Max Quantity is bypassed when carts are combined

[RicM]

Selling downloadable products using 1.3.9h.

A logged-in customer closes a previous order without purchasing and in the next session, forgets this and adds the same items as a visitor. When the customer logs in the previous cart contents are added.

If the max quantity per item is set to 1, the combining of two carts can breach this condition.

I know it's a bit obscure but might need to be addressed at some point.

Regards,
Ric

[Ajeh]

So far, I cannot repeat this condition ...

Do you have an URL where we could perhaps peek at this to recreate the problem?

[RicM]

I am just going to double-check the conditions but here are the results of the order where items appear more than once:

Invoice No. 26
Date Purchased: Friday 22 April, 2011
Payment Method: PayPal
---snip---
Products Model Tax Price (ex) Price (inc) Total (ex) Total (inc)
1 x 006-7071
- Size (px) & Resolution (ppi): PRINT - XTRA LARGE (5400px longest side @ 300 ppi ) (£0.85) 006-7071 0% £0.85 £0.85 £0.85 £0.85
1 x 005-6079
- Size (px) & Resolution (ppi): PRINT - XTRA LARGE (5400px longest side @ 300 ppi ) (£0.85) 005-6079 0% £0.85 £0.85 £0.85 £0.85
1 x 006-7071
- Size (px) & Resolution (ppi): PRINT - MEDIUM (2700px longest side @ 300 ppi ) (£0.60) 006-7071 0% £0.60 £0.60 £0.60 £0.60
1 x 005-6044
- Size (px) & Resolution (ppi): WEB - LARGE (1024px longest side @96ppi) (£0.30) 005-6044 0% £0.30 £0.30 £0.30 £0.30
1 x 005-6044
- Size (px) & Resolution (ppi): PRINT - XTRA LARGE (5400px longest side @ 300 ppi ) (£0.85) 005-6044 0% £0.85 £0.85 £0.85 £0.85
Sub-Total: £3.45
Free Shipping: £0.00
Total: £3.45

As you can see, 6044 appears twice as does 7071. It is impossible to get this during the same session (max quantity / adjusted quantity warning is displayed).

The URL is http://ricmorte.co.uk and after I do a few more tests I shall proivide a more accurate determination of the conditions if I can.

Ric

[Ajeh]

I see what you are saying ...

On the first merge of the cart it has both in the shopping cart ...

If the customer goes to checkout ... they can get both ...

If the customer were to do an Update while on the shopping cart, then it corrects this ...

Let me see if there is an extra check that can be done to correct this issue so that it does not rely on a customer hitting the Update on the shopping_cart to fix the cart content ...

[RicM]

I tried this again and the multiple instances were not repeated. I tried a second time, this time having cleared the browser cache, and the problem repeated.

I looked at your email and clicked the update button (I wondered what that was!) and yes, after updating, there was only ever a single instance of an item in a cart and multiple warning messages each telling me I had selected that item more than once.

(You will appreciate that I have modified the messages to suit my needs)

So the software does trap the max quantities but it wasn't obvious to me and may not be obvious to customers either that the trapping occurs after an update.

But... as I said... this is a somewhat obscure scenario.

Regards,
Ric

[Ajeh]

It is an obscure error ... but we will look into this further to see if it can be eliminated to prevent the issue from happening should the customer not see it themselves ...

[RicM]

I have thought about this a little more and the scenario is fraught with difficulties.

The decisive question is: if the cart is combined with previous items which items have preference? The former or the latter?

Logic cannot decide this but the user can, especially when product variations are soley down to option values.

When a cart is combined with previous items there is a warning to that effect.

Perhaps at this stage the message could/should be extended to say that:

1. any items no longer required should be removed
2. then the cart should be updated to reflect the changes

Lastly I don't find the double arrow symbol clear in its intention. The adjacent button has an icon of a cart and the words "back to shopping" This is unambiguous.

Perhaps the update cart icon could be treated similarly? "update cart" plus the double arrow? The tooltip isn't much help either - why not the simple text "update the cart" instead of the wordy "change your quantity by highlighting the number..."? (the latter being appropriate at ITEM-level but not CART-level (same text used for both)).

Finally, with that simply graphic implementation, any extension to the warning text to "update the cart" can refer to the explicit "update the cart" button below...

No change to processing but just the right level of feedback to allow the user to make informed choices? Cannot see this not working for all similar scenarios.

Simples

Just a thought...
Ric