setting up product under different name

Hi

I'm using v1.3.8a

I'm looking for suggestions on the best way to set up my products.

I have products that fit a number of vehicles and need to list the actual fittments as well at the generic product reference.

for example. one product is a battery ABC ,that fits vehicle model 1, model 2, model 3.

so i need to list this as follows - battery abc, battery for model 1, battery for model 2, battery for model 3

I know i can set these up as separate products but is there any way i can link them so i can change them en block if necessary - eg price increase.

Each product will have a different description so another question is how can i see that they are actually the same product - to help with picking the order? Do i just add the product part number into the description?

Thanks

https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=216
https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=325

If you want the product to have different descriptions in each category where it appears, you could use one of the mods for product extra fields or short descriptions or boilerplate... there are a number of topics this has been discussed under; swguy's boilerplate article on his site describes showing different parts of the description under different circumstances. You could base this on $cPath.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

I tried searching the forum but its hard to know what to search for when you've got a one track mind, but now I have some keywords to search on ;-)

I've looked at what has been suggested but i don't think they give me the solution I'm looking for.

I need to have a different **product name **in each case - even though the actual physical product is the same.

(For example if a customer picks the product because it fits vehicle A, then i dont want any other vehicle mentioned in the description even though it will fit them.)

Linking products will not allow me to change the product name and duplicating products means i have, for example, 15 product records to update instead of 1.

(I'm using easypopulate to bulk upload the products and I have no experience in changing code :blush:)

The only solution i can see is to enter each vehicle application for each product as a separate product record and add [SKU number] to the end of it.

The problem is that I have about 30,000 part numbers and some of those will fit 100 different vehicles/models so i dont know if i'll run into capacity problems with zencart.

Any one have any ideas?

Thanks

For example if a customer picks the product because it fits vehicle A, then i dont want any other vehicle mentioned in the description even though it will fit them
A product such as this would/should not contain the mention of a specific vehicle
So I do not see your stated issue as valid

You could have the beginning of the description tailored to each vehicle the part fits, so customers get a good feeling about its suitability, and switch the description segments based on vehicle category. If they are looking in a Mazda category, they really don't need to see "Mazda" in every part name in the product listing.

I'm going to have to rethink this because it looks like I'd end up with a load of work when it comes to updating prices.

The idea originally came from an invoice i got from a local shop.

Their invoices show the vehicle details above the parts purchased for that vehicle. It is popular with the customers because they know what parts are for what vehicle and it also gives the shop proof of what vehicle the parts were ordered for if the customer later says the parts were incorrect.

so an invoice might look like this....

Mazda 626 2.0L 16valve 1999
Wheel Bearing [Sku 1234]
Oil Filter [Sku 7890]

Toyota Camry 2.0L Dsl 2001
Wheel Bearing [Sku 5678]
Oil Filter [Sku 7895]

I dont suppose there are mods available to automatically include the details in the breadcrumb trail on the invoice?

or the search criteria? (i have extra search fields added to the product record so a customer would drill down to whatever product they require - this shows on the screen)

I doubt there's any such thing currently available, but quite possible to make that mod...
The product info page could use the search terms display relocated/reformatted, if that is already displayed on the results page, but for the invoice etc. to have that, the info would have to be saved to the database as a composite string, and then retrieved at invoice printing time.

Hopefully somebody who can code will like the idea and submit a mod ;-)

Thanks for all your suggestions and help

They would have to be working off your particular setup with extra search fields to do it in a way that would be useful to you. Good luck:)