800px odd and put them in a slideshow.. would that help?..