Stock by Attributes 5.0 Beta (for v1.5.0)

[seattleannie]

Thanks for all your help, mc12345678. At this time, since my client needs option attributes more than tracking stock quantities with SBA, I will uninstall SBA from her site.

[athena]

Just throwing this out there...don't have time to read through all this latest dialogue, but I've had just about every version of this mod installed and upgraded to 1.5.1 with the modified version of creinolds SBA as currently being worked on by zen member Robophung. (Search all his posts - Most problem free in my opinion)

The dropdowns in the link provided - which has changed sine this post - seem to indicate to me that a setting in Admin>Configuration>Stock > show out of stock attributes is set to false and perhaps you don't have any in stock? That's how my drop downs behave under those conditions.

[cefyn]

I've found the Robophung version problem free-until now.Stock by Attributes is a must have I think,especially in competitive market sectors.But I do have a problem now.I have installed Dynamic Filter for 1.5 on a 1.5.1 site that already has Robophungs Stock by Attributes.Filtering can be a very effective navigation tool.The problem is that Dynamic Filter depends on options and option values.These can be added to suit.For instance,if I want to be able to filter a category by gender I add an option name Gender,and option values, men,women,and then assign one value or the other to the product.Works great,except of course every one of a 1000 plus products has to be assigned one value or the other.The attribute can be hidden on the product page with css,so far so good.But Stock by Attributes won't allow the product to show up in the filter results unless the new option is assigned stock.Thats going to get messy.This happens even if I make the option read only,and however I adjust stock settings.Could I add something somewhere to make Stock by Attributes ignore read only options?

[Kevin205]

Is there a way to mass populate to SBA?

Bump..

How could this be done, one product at a time for 1000s of products with 2, 3, 4, 5 attributes for each product?

Any one with any ideas?

[mc12345678]

So, my answer may not be liked as it is not code, but if I understand the question you are wondering about a process that may actually assign the desired attributes to the desired product(s).

I would think that this would be an almost serious undertaking as a result of the following:

1. Would need to address adding defined/existing attributes to an existing product without an attributes.
2. Would need to address adding new attributes to an existing product without an attributes.
3. Would need to address adding defined/existing attributes to a new product without an attributes.
4. Would need to address adding new attributes to a new product without an attributes.
5. - 8. Repeat the above 4 with consideration that each has one or more existing attributes.

Each of these may have some equivalency to the other (Ie., overall process of adding a new product and a new attribute); however, consideration would need to be given to each of the tables that make up the characteristic being added/modified.

Perhaps someone else may correct me, this question is along the lines of using an alternate plugin such as mass populate, but could also inspire a brand new plugin/modification to this one.

It would seem that once each of the above four/eight routines were addressed, that any combination of those routines could be run based on a query of the database when acting on the data. The next thing to consider is what would feed this mass populate utility, is it a file or a series of onscreen selection? Would one want to add one attribute to multiple products, combinations of attributes to multiple products, etc...

It may be that other mods closely approach (or perform) this action and can be expanded upon to incorporate feeding into stock by attributes (keeping in mind any differences between the various stock by attributes addins that are out there), or at least they may provide a template to do so.

[Kevin205]

So, my answer may not be liked as it is not code, but if I understand the question you are wondering about a process that may actually assign the desired attributes to the desired product(s).

I would think that this would be an almost serious undertaking as a result of the following:

1. Would need to address adding defined/existing attributes to an existing product without an attributes.
2. Would need to address adding new attributes to an existing product without an attributes.
3. Would need to address adding defined/existing attributes to a new product without an attributes.
4. Would need to address adding new attributes to a new product without an attributes.
5. - 8. Repeat the above 4 with consideration that each has one or more existing attributes.

Each of these may have some equivalency to the other (Ie., overall process of adding a new product and a new attribute); however, consideration would need to be given to each of the tables that make up the characteristic being added/modified.

Perhaps someone else may correct me, this question is along the lines of using an alternate plugin such as mass populate, but could also inspire a brand new plugin/modification to this one.

It would seem that once each of the above four/eight routines were addressed, that any combination of those routines could be run based on a query of the database when acting on the data. The next thing to consider is what would feed this mass populate utility, is it a file or a series of onscreen selection? Would one want to add one attribute to multiple products, combinations of attributes to multiple products, etc...

It may be that other mods closely approach (or perform) this action and can be expanded upon to incorporate feeding into stock by attributes (keeping in mind any differences between the various stock by attributes addins that are out there), or at least they may provide a template to do so.

Wow!

Product: Picture Frames
Sizes defined as attributes: 2"x3", 5"x7", 6"x9", 8"x10" and 10"x12", with different prices, and inventory levels for each size.

Multiply that by 125 different varieties of picture frames with the same size attributes. How long do you think it would take to manually input and or update, for new arrivals, discontinued items and etc?

I think it is a must have as a function for product that use attributes as such.

[mc12345678]

Wow!

Product: Picture Frames
Sizes defined as attributes: 2"x3", 5"x7", 6"x9", 8"x10" and 10"x12", with different prices, and inventory levels for each size.

Multiply that by 125 different varieties of picture frames with the same size attributes. How long do you think it would take to manually input and or update, for new arrivals, discontinued items and etc?

I think it is a must have as a function for product that use attributes as such.

So, to answer the last question first, longer than I personally would want to take if by manually adding you mean through the use of the admin panel.

Now, it's interesting that today I happened to be looking at adding the mass populate plugin to our site. There is an option within that program to import "basic attributes" as it says in the first post (Version 4) (http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.p...Support-Thread). So, could recommend using that to first import all of the attributes to all of the new products, then (and assuming that you have a version of stock by attributes that doesn't display attributes that are out-of-stock) could use applicable SQL statements within your database admin program or (worst case) from within the admin panel running the SQL statements in the admin area to populate the quantities for each of the attributes and or prices. (Also depends on how the prices vary).

I would agree that there is a benefit to having some similar store population utility. I also understand that it would/could be complex to do. One might ask how often such a utility would be used to the extent described. For some frequently (monthly, quarterly, annually etc.), for others maybe once on initial store setup.

Also would need to consider the method of input to the source that does the populating. (Ie is it faster to just enter that information as described above/before or to populate some file that would be uploaded?)

[Kevin205]

I have been using EP4 for months now, and it is a dream come true!

It works perfectly for general product population, and adding and attaching attributes prices, size, color and etc to the products. But EP4 does and cannot handle, import and export attribute inventory levels; as Zen Cart core does not address and keep track of attribute inventory.

[mc12345678]

Wow!

Product: Picture Frames
Sizes defined as attributes: 2"x3", 5"x7", 6"x9", 8"x10" and 10"x12", with different prices, and inventory levels for each size.

Multiply that by 125 different varieties of picture frames with the same size attributes. How long do you think it would take to manually input and or update, for new arrivals, discontinued items and etc?

I think it is a must have as a function for product that use attributes as such.

I have been using EP4 for months now, and it is a dream come true!

It works perfectly for general product population, and adding and attaching attributes prices, size, color and etc to the products. But EP4 does and cannot handle, import and export attribute inventory levels; as Zen Cart core does not address and keep track of attribute inventory.

So really, you're in the position that you just need to address the inventory part of the attributes. That solution I think is easier than what I originally perceived. I would think that with even the combination of that program and stock by attributes, could quickly formulate the sql statements that would do the work (for the in the bind situation). Basically would need to identify what tables and data to incorporate the needed keys to make it work.

So basic concept, if easypopulate can provide or takes the productid and the attribute information (whether a number or description), then using something like excel (because that is what I know can create strings of text in a spreadsheet) can make generic sql functions that would populate the database with the desired stock. I understand that excel is possibly not the preferred application to do such spreadsheet work, but the company has gotten their hooks in me.

Any rate, that would be a solution to get you where you need to based on current demand, but still some work that "may" be better/easier with a populating application.

I would have to look at the inputs and outputs of that application and compare to the data to what is needed for stock by attributes to give a more detailed answer as this is pseudocode at the moment

[Kevin205]

EP4's Attrib-Basic-EP exports and can re-import the following fields:
v_products_model
v_products_options_type
v_products_options_name_1
v_products_options_values_name_1

I thought it might help!