Adding a "coming soon" button to product display

I would like to display the photo of products that are "coming soon" but not yet in stock. So far when I do that I set it up just like it was in stock but just don't add a count into the inventory total. When I do that a button that says "sold out" shows. Since all of my products are digital except for the cd's basically nothing will ever be "sold out"

Can anyone tell me how I can get rid of the sold out button and replace it with a "coming soon" button that will activate when I put the product in the catalog but go away when I input a quantity available into the product description?

I'm sort of guessing that I would need to make a button, save as a gif and then place in the code where the "sold out" button is now. Am I halfway on track?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Mellany

You're more than halfway on track - you are on the right track for one way of addressing your problem.
Make that new button, save it as includes/templates/your_template/buttons/english/button_sold_out.gif
(note that there is also a small sold_out button (button_sold_out_sm.gif) - you might need to replace that as well.

There is another way to approach this: you could create a new product type and call it products_upcoming. Everything about that product type would be identical to the product_general type except that you set it as being unable to add to cart. It's a lot more work that simply changing the sold out button, and as you're selling all digital products you probably don't need the extra flexibility this approach provides.

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Originally Posted by bunyip

You're more than halfway on track - you are on the right track for one way of addressing your problem.
Make that new button, save it as includes/templates/your_template/buttons/english/button_sold_out.gif
(note that there is also a small sold_out button (button_sold_out_sm.gif) - you might need to replace that as well.

There is another way to approach this: you could create a new product type and call it products_upcoming. Everything about that product type would be identical to the product_general type except that you set it as being unable to add to cart. It's a lot more work that simply changing the sold out button, and as you're selling all digital products you probably don't need the extra flexibility this approach provides.

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Thanks for answering so quickly. I made the new buttons and saved them as the old ones. When I check one of the products with 0 in inventory the sold out button still shows. Is there something I need to change somewhere else?

How do I ad a new product type? If I go that route and set a new product up that way could I then move it to products_general when it is available like you can move them from one catagory to another?

Mellany

If the original sold_out button image is still showing then you've uploaded your custom image to the wrong place or named it incorrectly.

On second thoughts, the new product type wouldn't be a useful solution, because you can't change an existing product from one type to another.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bunyip

If the original sold_out button image is still showing then you've uploaded your custom image to the wrong place or named it incorrectly.

On second thoughts, the new product type wouldn't be a useful solution, because you can't change an existing product from one type to another.

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Its very strange....I redid the buttons, didn't like the first ones. I'm working on both my pc and my laptop. When I moved the files to the server the first time I hi-lited both files and then dragged them to the correct place and dropped them both in at the same time. Each file uploaded and ask if I wanted to replace what was there, I said yes to both. When I open the web site on the pc the and go to the products via the category menu on the side, the new small button is there. When I click on the product picture to go to the individual product description page the old sold out button is still there.

What is even more strange is that when I do exactly the same thing only on my laptop, both the old buttons are still there. I used the laptop to ftp the files.

Does this make any sense to anyone? What am I doing wrong?

Mellany

try clearing your browser cache

did you use the CALL FOR PRICE feature? if not, you can use this feature by replacing the call_for_price.jpg to any coming soon image...that should do it! good luck! :smile:

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Originally Posted by tajul_ashyqin

did you use the CALL FOR PRICE feature? if not, you can use this feature by replacing the call_for_price.jpg to any coming soon image...that should do it! good luck! :smile:

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thanks for your answer. I've got everything thing figured out except the out of stock problem. I'll try your suggestion.
Thanks again

Mellany

I have been pondering this same thought, but in my case I need many special indicator flags.

* Coming Soon
* Special Order
* Installed

I've had others as well that I thought of as I toiled away on my site. Probably not an easy task, but might be worth looking at is a 2 part project.
1. Allow to define 10 indicators.
2. allow all indicators to be shown on each product, it will be upto the shop owner to only select 1 (or perhaps 2) that may be apropriate. The catch will be to display these in a easy to manage way.

How hard would this be to implement, alas its not a feature that can sit external to ZC but would I'm guessing need to be tied into it directly.

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Originally Posted by quentinjs

I have been pondering this same thought, but in my case I need many special indicator flags.

* Coming Soon
* Special Order
* Installed

I've had others as well that I thought of as I toiled away on my site. Probably not an easy task, but might be worth looking at is a 2 part project.
1. Allow to define 10 indicators.
2. allow all indicators to be shown on each product, it will be upto the shop owner to only select 1 (or perhaps 2) that may be apropriate. The catch will be to display these in a easy to manage way.

How hard would this be to implement, alas its not a feature that can sit external to ZC but would I'm guessing need to be tied into it directly.

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ehm, not a bad idea though! :happy: