A Comment, question and compliment! Zen Cart and Attributes

[krow]

Hello to ZenMasters and Senseis (sp)? :-)

First want to tell you all how excited I am to have found ZenCart. I am completely unfamiliar with it and am currently stumbling around (so much of a newbie am I, I didn't know what a Wiki doc was!). Someone out there said ignorance is bliss. I can assure that I have proven *that* point completely wrong (hehehe).

Anyway, one thing that interested me was the built in ability to do radio-button options (attributes), which is the *leading* reason why I am swapping over to ZenCart. That being said, it leads in to my question...

Please know I have been here for the last 2 hours scouring the forums and the Wiki docs. I followed the info and tuts in the Wiki. But, frankly, they did not lead to success in adding these attributes! The one Wiki doc goes only to a certain point and then does not go any further on adding atts. I have hundreds of products in which I simply want to list as:
Product A
Sizes: 1, 2, 3,
and it automatically calcs the price (none of that "+2.00, -4.00, ~3.00.. to confusing for the customer). So.. I am presuming the attributes section of ZC lets me do that??

I am wanting to work all this out *before* I go in and start designing pages and adding all my products to be totally sure ZenCart is right for me.

Ok, and the final thing I have to say this... after scouring this forum, I have to say that this has been the most polite, quickest-responding forum I have seen in a long time! (was my 2nd reason for switching to ZC)! After the responses I saw in some other's forums, they actually made some people feel guilty for being new and of the non-programming type. So.... here's to the ZenCart ppl running this forum! :-)

Thanks for any help you may offer.
k

[kobra]

I take it that you need a semi-step by step procedure for creating/adding attributes...?

If so. First admin > catalog > option name manager > enter a name for the attribute and if drop down-radio button or other selection type. In your case most likely 'Size'...Now select option values...
If there are more than the one option name first select the otion name and enter the value text...like 'S' or 'small' the order that you want it to appear as and insert...add M and L. inserting each.

Time for attribute controller...select a category of poducts and a product.

select size and s, enter the price function, and insert...repeat for others sizes.

That is the short course. The correct pricing is variable as to if the product has a price entered, or is priced solely by attributes and combinations there of.

[dbltoe]

Welcome to the club!
I must congratulate you on taking time to investigate before jumping into the pond.
Here's what I tell my customers in your case.

1. Decide on what categories you're going to have and enter them with sort orders in the 10, 20, 30 mode. That allows moving later and adding in between without having to renumber the sorts.
2. Under one of the categories, you'll have an item dealing with size. Go ahead and enter the product once again using a sort order that will allow later movement/addition.
3. Head on into the attributes controller and set up an option name of size. Remember the sort order thing.
4. Set up some values for size. Did I mention sort order?
5. The next thing you'll need to decide is whether to use the radio or drop down. Personally, I do not recommend radio buttons unless the value has a pic accompanying it. Otherwise you're taking up a lot of room and the customer may not see an item it they don't scroll.
6. A trick taught me by Ajeh is to make the first item (sort order?) In the list the default but display only with the option being required. The customer will have to select a size other than the default in order for the cart to accept the order. For Example, a drop-down would have "Please Select a Size" as the listed item or "Please Select a Color"

Too many carts do not require the customer to actually pick the size and customers DO NOT like getting other than what they wanted.
Zen has the POWER!

[krow]

Hello there and thank you both for responding. By following both prescriptives, I was able to get it to work (though I'm not quite sure through the combination of the two what did the trick).. but mission accomplished!

Once again, I have to say thank you for taking the time write your instructions. It's very refreshing to see ppl take the time to do this (I just can't tell you how frustrating another site's forum was when the constant comment was "search the board.. it's out there"). ug! So.. thank you!

Now that this solves my entire cart problem, I'm off to see if we can now be fully committed to ZenCart by trying some customizations (holy moly skins are expensive for ZenCart!!). Guess I'll be doing some imaging myself... ahhh... the tireless effort for those with 3 jobs as it is. Well, I'm off to see what else I can get stuck on (just kidding).

Thank you both again!
k

[krow]

Ummm... ok, sorry to have to follow up on this... however I think I may have messed something up....

I have the radio buttons with their size options in place and they are showing on the store's page. I did set one button that says "Choose Size below" and then the other 2 options radio buttons below that. However, when checking the page, it lets me choose *all* the radio button options! It shouldn't let ppl do that. They should only be able to choose 1 size options. Where did I mess that up?

Thank you in advance for your continued help.
k

[Ajeh]

Make sure that you setup 1 Option Name as a Radiobutton ...

Then add to that the multiple Option Values that can be used ...

Set the 1 Option Value as Choose from below and when adding it as an Attribute set it as the Default ... Display Only ... to force a proper selection

[krow]

Wow! Ok, I think that did the trick! Thank you so much!

Off to job #2 of 3 now. See if I can find a little time to dig into the formatting of the pages now.

Thank you!
k

[kobra]

Once again, I have to say thank you for taking the time write your instructions. It's very refreshing to see ppl take the time to do this (I just can't tell you how frustrating another site's forum was when the constant comment was "search the board.. it's out there"). ug! So.. thank you!

Most here are just part of the community and depending on how much rest we have not had, general mood etc. you can still get this type of response...It is searchable via the search function and it has been answered many times over.

But you must have caught some of us at a good time....can't promise that always but you are most welcome.