manually set item with out of stock notice but not shut the item off?

[djtrillian]

What I want is very simple and yet so far I'm not seeing how to do this;

I want to be able to go in and set an item in the store to show as out of stock and have it where they cannot add to cart.

I do not want ZenCart to track the inventory because we sell both online and over the phone so inventory tracking is off, subtract from inventory is false etc.

But it would seem that the function to allow an item to be shown in the catalogue when out of stock does not work, it is set to '1' which means to show out of stock items.

But when I set the item out of stock in the edit screen it automatically turns it off completely. Surely the 'out of stock' parameter is a distinct and separate function to the button that turns the item on or off ?

Sooooooo, how do I do this? I have searched and only found threads about people wanting the opposite effect (to remove the item from the catalogue) and threads implying that none of that works unless you have Zen Cart tracking the inventory, which is ludicrous

[stevesh]

Are you saying that 'Admin - Configuration - Stock - Products status in Catalog when out of stock should be set to' is set to 1 ?

You can't set the quantity of a product from some number to 0 in admin and have it become out of stock. The last item of that product has to go through the checkout process for it to be out of stock.

[Trinity14]

Another take on this situation:

Admin -> Configuration -> Stock
Mark product out of stock ***
Products status in Catalog when out of stock should be set to 1= leave product status ON
Show Sold Out Image in place of Add to Cart 1= on

Edit your product in your new products page:
Products Quantity: 0

Hope that helps,

[djtrillian]

Another take on this situation:

Admin -> Configuration -> Stock
Mark product out of stock ***
Products status in Catalog when out of stock should be set to 1= leave product status ON
Show Sold Out Image in place of Add to Cart 1= on

Edit your product in your new products page:
Products Quantity: 0

Hope that helps,

ALL my products are set at 0 stock as this is the default. It is a non-issue since I don't want Zen Cart to keep track of the inventory.

So if I go in and set 'Show Sold Out Image in place of Add to Cart' it effectively puts the entire store out of stock! Soooo, nope, 'can't do that.

[djtrillian]

Are you saying that 'Admin - Configuration - Stock - Products status in Catalog when out of stock should be set to' is set to 1 ?

You can't set the quantity of a product from some number to 0 in admin and have it become out of stock. The last item of that product has to go through the checkout process for it to be out of stock.

Yes, I have 'Admin - Configuration - Stock - Products status in Catalog when out of stock should be set to' is set to 1' but this is a function that either just plain doesn't work or my cart has a fault.

I am not altering the stock number of the product, which is set by default to 0.

Right now, the 'out of stock' setting in the product edit screen is essentially an on/ off switch. It doesn't matter if I set the date expected below it to some value either, it still turns the item off, removing it from view.

[lhungil]

"admin" --> "configuration" --> "stock":
Check stock level: false
Subtract stock: false
Allow checkout: false
Products status in Catalog when out of stock: 1 (on)
Show Sold Out Image in place of Add to Cart: 1 (on)

Update your products:
Make the quantity 1 for products in stock and quantity 0 for products out of stock

Update your "Sold Out" image
Update "/includes/templates/your_template_name/buttons/english/button_sold_out.gif" to be whatever image you want displayed to customers when the product is out of stock.

Note: The "out of stock" setting appears to just "enable" / "disable" the product on my test sites. There are other solutions as well, but this one is probably the quickest and easiest if you are not managing inventory with Zen Cart.

[djtrillian]

Thanks Ihungil. However, this would mean going in and editing every one of my 400 products and setting them to quantity 1 just so I can place a simple 'out of stock' notice on one or two from time to time :-( Is it just me or is this not an obvious function that is lacking, and/or is very counter-intuitive? (no need to answer, I can say without fear of contradiction that I am right :-)

I do know another way to do it which is to use attributes and create one with a label like 'temporarily out of stock' and set it to default and display only but I was hoping for a logical and simple way to do this that other people in our office could do as needed.

[mc12345678]

I would have thought that another way would be to use a different product type, seeing that it seems that the item(s) are not going to be processed through as a purchase. If you use the document general product type then there is no purchase button, or if you set thecurrent product type to not add to cart (all items will be affected) then there will not be an add-to-cart button.

[djtrillian]

I would have thought that another way would be to use a different product type, seeing that it seems that the item(s) are not going to be processed through as a purchase. If you use the document general product type then there is no purchase button, or if you set thecurrent product type to not add to cart (all items will be affected) then there will not be an add-to-cart button.

Well, it's things like this that I am amazed have not been addressed with an update or an add-on, it would seem like an obvious desired feature.

[mc12345678]

Well, it's things like this that I am amazed have not been addressed with an update or an add-on, it would seem like an obvious desired feature.

Somewhat to the contrary, it is not usual for someone to want to show outof stock for items that are really in stock. Another option which doesn't agree with the title of this thread is to set the store for viewing products only in the my store settings. This would allow the guests to see the price(s) and. The product information but not be able to add to cart.

Now if the desire is/was to do this on one product only or a few products only, then perhaps some custom coding would be needed. As for changing all products at once, there is at least one add-on that would help, easy populate. That would allow you to export all products in your store, make the desired changes and then upload the changes at once. Really comes down to what your final goal is as to how to get there. Think there have been lots of good ideas presented here to accomplish exactly what was originally asked, but I wonder if what was asked was what was really wanted.

Btw, the suggestion I provided can be performed by going to catalog/products->product types, then edit the product type(s) to have them changed to do not add to cart. It wonan out of stock image, but also wontallow adding the item(s) to the cart.