What about this for child products solution?

[JJBW]

Hi all.

I've been thinking a lot about custom fields, child products and their issues discussed by many in this forum.

What if you had a 'link to product' custom field type when creating a new custom field?

This way create your child products for 'product 1' first as if they are parent products, so enter price, stock, dimensions, image etc.  But when it comes to attributes create a new child product for 'product 1' for each individual attribute you want, for example, colours, a new child product for red called 'product 1 red', one for blue called 'product 1 blue' and one for green etc.  (Leave the category option blank unles you want the child products to show up in the category view.)

Once you've set up your child products go to Custom Fields and setup a new 'link to product' custom field for each of your colours naming them product 1 red', 'product 1 blue' and 'product 1 green' linking them, (using a browse for product option), to the relevant 'product 1' colour child products that you've just created.

Now create your parent product.  In the custom fields section select the colours you want from the list of custom fields you've just created and that's it!

In the front end you only see the parent product and the 'link to product' custom fields you've just created can be selected from a drop down box and once you select an option, (red, blue or green), you are linked through to the relevant child product.  Now you have a child product displaying with it's own image, price and stock.

I know this means extra work and potentially a big custom fields list but it should work and work well.

I hope this all makes sense as I'm not very good and explaining things!!

This is just and idea for the development team.  What do you think?

[corymp]

To me that sounds almost exactly like what we have now...

[JJBW]

Hi corymp

Yes, almost.