Custom fields - product specific

[slobadog]

Hi all,
I've been attempting to come up with a good solution for a wee problem. Basically I need to create a membership form which is a product. This would be a simple task using attributes under normal circumstances but what I would like is to include a custom page with a bunch of text fields hard coded (and layed out), which is no problem using something like if(products_id == 1) inlude this template, reason being is that there are about 200 fields that need to be included.

Layout would be a real problem with attributes and there are already several hundred options entered into attributes. I don't want to confuse the issue by adding another 200 options.

My problem seems to be in the gathering of values for these custom fields. I have studied at length how attributes achieve this but I don't seem to be able to duplicate it. At what point are attribute values entered into the database? It seems they appear as soon as the buy now button is clicked as shopping_cart/header_php.php seems to grab all the selected/entered attribute values from a select statement and not $_POST or $_REQUEST.

Anyone got any ideas? My brain hurts.
TIA

[DrByte]

At what point are attribute values entered into the database? It seems they appear as soon as the buy now button is clicked

That is correct.
The extra_cart_actions folder may contain additional cart-action scripts, which are followed by the main_cart_actions.php scripts. These are essentially "drivers" to trigger the appropriate elements in the shopping_cart.php class.
You could write your own extra_cart_actions script to do some sort of pre-processing, or you could extend the shopping cart class to do additional processing when it adds selected attributes to the products in the cart.

shopping_cart/header_php.php seems to grab all the selected/entered attribute values from a select statement and not $_POST or $_REQUEST

The main_cart_actions.php and extra_cart_actions scripts read the $_POST data after it's been sanitized, and act accordingly. Once the submitted data is processed, then the shopping cart page is displayed (or customer is returned to another page, depending on admin settings on add-to-cart activities). The shopping_cart/header_php.php is only called when the shopping cart page is to be displayed, and only after all the add-to-cart or update-cart actions are completed.

[slobadog]

Thankyou Sensei, that's the direction I needed. I reckon I can solve my problem armed with that info.

Rock on Zencart!