restrict which products are added to cart & set min spend for those?

[iddy]

Hi

i'm using 1.3.9h and I'm looking to do the following.

Restrict customers from mixing product from "Special Orders Category" (including its sub cats) with products from any other Category... so if a customer has an item from Special Order Category" in their cart, it wont allow them to add an item from any other category and vice versa.

At checkout, if the cart contains items from a category other than "Special Orders" they checkout as normal with a flat rate shipping charge.


The special order category is a way for customers to get free shipping (or to collect in store) if they'll wait a few days extra for delivery - subject to a minimum purchase if they decide not to collect in person.

so I'd like to change the way they checkout with "Special Orders" items in the cart, to have zen cart check they are over the minimum spend amount and give them the option of collecting the goods in store irrespective of the amount spent.

Thanks
Id

[Ajeh]

This can be approached in a couple ways ...

1 Once a Product from the Special Order Category is in the cart, the Add to Cart/Buy Now buttons for all other Products in other Categories are changed to something else -- or -- once Products from any other Category is added to the cart the Add to Cart/Buy Now on the Special Order Category are changed to something else ...

Something else like "Cannot Purchase" ... and on the Product Info page add a more robust explanation to the page ...

This method limits the explanation to the customer on the button ...

2 Add a Warning on the Shopping Cart that Products cannot be mixed and prevent checkout ...

Problem is, what warning to give to explain the Problem enough that customers understand the issue ...

Problem is, marking the Products to distinguish which Products can be purchased together and which one cannot ...

Advantage is, as soon as 1 Product gets added to the Cart in combination with the Special Order Category or 1 Special Order Category gets added to the cart in combination with all other Products, the message can be given and the 1 Product that cannot be mixed, in either case, can be identified ...

3 Leave buttons alone, show message on the Product Info page that the Product cannot be added for either Special Order Category or for normal Products and generate a message, if they try to add the Product that says: Sorry cannot add this Product blah blah blah to explain what is preventing the Product from being added ...


So, the question is how do you want to manage this?

[iddy]

3 Leave buttons alone, show message on the Product Info page that the Product cannot be added for either Special Order Category or for normal Products and generate a message, if they try to add the Product that says: Sorry cannot add this Product blah blah blah to explain what is preventing the Product from being added ...


So, the question is how do you want to manage this?

Thanks for the detailed reply.

#3 sounds like it might be the easiest way to do it but if one of the other ways is easier I dont mind... I'm depending on someone here to tell me exactly what to do so I wont try to dictate the exact method

All the products contained in the Special Order category/sub categories are available to purchase immediately if the customer goes to the other non restricted categories. My issue is that an email is sent to a drop shipper once the customer pays for the goods so I just need to make sure the special orders dont get mixed up with regular orders.

I'm planning on putting [S/O] in front of all the product names in this Special Order Category.

So how do i restrict this category, get the message to display explaining it.... then offer the customer the option of collecting the goods or spending above a certain amount?

[maac2]

I'm looking into implementing something similar, but simpler.

- Special Order category for items that will be ordered from suppliers. Restricting checkout to just this category will mean mixed orders do not get delayed by this process (and won't involve extra shipping cost by sending separately).

For both IDDY and myself options 2 & 3 sound like the best.
Option 2 actually seems best because customers are also able to add items to their cart on category pages, search results etc. and will not see the warning message if it's only on the product's page.

Problem is, what warning to give to explain the Problem enough that customers understand the issue ...

Problem is, marking the Products to distinguish which Products can be purchased together and which one cannot ...

One way to mark the affected products could be an IF query on the shopping cart page under each item:
if product is in CAT#XX display "special order: needs to be ordered alone"
I haven't tested this, but have been able to get category specific messages on product pages, so hopefully this can be done on the shopping cart too.

And perhaps a general message on the shopping cart explaining that special items need to be order separately.

---------

Regarding the additional conditions, it would be an extra step so I can't help really but there are Add Ons for Minimum Order and Cash on Pickup. Check these out and see if they could be adapted. What you're planning sounds fairly complicated, but if it's just limiting these options to the same special category it may be fairly simple. Search the forums, sure category-specific min orders would have been discussed?

[ksbdevel]

Hi.

One way to mark the affected products could be an IF query on the shopping cart page under each item:
if product is in CAT#XX display "special order: needs to be ordered alone"

I am looking at restrictions on a category also. Were you able to add a check on the category? If so, could you elaborate where/how you implemented this?

Thanks

[maac2]

Sure. I got this code from another post in this forum:

<?php
$cat4link = zen_product_in_category($_GET['products_id'], 4);
if ($cat4link == 1) { ?>
<?php echo "<h2>FREE for Newsletter Subscribers!</h2>"; ?>
<?php } ?>

The variable is "cat4link" which you can change to anything, it's checking if the product is in category 4. If it is it will display the "FREE..." text. If not, it will display nothing.

Hope that helps, hopefully someone with more skill can help with the checkout restriction.