I was hoping to use read only attirbutes as a way to indicate the number of pieces in a set. I need this information for customs forms and also for determining the shipping box sizes.

After adding the attribute on my test site and placing an order for that product, it appears the read only attribute is not stored in zen_orders_products_attributes.

I prefer the read only vs. something like a single radio button selected as default to avoid any concern by my customers.

My second, less preferable, option is to make a radio button attribute with only one value and selected as a default. Then as a "comment" I provide HTML to an image which explains that the option is for "office use only".

What are read only attributes used for if they do not get stored with the order? It seems like it would be just as easy to add a read-only piece of text to the product description.

Thanks in advance for any help. I couldn't turn up anything obviously similar in search.