Is there an easy way to add Option Names with Option Values defined in another?

Hi,

First of all, thanks for the great community site. Zen Cart Rocks.

Ok, on my site, we are selling Crystal Singing Bowls. Each Crystal bowl is a musical instrument and can be available in 13 different musical notes. Some notes are not available or may be sold out, so we give the customer a product "attributes" to specify their First Choice, Second Choice, and Third Choice.

So far, I have created the First Choice with all the Option Values.

You can see the example here: http://www.radiantsol.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=15

Now I want to add a Second Choice and Third Choice Option name, and use the same values and order as my First Choice dropdown.

Is their an easier way to do this than doing it all over for each Option Name?

Also, when I add new products, will I have to define these attributes again, and create the Option Name and Option Values for each new product or can I re-use these somehow?

Thanks in Advance for any help!
Its much appreciated,
Anthony
http://www.mn8multimedia.com

Hello,

If I'm interpreting you correctly you need to do the following:

Back up your database.

In Admin, click the Categories dropdown, click Option Name Manager, add your new option names. At the bottom of the Option Name Manager page there is 'Copy ALL Option Values to another Option Name'. You can use this to copy your repeating option values to the new option names.You can now add these new option names and values to your product.

If you you have many products with the same option names and values you can use the 'Copy to' feature. In Admin go to the product you want to copy. On the the right hand side click the blue 'C'. On the right hand side you will now have the option to copy the product. Choose the category you want to copy it to, choose 'duplicate product' and choose 'Yes' to copy product attributes and click copy. This will create an exact duplicate... you can now change the name, picture, description etc.

Hope this is what you're looking for!

Thank you so much for your reply.

This may seem silly but how do I back up the database?

I guess it may not just be copying the whole site via FTP?

Thanks!!

UnrealPHD.com:

Thank you so much for your reply.

This may seem silly but how do I back up the database?

I guess it may not just be copying the whole site via FTP?

Thanks!!

Hello,

There are several ways it can be done. Login to your web hosts' control panel and look for a section called 'Files', in there will be an icon for 'Backup Wizard'. You can use this to do a full back up, home directory back up or a Mysql database backup.

FAQ on Database Backup: https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=103

Thanks everyone! I love this community. I will make sure to give back what I know when I can.

Thanks KCB410! I have managed to duplicate my Option Name "First Choice" as both "Second Choice" and "Third Choice" and have duplicated the values, thanks!

Now I am unsure how to add the Second Choice and Third Choice to my product.

http://www.radiantsol.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=15

Do I need to insert one Option value onto the product (even though they are already copied into the the option name).

I thought to use this option under option names, but when I choose Second Choice and Update is says nothing is done.

Add ALL Option Values to ONE products for Option Name
Update ONE product that has at least ONE Option Value and Add ALL Option Values in an Option Name

How can I add these new Option Names and all 13 Options values. Do I still need to add them one by one?

Many Thanks

Also for the database backup, my host had some feature that backuped all the databases as a .gz archive. When I unpacked it, it didn't have a 3 letter extension, but I opened it with a text editor and could read some of the content. Is this a safe enough back-up instead of learning to use and configure MYPHPAdmin?

Thanks

for each option name you will have to create the corresponding option values.
If you are running the current version of the cart you will be able to add all of the option value for each option name as a group to the product in the attribute manager by clicking on the option name (then only the option values for that option name should show) and then using ctrl-click to each option value you want to add, then insert and all of them will be added at once.
If you are running an older version you will need to add the add-on module for improved attributes controller to do it.

FWIW, it appears contractions in Option Values will create an error when copying Option Values from one Option Name to another since a ' is not escaped.

1064 You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'll send my cards to you.', '500')' at line 1
in:
[insert into products_options_values (products_options_values_id, language_id, products_options_values_name, products_options_values_sort_order) values ('79', '1', 'I'll send my cards to you.', '500')]