Problems with New Product Type

[mhfein]

Hi,

I am new to the Zen cart, and have been having a good time with it up to this point. Now I am really stumped and starting to worry that I will not be able to get this working.

My client has 2 kinds of "products", Products and Services. Services have some different fields, and no add to cart button. I have uploaded all my 1000 or so items with Easy Populate, and made two main categories which are basically called Products and Services. Each has sub and sub sub categories. Services has about 160 products.

Before I knew about product types, I incorrectly assumed I could have two different product info pages, one for Services and one for Products, each showing different fields. So I added new fields to the products table that really only pertain to services. This worked fine, and I can see the fields in admin for all products. I don't mind that each product record will have some empty fields.

Then I learned that I COULD NOT have two different product info pages unless I added a new product type for services, so I cloned the general type. I do not have a separate product table for my new product type as all the fields are in the main product table.

I believe I have copied all the files properly from the default product type to the new product_services product type. I also believe that I have inserted all the records needed into the product type layout table.

My new product_services type looks great in admin, and all the fields can be turned on or off. The product type is set to NOT allow add to cart.

The next thing I did was tell the services category that it was going to belong to the product type product_services. This seems to have had absolutely no effect on anything. The add to cart button is still there on each one of the products in this category.

I realize I have to code some file or other to decide whether each field is on or off when displaying these products of this new type.

QUESTION 1: WHERE DOES THAT CODE GO? Can anybody give me a full path and a file name and a line number and a snippet showing how to add code for my new fields? I am guessing I need to modify includes/tempaltes/MY_TEMPLATE/templates/products_services_info_display.php

But how? I see flags are tested and info displayed if the flag is 1. I really just need an example.

QUESTION 2: I applied the product type product_services to the Services category with no effect. Shouldn't the add to cart button AT LEAST disappear? Do I need to apply the product type to all the sub categories and sub subs?? I did click the "Add include SubCategories" button when I set the product type.

QUESTION 3: Database tables: I notice the product _types_to_categories table was not right, so I fixed it. It had not updated all my categories and sub categories to be type 6, so I did it manually. No effect.

Why do the In the products table all the new product type products still show themselves to be product type 1, even though the services category seems to realize it is product type 6? Shouldn't all those products in that category show themselves as type 6?

If I manually change a product to type 6, the customer gets a 404 file not found when trying to view the product. This worries me but I double checked that I copied every file.

Please help if you can. If it is useful, my store is at http://www.vinquiry.com/test/store You can login as customer email address: [email protected]
password: forum

Thanks to anyone with some kind thoughts and good ideas for me!
Mary Helen

[mhfein]

I figured out how to remove the add to cart button another way, using the product specific css files.

Thanks. I think I will leave product_types for another day. MH

[gjh42]

Product type is set when a product is created; it cannot be changed afterward. You will have to delete and re-enter the services. The category should limit the types available to new products, but it will not alter existing ones.

"Add include SubCategories" doesn't limit new subcategories; you need to select it for each new subcat.

Since there are so many interdependencies between table items, it can cause problems if you change one field without knowing exactly which other fields are connected to it.

[mhfein]

WOW thank you so much! I had no idea I had to do things in that order. I will delete the services type products and put them back. Since I am using easy popuplate, it will not be difficult to do that. Question, do you happen to know if easy populate interfere with this process in any way?

MH

[gjh42]

I don't use EP, so someone else will have to answer that.