Use attributes or sub-categories ?

I need to setup an e-shop for a customer who sells pottery, glass products and other types of decorative objects. Mainly it is organized in 2-level subcategories with the final products on the 3rd level.
Let's give an example:
Main category: Pottery
1st sub-category: flower-pots

In the flower-pots subcategory, he needs to display different products, e.g. let's say one of these is called flower-pot "deco". Now, this product has multiple versions according to the following attributes: dimensions, sku number, price and weight (i.e. they differ for each version).

Can I work out these product versions as product attributes, or the fact that the sku number is different for each version does not let me do that ?
I guess the other approach is to consider the flower-pot "deco" "product" as a 3rd-level subcategory and it's versions as the final products, so they would be inserted under this sub-category.
My customer wants to display all versions of flower-pot "deco" "product" when selected, with the corresponding attributes of each version, so the eshop-customer can pick whatever he/she likes (either one at a time, or multiple selection).
Also I would like to be able to use Easy Populate which requires a unique sku number for each inserted product.
What is the best and most correct approach ?

I don't know if attributes will work for what you have in mind, but if you want to see a product with photos of attributes, here is one on my site:

http://www.steigerfamily.com/ZenCart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=4&products_id=14

I still haven't decided if I like having photos of the various attributes right on the page on not. Also, ZenCart didn't adjust their sizes to be comparable, I had to do that manually.

what if I want to add a** search by sku feature** to the site, i.e. a customer wants to search a product by sku. Could that be done with attributes (I have read in the forum about adding the sku number in the name of the attribute value, but for searching that, would it be possible?).
Also, as I have stated above, beside each attribute, my customer wants to show dimensions, sku number, price and weight, with the site visitor being able to pick one of these product versions.

I guess the other approach is to consider the flower-pot "deco" "product" as a 3rd-level subcategory and it's versions as the final products, so they would be inserted under this sub-category.
Any suggestions ?

...also on a second thought I guess the alternative approach with the 3rd level subcategory mentioned above would not work, since I would have both categories and products under the same parent category (i.e. I would have a "category-product" like flower-pot "deco" which would contain product versions as individual products, and other products under the same parent category).

Also, as I have stated above, beside each attribute, my customer wants to show dimensions, sku number, price and weight, with the site visitor being able to pick one of these product versions.........I want to add a search by sku feature to the site (i.e. the site visitor must be able to do a search by sku code, even if that code belongs to a specific product attribute/product version)

Any suggestions ?

Zen Cart v2.0 will have full attribute sku support, but it is not currently possible without custom coding.
I take it only some products under flower-pots will have multiple versions.

What you might do is to make subcategories for all of the products, with some of them having only the one product.
Set admin > Configuration > Layout Settings > Skip 1-prod Categories to true, and clicking those products' subcat links will take you directly to the product.

It's functionally almost the same as having products and subcats in one category, though it is more labor-intensive in the backend. If there are not hundreds of products that will need this treatment, it sounds viable to me.

no, there are hundreds of products that have multiple versions and also hundreds of products that are individual (no versions), so it would be clumsy to convert all these individual products to subcategory and have only one product inside them. So, I guess the only right alternative is by attributes.
I guess I can use the 'Product Model' field for the sku number of the base product.
Then, I will have to solve the following problems:

• How do I add the sku number of a product's multiple versions (e.g. productX size=8x10 cm - sku=123456, productX size=10x15 cm - sku=789012, ....... and goes on....)
• How do I do I add a search by sku (either base product's or product versions)
• How do I do a search by another attribute (e.g. by color) on all products (including their versions).

vasilios:

[*]How do I add the sku number of a product's multiple versions (e.g. productX size=8x10 cm - sku=123456, productX size=10x15 cm - sku=789012, ....... and goes on....)

You can't, in the current version, other than with a kludge like including the SKU in the attribute name.

I know that kludge, I have done it already, I wonder though if there are any guidelines (php-code-wise) to add a search capability by attribute name and also

How do I do a search by another attribute (e.g. by color) on all products (including their versions).
(I have some php, html, css, experience so I can find my way through code.)

(will the next version solve these issues, ie sku attribute management and search by attribute value ?)

From the v2.0 announcement:

"Stock/sku support

* stock can be set for attribute combinations
* ajax suppport for stock display
* sku can be set for attribute combinations
* ajax support for sku display
* individual reorder levels can be set per attribute/sku combination, and a global setting can optionally override"

and unspecified

"Search improvements"

When will v.2 be released (I have a deadline at end of February to finish a project)
Will the new version provide for entering sku code for products without attributes ? (I know that there is the "Product Model" characteristic but it would not be a right database logic to store sku numbers for basic products and for product attributes in different db fields.
When a search by sku code is done, will zen cart v.2 search both "individual" products without attributes and products with multiple versions (i.e. with attributes)?

V2.0 beta should be out by February, but it will not be suitable for production use for several months yet.

The announcement did not specifically say whether the sku support would apply to products without attributes. I would hope so, but it would be safest to ask in the v2.0 discussion thread.