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  1. #1
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    Default Attibutes and percent pricing

    Hello Zen Cart

    my first post, and I'm sure I wont be the last to say what a great piece of work.

    I've been playing about with various aspects and can grasp the basis of most OK...

    except Attribute Pricing!
    I've read a fair bit of this area of the forum and judging by the number of confused posters it seems I'm not alone.

    Honestly... The terminology doesnt help. It would be a great asset if somebody who understands how it's supposed to work could set it out very clearly at the top of a sticky and particularly explain:
    how the calculations are supposed to work, what formula are applied at what points?
    what a price factor is?
    what a price factor offset is?
    and what the diff is between a price factor and a 'one time factor'?


    Here's a typical case from my situation with some general numbers:

    Product with a basic price of 500 (call it Full Price, List Price, MRRP or whatever)

    I want to give 20% discount off that = 100, which makes it a 400 sell price.

    Lets say the product has 3 options which mean we need to:
    add 5% and 15% of the price
    subtract 10% of the price
    To get a 5% addition I figured out that I can use a price factor of 0.05 and an offset of 0
    or a price factor of 1.05 and an offset of 1
    for the 15% case, a pf of 0.15 and offset of 0, or 1.15 and 1 will work.
    And these work consistently on the Product Info page, and show correct %ages of the Discount price in the Options drop down. eg
    400 x 5% = 20, 400 x 15% = 60

    But a minus %age...? Well I can get a -10 figure to appear on the 'Edit Attributes' page by using a Price Factor 0.0000 and Offset -0.1000
    But doesnt seem to be possible to get a minus 10% figure to show in a drop down on the Product Info page. It always shows up as +40

    And then there appears to be a (serious) problem when an item with a %age priced att. gets added to the cart...

    According to my testing it seems that the %age that gets added when the item gets bought:
    If the %age is + its taken to be a percentage of the Full Price. namely 25 and 75 (not 20 and 60)
    If the %age is minus (I got a -40 figure showing in the Edit Atts screen), the cart ignores it completely and just uses the 400 discount price.

    The logic may or may not be correct, but none of these %ages added to the cart are what the customer has selected in a drop down.

    I've tried various changing various combinations of these product table fields:
    products_priced_by_attribute
    products_discount_type
    products_discount_type_from
    But it always comes out wrong (or right?) in the cart, using the given %age of the Full Price

    What else?
    I didnt go rummaging about in the code yet so its all pretty much virgin. I did try Kuroi's stock by attributes but that makes no difference.
    Or maybe I'm missing the obvious, and just dont get how its supposed to work.

    Anyway, can anybody throw light on this please?

    thanks

    l.
    ps - great product!

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Attibutes and percent pricing

    If you have not read this I would https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=57

    Having attempted myself to use attributes for many senarios that they were not originally intended for a basic primer on what the basic intention is/was might help - and I may have to stand corrected by one of the Dev's

    Basically, these are to be used for an item that has variations/add-ons that can be up priced or not

    Shirts in sizes and colors
    Item with options

    So knowing the above - one can add a price add in dollars or using the factor/offset provide a % change - where the offset is the the base item price

    So say for a case of 12 - the factor is 1 and the offset is 11 with no discount for 12 or change the factor for a discount per item to acheive the case total discount

    The std factor/offset is calc'd into each item or increment of items the onetime is calc'd "only once" per order like for a setup fee or??

    From your description it appears that you want to show one price (retail) then your price and if this is so, you might be better off using the dual pricing module and just make all customers part of the discount group. One of these modules allows display of both prices and you can alter the text for these as normally done

    Hope this helps
    Zen-Venom Get Bitten

  3. #3
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    Default Re: Attibutes and percent pricing

    Hi Kobra

    thanks for your reply - I appreciate it.

    I read that article already. And I have a reasonable grasp of what an attribute / option might do - or at least what I think it ought to do.

    Sorry for long post, but If you can stick with me I'll explain what I want to achieve, and where it seems to go wrong...

    Let's go with your analogy of Shirts as a product and Colour as the attribute - its close enough.

    Let's say we have 3 Options for the Colour Attribute = Red, Green and Blue

    Let's assume
    The base price is 200
    The base price of 200 is the Price for the Red Shirt
    The majority of orders will be for Red so that 200 is the price i want to display
    A Green Shirt is more expensive by 20%
    A Blue Shirt is cheaper by 10%

    I've setup the product, and Colour attribute & options
    So if I go to Attributes Controller I can setup attributes specific to this product as follows:
    Red - I do nothing just click add
    Green I give a Price Factor of 1.2 and and Offset of 1 (Or 0.2 and 0 also seems to work)
    Blue - I give a price factor of .9 and an Offset of 1.

    Once set these Options show in the Attributes Controller screen as having cost values of 0, PLUS 40, and MINUS 20. This is correct.

    In the Product Info page the options show in the Drop Down as
    RED
    GREEN (+ 40) - this correct
    BLUE (+ 20) - this is not correct - it should display as (- 20)

    However, the MINUS figure IS dealt with by the cart correctly -ie it subtracts it (200-20) giving a Price of 180. So thats a small display problem really.

    But a larger problem seems to arise if I now put that product on SPECIAL OFFER.
    Say we put it on offer at 100...
    The Attribute Controller now shows the options as follows
    Red 0 | 0
    Green - 20 | 10
    Blue -10 | -5
    PLEASE NOTE - NOW NONE OF THESE ARE THE CORRECT VALUES

    The Product Info Drop Down also shows the incorrect values
    Red 0
    Green (+ 10) (Should display + 20)
    Blue (+ 5) (Should display - 10)

    If these items are put into the cart, it doesnt use the incorrect values. Instead it seems to calculate using the Option figures from the Base Price for the product. ie we get figures in the basket of
    Red = 100 (Special Offer price)
    Blue = 140 (SP + 40)
    Green = 80 (SP - 20)

    Clearly something is not right here.
    Can somebody tell me how to get it right, or where to file a bug report?

    l.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Attibutes and percent pricing

    Check your PM's
    Zen-Venom Get Bitten

  5. #5
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    Default Re: Attibutes and percent pricing

    Make sure you are not saying that the Product is Priced by Attribute as it is not ...
    Linda McGrath
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  6. #6
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    Default Re: Attibutes and percent pricing

    Ajeh
    I think what is sought is the "Discount" box in the attribute controller. to not calc the attribute rate in a special ...but maybe not
    Zen-Venom Get Bitten

  7. #7
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    Default Re: Attibutes and percent pricing

    Ajeh - thanks for reply - no the product is not 'priced by attribute'
    its set to off
    in the database: product.products_priced_by_attribute = 0

    Kobra -
    1) If your note to Ajeh was re: switching to Yes or No the Box marked Apply "Discounts Used
    by Product Special/Sale:"
    Checking Yes or No only affects the Displayed price in the Product Info page.
    It does not seem to affect the rate used by the cart. Whichever setting is applied the cart still uses the incorrect amount when the product is on Special Offer.

    2) thanks for PM.
    Your demo shows the problem exactly

    You have set it up so that....
    Price $200
    green +20% or $40
    blue -10% or -$20

    In your demo the price has been reduced to 100 but nevertheless the cart is applying the discount as though the price were still 200

    If it were consistent I could accept that this was intended logic (even if I didnt agree with it) - but it is not consistent.

    (At least in my) Attributes Controller: The discount amounts are shown incorrectly:
    Red 0 | 0
    Green - 20 | 10
    Blue -10 | -5

    Your demo does not show the Option amounts in the Product Info page, but in my test page when the Price is discounted to 100 the Options amounts are shown as Green: +10, and Blue -5
    These amounts are incorrect.
    But worse yet, the cart then goes and applies a different set of incorrect figures - those which apply to the Full Price (200)
    So if we put the product in the basket the figures the Cart calculates are
    Red: 100 = correct because no option adjustment
    Green: 140 = incorrect. Should be 100 + 20% = 120
    Blue: 80 = incorrect. Should be 100 - 10% = 90

    As I said before: clearly something is not right here.
    Ad since this is the price basis for 2000 products which I need to get into a Zen Cart this week I would really really appreciate understanding whats going wrong.

    Either with the code, or my setup. So I can get it to work correctly (by which I mean: as I expect)

    I didnt get a chance to try debugging the code yet, but at a quick look I can see there is a whole bunch of related decisions being made in 'zen_get_discount_qty' in includes/functions/function_price.php
    Does anybody who knows, know if there might be some suspect issue in there?

    thanks

    l.

  8. #8
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    Default Re: Attibutes and percent pricing

    Sorry folks, thats all a bit rambling here's a concise version

    Scenario:
    Product with Base Price of 200
    Special Offer discounted to 100
    Attribute = Colour, with 3 Options on percentage price adjustment:
    Red = 0
    Green = +20%
    Blue = 10%

    Problem:
    When the Product is on Special Offer the following errors appear:

    1) Attributes Controller Page:
    Red: 0 | 0
    Green: 20 | 10
    Blue: 10 | -5

    2) Product Info Page:
    The Options Drop Down shows incorrect amounts:
    Green: + 10 (Should be + 20)
    Blue: - 5

    3) Cart:
    Calculates wrong discount when items are added
    Green: is added at 140 (Should be 120... 100 + 20%)
    Blue: is added at 80 (Should be 90... 100 - 10%)

    thanks for any input

    l.

  9. #9
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    Default Re: Attibutes and percent pricing

    Sorry there s a typo in my last post...
    Scenario:
    Product with Base Price of 200
    Special Offer discounted to 100
    Attribute = Colour, with 3 Options on percentage price adjustment:
    Red = 0
    Green = +20%
    Blue = 10%

    Blue should be: Blue = -10%

  10. #10
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    Default Re: Attibutes and percent pricing

    But anyway here's a thing...

    there's a function in /includes/functions/function_prices.php

    Code:
    // return attributes_price_factor
    
      function zen_get_attributes_price_factor($price, $special, $factor, $offset) {
    
        if (ATTRIBUTES_PRICE_FACTOR_FROM_SPECIAL =='1' and $special) {
    
          // calculate from specials_new_products_price
    
          $calculated_price = $special * ($factor - $offset);
    
        } else {
    
          // calculate from products_price
    
          $calculated_price = $price * ($factor - $offset);
    
        }
    
    //    return '$price ' . $price . ' $special ' . $special . ' $factor ' . $factor . ' $offset ' . $offset;
    
        return $calculated_price;
    
      }
    the CONSTANT: ATTRIBUTES_PRICE_FACTOR_FROM_SPECIAL is never set anywhere that I can find and therefore the price will never be calc'ed on the Spec Off price

    But If it is set to 1 (or dropped... if($special){ )the Cart works as it should with the product on Special Offer.

    It doesnt solve the Display problem tho - the wrong values still show in the drop down

    Can one of the devs please have a look at this and, if it is the cause of issue, please post a fix and I can get on with my day.

    thanks very much

    l.

 

 
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