Number of Pieces Attribute with Two Options (Price and Size)

[karine]

My client sells vintage fabric. Some fabric items have more than 1 piece.

I created an option name called "Number of pieces"
I created option values for "1st piece, 2nd piece,....6th piece"

I created the product: Gold & Silver Lamé on Black Mountains.
left the price blank.
put "2" for the quantity (since 2 pieces are available)
in Description area, put
1st piece: 13.5" x 77" - $33.00
2nd piece: 9.5" x 53" - $20.00

Then used the attribute manager to created the two option values and put appropriate
price on each attribute piece. Selected pulldown menu so the product page has:
Please Choose:
Number of pieces - 1st piece
2nd piece

It all looks good. When I buy the first piece, it goes into shopping
cart nicely. When I go back to buy the second piece, I get the Yellow warning box:
"The quantity added to your cart has been adjusted because of a restriction on maximum you are allowed. See this item:
Gold & Silver Lamé on Black Mountains".

Questions:
1. how do I fix the above so a customer can buy BOTH pieces?
2. is it correct to leave the price blank on the product page? There is a "Starting at:" with
nothing after it. I tried to put in the lesser price ($20 for piece #2) but doing this augments the actual price
of the piece(s) purchased in the shopping cart by $20.
3. is it correct to put the number of pieces under product page quantity? so the above would be "2".
4. The yellow warning box has white type on a bright yellow background. Can't read this. Where do I change
the white text to black text?

thank you!

karine

[mc12345678]

My client sells vintage fabric. Some fabric items have more than 1 piece.

I created an option name called "Number of pieces"
I created option values for "1st piece, 2nd piece,....6th piece"

I created the product: Gold & Silver Lamé on Black Mountains.
left the price blank.
put "2" for the quantity (since 2 pieces are available)
in Description area, put
1st piece: 13.5" x 77" - $33.00
2nd piece: 9.5" x 53" - $20.00

Then used the attribute manager to created the two option values and put appropriate
price on each attribute piece. Selected pulldown menu so the product page has:
Please Choose:
Number of pieces - 1st piece
2nd piece

It all looks good. When I buy the first piece, it goes into shopping
cart nicely. When I go back to buy the second piece, I get the Yellow warning box:
"The quantity added to your cart has been adjusted because of a restriction on maximum you are allowed. See this item:
Gold & Silver Lamé on Black Mountains".

Questions:
1. how do I fix the above so a customer can buy BOTH pieces?
2. is it correct to leave the price blank on the product page? There is a "Starting at:" with
nothing after it. I tried to put in the lesser price ($20 for piece #2) but doing this augments the actual price
of the piece(s) purchased in the shopping cart by $20.
3. is it correct to put the number of pieces under product page quantity? so the above would be "2".
4. The yellow warning box has white type on a bright yellow background. Can't read this. Where do I change
the white text to black text?

thank you!

karine

1. Not entirely sure the setup of quantities associated with this product/attribute combination. (BTW, recommend stock by attributes for all of this..)
2. Can be left blank, but should mark the product as priced by attributes. (Then each attribute should have the price to be applied to the product that will set the price based on what is chosen. That way the starting at price will be the lowest price for the lowest attribute combination.)
3. Yes and no... By entering an available quantity of 2, this is the total number of any attribute that is available. If for example there are two attributes red and green, and there is only 1 red and 1 green, then blindly entering 2, would allow someone to select 2 red, or 2 green and that wouldn't work as only one of each is accessible. This is where Stock By Attributes comes in, as then can assign the availability of 1 product to be a value of 1 and the other as 1 and that way can only purchase one of each, but not 2 of either. One thing though in your case, fabric of a smaller size could always be made from a larger piece, but would imagine may actually charge extra to do that, because if the larger piece were sold as requested would bring in more money than by selling just the smaller piece and have "scraps" that can not be sold for anything really.
4. Check your css files (firebut helps with this) so that you can find where the two colors (background and text) are defined... Not really difficult to find/identify, just have to force an error like that again to inspect it.

[karine]

where do I learn more about this stock by attributes? is it an add on or has it been integrated in 1.5 and above?

karine

[mc12345678]

where do I learn more about this stock by attributes? is it an add on or has it been integrated in 1.5 and above?

karine

There are still multiple versions on ZC, Stock by Attributes (SBA) is a plugin that is available for download and installation.

Each still has it's strengths and weaknesses. The applicable forum(s) would be the best place to read about the option under review. In part I've lost touch with which will do what, but it comes down to how the applicable option is implemented, what the user sees, whether java is required or not, if the whole store must have. Attributes on every item, if having one attribute will work, if having two or more attributes will work, etc... Of course the big debate is, what is the functionality that would best serve the larger group and not just the original designer. Difficult for any one person to come up with that. Even with a desired end use/visualization, there are still some issues with how the data is managed/controlled internally. Ie single table with everything, multiple tables to support lookup, etc... At the moment, in the end it is desirable to use something that will meet your current needs and that won't require you to modify too much about how you setup your products oh and that will allow you to continue selling even if there is something that needs to be changed.

Using a backup non-live copy of your site would be the best way to identify that issue.

[karine]

If it helps to see the usage needed:
http://www.hausergallery.com/fabric.htm

The site now uses paypal buttons. We are moving to zencart.
There are 13 pages of fabrics but only some of them have 2 or more pieces. Does stock by attributes still look like the best solution? There are many other product categories that are one-of-a-kind, so I am hesitant to do stock by attributes.

I still don't understand the answer to my first question. Why can't I use "Number of items" and "1st piece, 2nd piece" as the option name and option values? Why does checkout not allow the purchase of the second item if someone wants both pieces?

karine

[mc12345678]

If it helps to see the usage needed:
http://www.hausergallery.com/fabric.htm

The site now uses paypal buttons. We are moving to zencart.
There are 13 pages of fabrics but only some of them have 2 or more pieces. Does stock by attributes still look like the best solution? There are many other product categories that are one-of-a-kind, so I am hesitant to do stock by attributes.

I still don't understand the answer to my first question. Why can't I use "Number of items" and "1st piece, 2nd piece" as the option name and option values? Why does checkout not allow the purchase of the second item if someone wants both pieces?

karine

So, I'll try to provide as many of the settings expected to handle a situation like you are describing; however, I may miss something that needs to be switched to a different setting and would best be able to identify the incorrect setting by knowing/seeing what is going on. At the moment I am not where I have access to a test site.

So, I would first create a product. For what appears to be desired, I would set the product as priced by attributes. If I wanted to identify an unlimited supply I would make the quantity available some large number. (This is also because I would have. The store set to not be able to sell a product that I don't have as available, this is a store-to-store setting dependent onhow business is to be run/availability of a product. For some, once it's gone, it's gone for good. For others, there will be a delay.) I would more than likely leave the price of the product blank. (At least at first considering that there may not be some sort of "base" price for whatever is being chosen, but that the price would be fully dependent on the attribute). Also, I would not set a maximum value other than 0, so could add the same product (regardless of attribute type) more than once.m. If that value is set to 1, then can only request theone product one time and that attributes are basically something unique about the product, but has no impact on whetherproduct with attribute is different than the same product without that attribute. Ie, a shirt that is available in blue or white is more than likely two different shirts, unless the coloring is done by the business, and are therefore two different products; however, a shirt with an iron-on is basically the same as the same shirt without the iron-on. (Although iron-ons are also a stock related item)


So now that I have a product, I would create attribute data to be seen by the customers.

First would create an option name: this is the "heading " like select color or select size and is identified to a type of functionality (drop down, radio, checkbox, etc.)

After setting the other characteristics of it, I would then make option values that would be tied to that option name. Think big scale when working these two parts. Perhaps you only want a 2"x2" on one product, but 40"x36" on another. (Also want to consider measurements in one direction with quantity identified past that, but starting to get into some more setup things like price by foot or by inch. For now want to stick with the basic attributes.) Anyways the idea is that the option name could be applied to multiple products and only those option values desired can be assigned for that one product. One of the suggested values to add is something like please select one of the following or similar words. This will allow the product(s) to be setup to not allow adding the item(s) to the cart without the customer making a conscious decision about which attribute to select. (Otherwise, could end up with returns because they got something they didn't want, all because they didn't see something or make their own personal choice.) Typically this value is set to 0 in the sort order and other values follow. There is no requirement. For example could be set for the middle of the list if options (above are less than options below like a negative/positive setting).

After those two things, option name then option values have been assigned, then use the attribute controller to assign the option name to the product and whatever option value(s) desired. If a product only comes in one size, then basically there is no need to identify an name/value combination, just have to describe to customer what they are getting.

So in the attribute controller, would assign the price for each of the attributes (say small and large) and there's a few other aspects of which blocks to fill in, depending on how the price to be adjusted, but the please select me option value would be set as display only/required/default so that it is the first thing shown and prevent the customer from adding the item to the cart without picking something in that list. (Some attributes can be optional, like if offered something like free monogramming, then if nothing was entered in the text box, nothing would be monogrammed and the product could be added to the cart, but if required entry, then would ask the customer to state some standard terminology so that you know they don't want a monogram, but also so you are "100%" sure they didn't forget to monogram the item. That all is basically how you choose to run things and what you think will work as compared to others in your "area".



So, I think I've covered the basics through and through. I still don't know exactly the conditions you were in when you tried what you did. It was a little confusing. So instead of me asking multiple questions, I have stepped through what I would typically setup for what has been described. There are a lot. Of other settings that can be set depending on the desired outcome. Suggest reading through the FAQs about attributes. As for whether SBA is for you, again can be handled without it (product 1 avail in size 1, product 2 same product but in size 2). Again, ideally you want whatever will keep you selling and with minimal effort as your time really is money. Could be doing something more/better to continue making money.

[karine]

http://www.hausergallery.com/store/i...roducts_id=166

here's the product (with 2 pieces of fabric).

[mc12345678]

http://www.hausergallery.com/store/i...roducts_id=166

here's the product (with 2 pieces of fabric).

Sorry for not choosing the post before to respond against. First of all, the max is currently set at 1 (or at least that is what is displaying in the cart after I choose either of the two to select.

Regarding any automation to remove the "spent" item, that's something SBA would do, but can't be done in standard ZC when the quantity is dependent on an attribute. Otherwise you would want to have a product (with X quantity available (inches?) And a second product with the same setup, but of the other limiting dimension.

As for the attribute sizes, you could go ahead and create a value that reads like you want. When assigning an option name to a product, you do not need to add all option values, just the one(s) you want for that product. It's not an issue if there are many to choose from when setting up the product(s) other than for yourself as the store owner. The customer(s) will only see what is made available to them. I did notice that you didn't use the please select option, if I were to visit this product and hit add to cart, the "larger" piece would be added without any intervention from me. And basically I may not have had time to determine what was best for what I needed. If I received that and then contacted you back, to request the other size, well could be that I was stuck with that product and I may be a dissatisifed customer not to return again, etc...

Try increasing the max value at least by one more and verifying that you do indeed still have at least 2 quantity available. (Don't know if someone else has bought the product from you while they have been following this thread.

[mc12345678]

Have to forgive me. Now that I think about it. In order for a max of 2 items to be chosen, I seem to now recall that a value of 3 must be entered. (1 hides the quantity box and allows the product to be entered once, 2 allows the quantity box, but only allows a max of 1, so a value of 3 should allow the same product twice.). I don't usually limit products this way because of the biz performed, but had a conversation with someone last year that described the operation as above.

[karine]

Hi!

We are getting closer. I put in the "please select one" in the pulldown. Much better.

The one thing to work out:
I tried both 2 and 3 max values and both don't work the way they need to...I can add more than 1 of each of the two pieces. But there is only 1 of each available. If I do "2" for max value, I can add 2 of either piece or one of each. If I put in "3" for the max value, I can put in a total of 3 products in any combination.

So "2" seems better but how do I insure that only 1 of each piece is purchasable? that is, someone doesn't put in the 1st piece twice?

product is here
http://www.hausergallery.com/store/i...roducts_id=166

(I have max 3 at the moment)

karine