Multiple categories drop down boxes for Make Model Year

[Liamv]

We have recently implemented a new feature on our web site that allows filtered searching by Make Year and Model via drop down boxes.

We developed our own ZenCart template (from an existing one) and then got a third party to add the Make Year Model feature.

It has been created by Zen4me.com for us (at a very reasonable cost) and we understand that now they have done the hard work of develping it from scratch for us that they are going to make it available to other customers as well at a cheaper price. We are happy and keen for other customers to also use this development as it will ensure that new features etc will be developed.

How it works.

You can visit www.FastBikeGear to see it in action.

Rather than have to assign every one of our thousands of products manually one by one to a Make Model Year Zen4me was able to import a spreadsheet that we gave them with the Make Model and Year Assignments for every product. (However the import process wasn't perfect and some products did not get assigned even though we had made assignments in the spread sheet - which is very frustrating)

On an ongoing basis, when you add a new product at the bottom of the page where you add the product description price etc you assign the product to one or more Make(s), Model(s) and Yeas(s) from a pre-established list of Make, Model and Years. This feature works really well and makes it fast and easy to administer.

Pre-establihed list of Make Model and Years. We were able to supply the developers with a Make Model Year spread sheet which they imported into the site for us. Through the Admin via tab called Extras we can add/edit new Make Model and Years as required on an ongoing basis.

It's early days yet (we have only be using it for a couple of weeks) and the code still needs some development to improve the administration functions.

Please feel free to ask me questions on this or contact via this thread or contact Donny at [email protected]

[Liamv]

Whoops

For some reason when we started this project I didn't realise that there was another project and contribution to do the same thing.

The administration of the alternative is very different and it has been contributed as a free module.As I have not had any experience with the other solution I can not comment on which is better but happy to answer questions on the solution we are using so people can decide which is going to be the best solution for them. (I am actually keen to see how the other solution compares as well.)

You can find information on the other solution in this thread:

http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.php?161143-Product-Finder-multiple-category-drop-downs

[torvista]

One first landing on the home page I tried the drop downs in four different browsers and the second drop down never populated..always said loading, forever.

Once I went to another page, then it did work.

We are in the same business...R&G eh! A rod for your back, it never ends!
regards
Steve
www motorvista es

[Liamv]

One first landing on the home page I tried the drop downs in four different browsers and the second drop down never populated..always said loading, forever.

Once I went to another page, then it did work.

We are in the same business...R&G eh! A rod for your back, it never ends!
regards
Steve
www motorvista es

Very nice site Steve!

I have just double checked and the second drop down is working fine from firefox on Linux, Google Chrome on Linux and Safari on my ipad will check form a couple of other browsers later today.

Is it still not working for you?

[Liamv]

One first landing on the home page I tried the drop downs in four different browsers and the second drop down never populated..always said loading, forever.

Once I went to another page, then it did work.

We are in the same business...R&G eh! A rod for your back, it never ends!
regards
Steve
www motorvista es

Steve it woudl seem that the way you are doing this is to create hidden categroies for each Make of bike and then create a subcategory for each model and then a further sub categor for each year of bike and then assign new products to the relevant year of bike category?

It would also seem that you could then use EZ pages to update this information?

If so this would seem a nicer solution than what I am doing?

[Liamv]

With our solution we have to import tables.(and we are having some issues with this)

A disadvantage with your solution might be if a product fits multiple products you need to copy it to multiple years which would be cumbersome through the admin.
and then when you drill down to a single product it is harder to see at a galnce what models and years the product is assigned to.

We have a matrix/list at the bottom of each product description page in the admin which makes product assignments very fast and displays a complete list of all the MMY that a product is assigned to. However as yet we can not simply copy this list of assignments to another product.

[torvista]

Steve it woudl seem that the way you are doing this is to create hidden categroies for each Make of bike and then create a subcategory for each model and then a further sub categor for each year of bike and then assign new products to the relevant year of bike category?

A description of how I use the other mod is not relevant to this thread, so I've answered it in the other thread where it may be of interest to others:
http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.p...58#post1186158

[torvista]

I have just double checked and the second drop down is working fine from firefox on Linux, Google Chrome on Linux and Safari on my ipad will check form a couple of other browsers later today.

I have checked again and can't reproduce the symptom with cacheing disabled and empty, so I don't know what to suggest.