Trying to Understand Option/Attribute Sort

[webomat]

I've looked around and don't see a solution to my specific question, so hopefully someone can set me on the right path:

Assume I have 6 Option Names set up... A, B, C, D, E and F. I will be using some, if not all, of these Options with each product in the catalog... but due to the "product" the Options need to be listed in a different order for each product display.

For instance, Product 1 lists Options in this order:

A B C D E F

Product 2 needs them in this order:

B D E F A C

And Product 3 needs them as:

D E A B C F

I cannot seem to make that happen. The sort order in the Option Name seems to be the controlling factor. I've looked at the Sort Order field in the Attributes Controller when adding an Option/Attribute to a product, but that seems to apply to the Option Value, not the Option itself. Hope I'm using the "labels" correctly -- that alone is enough to confuse the issue for me. "-)

So anyway... how do I achieve my goal without creating all 6 Options 3 times over, once for each product in the order in which I need them used?

Thanks!

Becky

[Ajeh]

Option Names only have 1 Sort Order ...

Option Values have unique Sort Orders per Product ...

If you have a finite Sort Order that you need the Option Names in, as in 3 distinct possibilities ... this could be acheived by making separate Option Names ...

Example:
Color
Size
Something

Color:
Size:
Something:

Color?
Size?
Something?

To the customer they "look" almost the same, to you, they are distinct ...

Or, you could customize the Attributes Controller to include the Options Name options_id ...

So you would set:
Color 2
Color 16
Color 32

But on the site, you only see: Color

This is more work to manage, but if it is really necessary, it could be configured to manage this for you so the customer sees the proper display and you see something unique to help manage the Option Name with distinct Sort Order for various Products ...

[webomat]

Option Names only have 1 Sort Order ...

Or, you could customize the Attributes Controller to include the Options Name options_id ...

So you would set:
Color 2
Color 16
Color 32

But on the site, you only see: Color

This is more work to manage, but if it is really necessary, it could be configured to manage this for you so the customer sees the proper display and you see something unique to help manage the Option Name with distinct Sort Order for various Products ...

Well perhaps the above portion is going to be my best option. Can you give me a general idea of what/where I need to begin doing this?

Also, I assume that you're also saying setting up "color" (to stay with your example) multiple times and getting the "May be a duplicate" warning isn't going to bust anything in ZC?

Thanks,

Becky

[Ajeh]

Right the warning will tell you if you are wrong on the options_value_id

The Options Value will say what Options Name it belongs to ... so that should help a bit ...

And it will protect you from a mismatch ... so only have to deal with aggrevation if anything ...

Note: to set these up ... there is a Copy all Option Values to another Option Name ...

So if you made one full set you could then make the next Option Name and then copy the existing set to the next name ...

When done, use the Options Names Sorter and the Options Values Sorter to get the defaults all setup ...

This also will let you use the global reset the Option Values and the defaults will be used in the right order of the groups you make for the 3 sets of "Color" Option Name ...

Fun eh?

[webomat]

Right the warning will tell you if you are wrong on the options_value_id

[snip]

Fun eh?

Actually I was asking about the duplicate Options Name... if I create "Option A" and then create another "Option A", it gives me the "You may have a duplicate option name" type of error, tho it doesn't prevent me from doing it. That's what I want to be sure won't be an issue in the future - the name can be the same since the actual ID is different, right?

As far as applying the Attributes, I installed Bunnyip's Attributes Controller yesterday and modified it to display the Option Name ID as you suggested (I also did it to the ZC file, but decided I needed the enhanced features since many of the Option Values are radio button lists). So I shouldn't have any problem with the mismatch there (already ran into that in testing last week - hehe).

Thanks for the info on the copying -- was going to look into that next. Right now I'm restructuring all products and attributes on paper (3rd time should be the charm, right?) so I can wipe the database and start over. Easier than trying to fiddle things as they now exist.

Fun, you say? You're a sick woman, Ajeh. We have that in common!

On the plus side, I think I now have the Options/Attributes thing clear in my mind. With your help, of course!

Thanks again!

Becky

[Ajeh]

That warning is just that ... a warning in case you lost your mind and accidentally made a new Option Name and did not know you already had done it in the wee hours of the night ...

[webomat]

Well you hit that on the head... I lost my mind long ago!

Thanks Ajeh!

Becky