Product with attributes - can anybody simplify for me?

[partap]

I've been searching this forum for hours, and I've seen a lot of posts trying to explain how to use custom attributes, but nothing seems to cover exactly my needs, and I see plenty of questions from people seemingly wanting the same thing as me, but no answers...

Basically, I want to add a product that is priced based on an attribute... possibly several attibutes, but not as "base price" + "variant price", just an independent price for each variant, but on a single product page in the store.

For example, if I want to sell several varieties of tea:

Oolong Tea:
  - grade 1, 4oz: $20
  - grade 1, 10oz: $40
  - grade 2, 4oz: $12
  - grade 2, 10 oz: $24
  - grade 3, 4oz: $8
  - grade 3, 10oz: $15

Black tea:
  - grade 1, 4oz: $15
  - grade 1, 10oz: $30
  - grade 2, 4oz: $8
  - grade 2, 10 oz: $16

I would want one product page for black tea, and one for oolong tea.  All the variants would share the same description and images. 
Each product page would have drop-downs to select quality and size, and then the price would be filled in and "add to cart" button would be activated once both selections were complete.

I don't mind setting up separate child products for each variant, but what I don't want is to have to set a base price and calculate additional cost for each variant.  As you can see in this example, it's much easier to set the prices for each variant independently. 
It *seems* like I should be able to use the "stockable variant" plugin, since it links custom fields with child products, but as far as I can tell, it still wants to price variants at base + variant price. 

I don't want a base price at all, I'd rather the main product page be like a "shell" (as dsrpmedia described it in the sticky "Custom Field stockable variant" topic at the top of this forum)

So, can anybody tell, first of all, *if* this is possible with VM2, and if so, how?  It sounds like it was easy to do in VM1...

If not possible....does anybody have any recommendations for another plugin?

Thanks!
-partap

Edit:  I'm using the latest version -  2.0.20b

[PolishedGeek]

Hello -

This can certainly be done with our 3rd party extension called Breezing Forms Custom Fields. We now have price overrides and also allow complex pricing of an override followed by pricing adjustments if needed. It can support a lot of advanced custom field requirements that are not native to VM2. In short, it gives you the ability to use any style of fields supported in one of the best form design components for Joomla, Breezing Forms by Crosstec, and have those fields be treated as product attributes.

Our Breezing Forms Custom Fields extension offers a viable approach for advanced custom fields, as long as you don't need parent/child products or to track stock by each of the options. As mentioned before, it does NOT track stock by each option selected, so we like to make that clear right up front.

This extension seamlessly integrates a completely custom Crosstec Breezing Form into the custom field area of a VirtueMart 2 product. Because BreezingForms is a full featured form development component, this means that you can do all those great things you expect from best selling form design software,  then use that form as the way to capture product options and attributes for a VM2 product.

Our product supports price adjustments + or -, price overrides with =, and also complex pricing structures where a price override that is set via the form can also have + or - adjustments with subsequent form fields.

If you think this sounds like it might help you, here's a link to our documentation to learn more: http://docs.polishedgeek.com/wiki/display/BFCUSTOM . There's a also a YouTube video there on the doc homepage that explains it a bit more.

By the way, we now have a parameter option that allows you to skip the interim review page described in the video and have the customer select their options and immediately Add to Cart.

We also have a basic demo site set up that illustrates how this works: http://klarna.polishedgeekdev.com/index.php/shop/eyeglasses/awesome-eyeglasses-detail (If you choose Bifocal or Progressive in the first field, you will see an additional field show up that is required only for that type.)

You can learn more about the form component our extension integrates here: Crosstec BreezingForms http://crosstec.de/en/extensions/joomla-forms-download.html   (You have to have both VM2 and BreezingForms to use our extension).

The plugin has been vetted by the VirtueMart team and is available for sale directly on our website, or here on VirtueMart.net (http://extensions.virtuemart.net/extensions-virtuemart-2/breezing-forms-custom-fields-plugin-detail)

I'm happy to answer any questions you have. Feel free to pose them in the forum here, or if you would prefer to discuss your requirements more privately, just open a ticket: https://polishedgeek.com/clients/contact.php

Hope this will be useful to you!