show sidebox only on products with attributes

[rombout]

Hi people,
I have created a sidebox that filters attributes. When buying make-up, the client can indicate her base color-type, and only colors within that type are shown. See this example at coloursofcreation.nl.

My problem: I want to show the sidebox only when a product with attributes is displayed. Can a sidebox know which product is being shown? So far, I have been able to hide the sidebox based on product category, but I really want to go to the product-with-attributes level.

thanks,
Rombout

[rapid564]

I think what you can do is to create an If statement to check whether or not there are attributes exist in certain products. You could show your sidebox only when if ($pr_attr->fields['total'] > 0). Just use "if ($pr_attr->fields['total'] > 0)" statement to wrap around the sidebox that you want to have the effect.

[Ajeh]

That's a pretty snappy filter there ...

You might consider make it a contribution ... if you were so inclined, as it would help others with similar needs ...

[rombout]

@rapid: thanks for the advice. I had seen that variable being created in attributes.php, but somehow I cannot manage to make it (or a corresponding flag) global. In my sidebox-wrapper this variable is out of scope... Maybe attributes.php is called after the sideboxes?

@Ajeh: thank you for the kind encouragement. I'll give it some attention, but it needs some serious generalisation for that. Do you plan to change the database w.r.t. attributes? So far, I did not dare touch the database for this sidebox.

[rapid564]

Since you already create your filter based on category, you can simply add a little bit more to filter base on the specific product by calling $_GET['products_id'] to find out which product is currently shown.