Setting up Products as Categories - Is there a better way?

[yshaqed]

So this is my situation, in my store the actual product is a specific part of a "Real" product,
For example we are selling repair services for computers, so lets take a specific case:

Main category: "Computers"

Sub-Category: "Dell"

Sub-Category: "Inspiron"

Sub-Category: "Dell Inspiron 1545" (This is actually a product but i'm not actually selling it)

Products: "17.3" lcd screen repair service" or "Keyboard type XYZ" (These are what i'm actually selling)

So my issue is as follows, I have hundreds of sub-categories for computer model numbers, and thousands of similar repair services, as 17.3" screen can be a linked product to many different models.

Example link: http://nextdoorgeeks.com/services/in...h=5_9_44_45_48

My questions:

1. Is this the best way of entering my services so each will have a unique image in the product list?

2. Currently i did not find any way for customers to search for their computer model, i.e "Dell Inspiron 1545" as it is a category not a product, is there a way to have the search return results from the category description?

3. Is there a way to use attributes as a solution but display the attributes as products in the product_listing page?

4. Do you think I need custom programming or there is a way to do this from the admin.

I'll very much appreciate any option the community has to offer even if this was tried before and failed.

Thank you for you attention and sorry for using the word "Actually" so many times :-)

Jon

[kobra]

You might look at "linking" a service to a model
http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?...linked-product

[yshaqed]

Hi Kobra and thank you for answering so quickly.

The products (Services) i intend to sell are already linked to multiple categories, but it does not solve two major issues:

1. Customers cannot search for their computer model number through the search field because it it a category and the search does not return results from the category description table.

2. When added to the cart the linked products have no indication as to which category they were attached, so upon purchase we do not know what exact service the customer needs, i.e 17.3" lcd for dell inspiron 1454 or a 17.3" lcd for HP pavillion dv7

Thanks for the reply, i'll be happy for more input,

Jon