Car parts selling

[igorvassili]

hello,
I am developing a web site specializing in the sale of auto parts. the user who wants a piece cherher passes through three steps :

1 - choose the brand of the car
2 - choose the model of the car
3 - choose the type of the engine

the complete list of all matching parts to his car will be shown.

The problem is that I do not know how to integrate the car brands list, the list of car models, and the types of engines.



i want to make an advanced search like you see in this website http://www.oscaro.com/

i need your help. thanks in advance 

[balai]

Hi

Use the manufacturer field for your brands
Create 2 string custom fields for the model and the type of engine

Then you can use a filtering solution like Custom Filters.
http://breakdesigns.net/extensions/custom-filters

Custom Filters offer a functionality named "dependency from top to bottom"
That means that whatever you select to your top filters wll affect only those which are below that.
e.g. Selecting a Brand will give you the existing models and engine types for that brand. Then selecting a model will narrow more the engine types giving you those available for your brand and model.

[PolishedGeek]

Are you wanting a auto parts search that works similarly to the one here?  https://www.automotivepart.com/

We didn't develop the site itself, but we were brought in a while back to do all of the custom web development work like importing the products and developing the custom AJAX search module. Only categories that have parts for a particular model will display, so it's easy for customers to find compatible items. The site owner wanted something very simple for the search to use, vs. the Custom Filter extension. That's really nice too, it's a good option to consider but beware: If a lot of your parts fit multiple vehicles in the catalog, and/or you have a catalog bigger than 60,000 parts, the Custom Filter will probably not be fast enough based on our testing. For smaller sites with less complexity, it works well. 

I believe the site now has over 350,000 products in the VirtueMart 2 catalog. Each product detail page also includes a "This product fits" section as well (see attached image).

You can definitely do large auto parts sites with VM2, but it generally takes a bit of custom work and/or careful product catalog planning if you want to deliver industry-specific features.

There are still a few things we'd recommend be enhanced on AutomotivePart.com for usability (like the Manufacturer dropdown isn't AJAX), but the client didn't want to include them in the budget.

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[igorvassili]

Are you wanting a auto parts search that works similarly to the one here?  https://www.automotivepart.com/

We didn't develop the site itself, but we were brought in a while back to do all of the custom web development work like importing the products and developing the custom AJAX search module. Only categories that have parts for a particular model will display, so it's easy for customers to find compatible items. The site owner wanted something very simple for the search to use, vs. the Custom Filter extension. That's really nice too, it's a good option to consider but beware: If a lot of your parts fit multiple vehicles in the catalog, and/or you have a catalog bigger than 60,000 parts, the Custom Filter will probably not be fast enough based on our testing. For smaller sites with less complexity, it works well. 

I believe the site now has over 350,000 products in the VirtueMart 2 catalog. Each product detail page also includes a "This product fits" section as well (see attached image).

You can definitely do large auto parts sites with VM2, but it generally takes a bit of custom work and/or careful product catalog planning if you want to deliver industry-specific features.

There are still a few things we'd recommend be enhanced on AutomotivePart.com for usability (like the Manufacturer dropdown isn't AJAX), but the client didn't want to include them in the budget.

Yes i want something like this website, and my database in not very big, so i will use virtuemart 2.

[igorvassili]

hello, thanks for replying. this the picture of the model that i want to use.
this is an example in virtuemart :

manifacturer : manifacturer name, ex: OPEL
PRODUCT : Prouct namen ex: FILTER
CAR MODEL (custom filter)
CAR SUB MODEL (custom filter)
ENGINE TYPE (custom filter)
ENGINE SUB TYPE (custom filter)

The problem is in the custom filters. i want to enter the list of all car models, and all engine types to the database. So, when i want to add a new product, i will just choose the car models and the engine types  from the list.

How can i implement this structure ?
thanks.

[balai]

The problem is in the custom filters. i want to enter the list of all car models, and all engine types to the database. So, when i want to add a new product, i will just choose the car models and the engine types  from the list.

The only think that you have to do is to use the Virtuemart's categories, manufacturers and customfields.
As far as i know this is the only way to assign features to your products at the moment, from within Virtuemart.

You don't have to do anything for custom filters. Just to use VM normally.
Concerning the speed that PolishedGeek referred, if you have such a large shop, there is a solution also to that and CF will run like a thunder.