Help with product attributes

[ex.wear]

I'm going through and setting up a product for the first time, and I am a little confused by the attributes. The product is a shoe, I have sizes 5 through 14 and created a drop down menu for size with those as the options. My question is, on the product screen where it says to enter quantity for how many I have of the product in stock, is there a way to set quantity by attribute? Like, I have 12 of this style, but 3 in size 8 and 5 in size 9, etc. If not, is there another way to help keep track of inventory and reduce overselling of a size I don't actually have in stock? Thanks!

[kuroi]

This is done by installing the "stock by attributes" add-in module from the downloads area.

[mamasylvia]

Kuroi, is there some kind of instruction for installing mods? I'm just about desperate enough to try again on the stock-by-attributes mod. Last time I downloaded it but could not find any kind of instruction on how to install it.

[kuroi]

Most mods come with installation instructions specific to the mod. You unzip the mod's release package and they just fall out. historically they tended to be in a file called install.txt. For Stock by attributes they've got a tad more formatting and so are in a file called readme.html.

[ex.wear]

Thanks! I've gone and downloaded it and read through the readme file, but am confused as to what to do next. Is there a sticky or link to directions that tell me very simply exactly what to do, where to unzip to, etc? The readme filesays to create a new database using MySQL (which I don't know how to do). The I need to change to match my template name, so I am assuming that means to change to includes/modules/WHAEVERINAMEDMYSTORE, right? Then it says if I have filezilla, I can just drag and drop. So does that mean skip the first two steps above that, or still make the new database and rename the files?
(Can you tell I haven't added another mod before? I know these are such basic questions, so sorry if you have to it in to me)

[kuroi]

Since you've so nicely (amazing how many people get stroppy, even when the help is free), let's take it step-by-step.

The most common way of working is to have a local computer, your Windows desktop or notebook and a web hosting account on a remote web server to which you connect via FTP and for which you pay a few dollars a month. It's not the only possibility, but I'll assume it's the case here. Please tell me if you situation is significantly different.

You would normally download the mod's release package to your local PC and unzip it. You've probably done this as you have access to the readme file.

For this mod you would then launch a web browser and log in to your site's admin area. There you will find the Tools menu and on it, install SQL patches.

You would then click on the browse button alongside "file upload" and navigate on your local PC to the place where you have unzipped the release package and specifically to the stock_attributes.sql file. Then click on upload.

This will create a new database table (and some new configuration switches). We're not creating a new database, just a new database table.

Then you need to upload the files and the easiest way to do this is by using a program such as FileZilla that allows you to create an FTP connection to your remote site that looks similar to the windows explorer window.

You would then naigate on the remote system to your site's root (the one with folders admin, includes, images, etc and drag the admin and includes folders in the mod's release package into the root folder in your site, and all the new files should be placed in the right locations automatically.

You will need to ensure that any files already there with the same names are properly overwritten (doesn't always happen depending on the FTP software you're using and the settings you have). If prompted to over-write, say yes!

Good luck.

[ex.wear]

Thank you very much for your help! I have everything on my local computer right now. I have not uploaded anything onto the remote server as of yet. I am used to Dreamweaver which I have used to build a couple small basic sites without carts, where I built the entire site and then uploaded. So no, nothing is stored remotely yet and nothing is live. In this case, do i just go renaming the folders around in my root folder locally? I did use "install SQL patch" to upload the sql file, and I think it worked because I tried to do it twice and the second time got a duplicate message, but "stock by attributes" doesn't come up yet in my admin under catalog yet, so I think I am definitely missing a step.

Again, thanks for helping a noob out! It's still intimidating, but a little less so knowing I can come to the forum and there actually are nice people willing to sit down and explain it in childrens' terms.

[kuroi]

Sorry. I missed that step. Yes you would rename the templates folder on your local PC before uploading. No need to worry about the modules folder, that instruction is left over from earlier versions of the mod.

The duplicate message is confirmation that you have installed the SQL and there should also have been some confirmatory messages at the top of your screen listing the number of SQL commands that had succeeded.

You could upload these files using Dreamweaver. I still develop in Dreamweaver (though that's likely to change soon) and use it's built in FTP for uploading small numbers of files. But overall I find it slow and unreliable for larger numbers. It would be fine for a mod like this however.

[mamasylvia]

You've got another programming-challenged zenner here ...

Thanks for your instructions! I did the uploading and then tried to login. The link that used to take me to the admin login screen now takes me to:

Index of /ZenCart/admin

* Parent Directory
* backups/
* images/
* includes/

Apache/2.2.6 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.6 OpenSSL/0.9.8g DAV/2 mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 Server at www.steigerfamily.com Port 80

Any clue what I did wrong and how I can fix it? I do have a backup but I don't want to give up on the mod unless I have to.

[kuroi]

Hi mamasylvia

I'm afraid that you're probably going to need that backup. Looking at your site, it appears that some (or maybe many, or possibly all) of the key files have been wiped out, affecting not just your Admin, but the front of your store too.

This isn't something that the stock by attributes mod does. It can only be done by you, your host, or a problem on your server. Did you delete any files or folders as part of your attempt to install the mod?