I'm relatively sure that now I don't understand. :)
1) What is the significance/relationship of the UPC to the attribute(s)? Meaning does a large shirt of style x have a different UPC than a small shirt of style y?
2) Where is the UPC code that is being discussed as being entered actually get entered? (Ie. what portion of the product life cycle is it entered? When the product is initially created in the database, when the product is purchased, etc...?)
3) The "search function" that you're talking about, is this like a "live" lookup while typing type thing, or a field that is populated, a button pushed and the equivalent/associated data is retrieved?
It is pretty much all a "database thang" using referential data to pull one thing or another from somewhere else. Even by identifying the product from the database, it would be possible to provide a "pick list" of items that could be chosen based on that main product... Do need to also consider that someone hasn't done database entry and how to work around that, but...
Again though, if any portion of the checkout process requires the UPC code (assuming dependent on the attribute selected) to be a single value in the products table then none of this will work because that code would have to be modified each time a product were so scanned in real time and not conflict with any other similar modification happening at the same time or shortly after/before. That type of information is more applicable to a session than a database value. (Change of a value specific to the evolution being processed without affecting any other similar process needing a similar but unique value.)
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