Advice Please....

[jdurrant]

Hi,
could someone let me know if this is possible, and if so how to go about it?

I have a number of products in my shop (see http://www.world-of-taste.co.uk). To keep thinks simple, say I have "Cheese A (Cheddar)", "Ham B", and "Chutney C" and so on.

I want to have up Hampers (which will be a new "product") which will consist of serveral different existing products. So, "Hamper 1" may be made up from "Cheese A (Cheddar)" and "Chutney B". "Hamper 2" may be made up from "Ham B" and "Chutney C". OK so far?

I also want to give customers some choice. For example, if a customer wants "Hamper 1", but does not like "Cheese A (Cheddar)", they can change "Cheese A (Cheddar)" for "Cheese A1 (Stilton)".

Question is:
Can I create a new product from other existing products?
Can I give the customer some choice of existing products to include?

If anyones still with me, I'd be glad of some advice, as I don't really know where to start!

Many thanks,
James.

[Ryk]

Yes it's feasible using the products as attributes for the hamper, itself a product, and then you price the hampers by attributes. But it could become very cumbersome from a maintenance point of view, specifically from a pricing aspect as each attribute would need the price setting...oh, and perhaps the weight.

I haven't got time at the moment to think this through but in principle, yes it's doable.

[jdurrant]

Thanks Ryk, it's good to know it's possible. It dosen't matter too much about pricing each attribute (no need to bother about the weight) as this will only run from now until Christmass.

Now, if I could just work out how to do it.... :-)

[jdurrant]

Anyone? How do I go about this???
Cheers.

[Ryk]

Sorry Jim - got a lot on. Search for posts on attributes by ajeh - that should help.

[kobra]

There are a couple of things that will make this possible.

First is builtin and called something like "linked product", meaning that if you have a set of categories like "cheese", "meats" & "condimants" yu could add one called "hamper" and link products from other areas to this new category without having to re-enter, The prices are set once in the main product and replicated where ever linked.

If these "hamper items" are to consist of a group of these other items(and less than 6 total), then the cross-sell module in the downloads section, will assist in allowing these to be grouped into a new product with multiple items.

The most simple, and manageable setup woul be to price these either as the total of the individual items + some upcharge for special packaging like a box or basket; or the total of the individual items less a certian fixed percentage.

If this does not meet ewith your intentions, then as ryk stated, the management of the differentials can get overwhelming.

See the cross sell module as I think that this is what you will require.

[jdurrant]

Hi Korba,
thanks for your reply. The Hampers will be made up from upto 15 different individual products, so the cross-sell mod wouldn't be any good for this.

Also, the prices issues - I should have said before that the prices for each Hamer are set - so "Hamper 1" will always be £49.95, regardless of the products the buyer selects to go in their Hamper. This should make life easier!


Ryk,
I've looked through the "attributes" posts by ajeh, and can see anything on first inspection - but I'll keep looking.

Many thanks for your input,
James.

[misty]

I've looked through the "attributes" posts by ajeh, and can see anything on first inspection

The demo install of zencart does have several attribute examples already added,
might be worth investigating to see if one of those suits your requirements.

[Ryk]

I should have said before that the prices for each Hamer are set

Yes you should! All you need do then is create a products for HamperA, HamperB etc and then create attributes for the possible items that can go in to each one.

Option name= Hamper contents
Option Values: pickles, puddings, pies etc, etc.

If you're still mystified, call me!

[Ryk]

I've given this a bit more thought (actually, I was making a coffee and for absolutely no reason it suddenly leaped to mind that I'd led you astray here!) and you need to set up Option Names of Item 1, Item 2, ...Item 15, and then Option values of all the products they could choose for each Item. This could be tedious, but once you've done the first one, you should be able to copy all the values over.

Each Option Name will require a "Please Select" set as the opening value to ensure people make a choice, and bear in mind that if each of the 15 items can be chosen from the same list, then someone could order a Hamper with 15 smoked salmon in it!