Attributes HOW-TO

Ok, I am sorry that I am posting another thread here! I feel like such a pain.

Ok, well I can't wrap my head around the attributes option. I did read "attributes instructions" in another thread but I didn't quite follow or at least when I tried it, it didnt work.

Now I have several items that have different options such as, size, frangrance, colour.. etc but for now I am working on the items that have sizes. (they are all the same price)

I went to catalog/product attributes and entered "size" in the en: field, left the option type at 'select' and inserted.
Then I went to the lower bar and added Small, Medium, Large, X-large all in one line. Went to attributes controller and was able to assign the product to the attributes but when I previewed, only a radio button with the option Small, Medium, Large, X-large in one line showed up. So I tried again with inserting the sizes seperately under different ID's and that didn't work either. I had an error that said attributes didnt match... or something.

:unsure:

Halp! lol

Irina

Does anyone know of a tutorial or more clear instructions on this?

There are a number of threads on this but let me see if I can break it down for you.

There are 3 parts to attributes:

Option Name
Option Value
Attribute on the product

Defining Option Names:
Catalog ... Option Name Manager

Example:

Color

Order (This is the sort order the Option Name displays on the screen)

Select an Option Type:
Dropdown (note when only 1 option value this will automatically be switched to a Radio Button and later when more than one value it will automatically switch to the dropdown)

Radio Button

Checkbox

TEXT (this does not get an Option Value)

FILE (This does not get an Option Value)

READONLY (this is for display purposes only and is not part of a calculation nor does it appear on the order. It is more or less an informational attribute that can be used with 1 to many products and then changed once to change on all products)

On some Option Names, based on the Type ... there are more settings if you Edit the Option Name

For Option Type TEXT:

Comments
Max Display Size (size of input box on screen)
Max Length (max number of characters/spaces)

For Option Type Radio buttons and checkboxes:
There are choices of image layout

Defining Option Values

Catalog ... Option Value Manager

Pick the Option Name
Give a Name like Red
Give a default Sort Order

The sort order is used if you want to globably sort your Option Values to match otherwise you can set these manually per product or later update a product, category or whole store.

Attributes Controller

Note: if you plan on using downloads, be sure you have configured your Attribute Settings

I recommend:

Set Redirect on
chmod /pub to 777
files are uploaded to /downloads
files should be zipped and not use spaces and special characters nor extra periods
set the max downloads
set the max number days to get the download

And after a commercial break ... there will be defining the attributes per product ... B)

Now ... you should have made several Option Names like ...

Color
Size
etc.

And then set the Option Values for these like:
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Purple
Brown
Black
White

Small
Medium
Large
X-Large
X-Small

Using the Default Sort Order on these values will help you later in getting them into a nice display on the pages.

So now to add them to the products.

This is done via the Attributes Controller

You can look up a product in a couple ways ...

Either pick a Category or a Product

When you pick a category, the ones with a * have products in them and this will display the first product Previous/Next

When you pick a product hit display ... this sets the category to this products master category id ... so you can now use the Previous/Next if you like

Once the Product is displayed that you want to add attributes to ... go to the Add Attributes box

The Product Name should already be selected

Now select the Option Name

Next select a matching Option Value, notice they say what kind of Option Type you have selected

You will notice the Option Values say their names and next to them the Option Name that they match to.

Depending on what you want to do with attributes there are several methods to price, add weight, sort order, and mark the type of attribute this is.

Price can be entered with a prefix of + or - or blank

+ and blank will add the attribute price
- will subtract the attribute price

Weight can be entered optionally if it effects the product weight with a prefix of + or - or blank

+ and blank will add the attribute weight
- will subtract the attribute weight

There are other pricing options also available besides the standard prices.

One Time Charge
Price Factor
One Time Charge Price Factor
Attirbute Qty Price
One Time Attribute Qty Price

For TEXT
Price per word and free words
Price per letter and free letters

Then there are the Attrinbute Flags in the colored boxes.

These are used to help distinquish other features of the attribute such as:

Use for display only (attribute cannot be selected and added to cart. Good for things like "Select from Below" to force the customer to make their own choice and not just hit Add to Cart and get a pink snail instead of a blue snail :)

Attribute is Free when product is Free (Some products you may set to Free ... but the some attributes are free and some attriutes cost money)

Default Attribute (Should be used especially on Radio buttons, or if you have an attribute you prefer the customer selects.)

Apply Discounts used by Product Sale/Special (this will apply the same type of discount that the product is getting from the products_price vs the special or sale price)

Include in Base Price (when products are priced by attributes mark the attributes include in base price then the lowest price in each Option Name group are added together to make up the product price. NOTE: when not the product is not marked priced by attribute this setting has no effect on the price)

Attribute Required for TEXT (Some text is required text and cannot be left blank by the customer)

Be sure to hit Add to add the newly defined Attribute

You can always edit or delete them

When done ... you can update the sort orders for the product to the Option Value sort order by pressing the button at the top of the page.

Thanks Ajeh, this post helps a lot.

Thank you!

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one but sad that so many others have the same problem, that means it's really hard to do ::frust

Is a "radio button" the small circle that when clicked turn green? It would be so much easier if we knew what things mean or at least what they mean to the person that created it.

Sorry guys I can't help, I need help myself. I've bee trying this for 3 days and my headis about to explode. Need a break!!

So much for the free month trial i got from my hosting company, it'll take me that long to get it going!!!! ::tdn

A radio button when on the screen is the white circle with the black dot when selected.

A dropdown is a list of options with the arrow on the right to select from the list.

A checkbox is a square box that you can check/uncheck

When a dropdown is the Product Option Name Type ... but there is only 1 choice ... it switches from a dropdown to a selected radio button ... the white circle will have a black center as there is no other choice.

But, if you add another Option Value to this Option Name, then it will go back to being the dropdown as there is now a choice for the customer to make.

The Green/Red/Yellow/etc. colors are just flags or indicators of various settings such as Status being on/off or warnings, cautions or good indicators.

Like if you set a download filename and spell it wrong, you will see a red icon (red circle) next to the name ... if you spell the name right, then the green icon will be next to the name.

There are a couple of things you do need to know ahead of time.

Radio buttons are the little round circles that when clicked are filled. You can only choose 1 radio button in a group.

Checkboxes are the little squares. They get a check when you click on them. You can check more than one in a group

Baffled and Befuzzled.

I'm trying to have a product that has a base price Say $29.95
a discount of 40% making it $17.97 and
a discount of 45% making it $46.47.

The only way I've been able to get this to work, even remotly, is to set the products Attribute price at -29.95 and the price factor at .6 for 40% off and .55 for 45% off.

Is there a way to set the price factor to a negative number?

Am I way off base on how I'm using the pricing of the attributes?

Thanks!!