can I add in any way product difference by age and genre?

[giuly]

Hello time ago I chose another ecommerce because zencart didn't work for difference for product by age and genre (I have a toys ecommerce so I need this difference).
Something has changed?
If i can try to differenciate product by age and by genre I now would pass again to zencart.
Please someone knows about it?
thanks

[gjh42]

There is no built-in feature to enter or sort by "age" or "genre", but there are plugins to add extra product fields (and make them searchable) which you could use for age and genre. The different plugins have different features, so make sure to choose one that has what you need.

[twitchtoo]

You could install the additional product fields, install category restriction then define groups by age/genre range.

So a customer signs up, provides their age/genre, you assign them a group and they can only see the products within that group.

If you need the entire cart/template to look entirely different for various ages/genres there's other options.

[lat9]

It depends on whether you want to restrict the display of products to based on age and genre choice of the customer or whether you want to group your products by age and/or genre.

If it's the latter, you can use the built-in Zen Cart feature called "linked products". Essentially, you'll create one category named "Genre" with subcategories that identify the various genres and another called "Age Groups" with subcategories that identify the ages. If you have a toy that is a doll and appropriate for age-group 5-6 years, you initially create that product in the Genre->Dolls category and then you "link" that product to the Age Group->5-6 years category.

To "link" the product, navigate to the admin's display of products within the Genre->Dolls subcategory and click the "Copy To" button (it's got a C inside a royal-blue circle) next to the product to be linked. From the categories drop-down that's displayed, choose the "Age Group->5-6 years" category. Now, that product magically appears in both the "Genre->Toys" and "Age Group: 5-6 years" categories.

[giuly]

It depends on whether you want to restrict the display of products to based on age and genre choice of the customer or whether you want to group your products by age and/or genre.

If it's the latter, you can use the built-in Zen Cart feature called "linked products". Essentially, you'll create one category named "Genre" with subcategories that identify the various genres and another called "Age Groups" with subcategories that identify the ages. If you have a toy that is a doll and appropriate for age-group 5-6 years, you initially create that product in the Genre->Dolls category and then you "link" that product to the Age Group->5-6 years category.

To "link" the product, navigate to the admin's display of products within the Genre->Dolls subcategory and click the "Copy To" button (it's got a C inside a royal-blue circle) next to the product to be linked. From the categories drop-down that's displayed, choose the "Age Group->5-6 years" category. Now, that product magically appears in both the "Genre->Toys" and "Age Group: 5-6 years" categories.

thanks this would be better solution, but another question please, the fact to link product, does affect seo? so there is issue with search engine optimization?
thanks

[lat9]

thanks this would be better solution, but another question please, the fact to link product, does affect seo? so there is issue with search engine optimization?
thanks

Nope, starting with (I think) Zen Cart v1.5.0, there's a canonical product link that's generated in the page header; it always references the product using its master_category_id. For the example I gave before, the "Genre->Toys" category (where the product was initially defined) would be its "Master Category".