Stock by Attributes 5.0 Beta (for v1.5.0)

Limitless:

Are you sure that Product Variants won't have a SKU field for each variant?

He states that the following fields are 'dynamic' on the product info page:

Price
Stock Level
Name
Model
Image
Weight
Date Available

I'm assuming if he is keeping track of the model (SKU) for each variant, this will be what we want/need.

Because for me, the same product LM-12345 Has a different model # for each variant, ie LM-12345-XLR , LM-12345-XXLBE etc.

I am holding out hope this is how it functions based on his demo and feature list.I'm not sure about that at all.. All I REALLY care about is that sequenced attributes is supported and this add-on clearly shows stock levels for each variant on the product page (versus not showing stock levels status until the customer has added the item to his/her cart)

I've modified Creinold's 5.0 alpha to fix a bunch of bugs.

1 - Inline AJAX editing of stock levels in the Products with Attributes stock page in admin has been fixed (actually an old fix that was addressed long ago in the SBA versions for 1.3.9h)

2 - Restored ability to create radio buttons / checkboxes / etc. Dropdowns remain dynamic.

3 - Feature to restore stock levels per each attribute's stock when deleting an order has been fixed.

I believe these are the immediate bugs that needed to be addressed to make this addon module useable and feasible for zc 1.5.

I plan on tacking on a bunch of additional features and to squash any remaining bugs to make this module the ultimate end all and be all version of SBA, as I feel like this addon is pretty much the most needed feature inclusion in zen-cart.

I need you guys to test to see if any other bugs remain...and I also need you guys to chime in on a couple of things...

1. I'm not too familiar with dynamic dropdowns and the documentation in the original module addon is pretty bare. What exactly is the difference between singledropdown and multipledropdown? They look the same to me, and singledropdown was a broken option from the original dynamicdropdown addon module that was never fixed. If there is no difference between the two options, then I'd rather just remove it from SBA altogether rather than attempt to fix it since it seems like a redundant option.

2. I plan on implementing actual live stock count displays of each variant on the product pages. This is a simple solution when we're talking about adding just one attribute variation to a product (i.e. color) when dealing with radio buttons, or dropdowns. But it becomes hard to figure out a way to elegantly display stock quantity of variants when you have more than one attribute tied to a product (i.e. size and color). For instance, if you have 3 sizes and 6 colors of each size of a particular widget...how is it possible to display the individual stock count of each of these variations in the case of radio buttons and dropdowns? Any ideas or inputs you guys can provide would be helpful.

3. Lastly, I think the checkbox feature itself is just inherently broken when a store is modified to store product quantities by attributes. The only scenario I can imagine using checkboxes for a product is if they are optional features that can be applied to a particular product (i.e. perhaps a selection of one or multiple images to silkscreen on a tshirt). In this situation, you don't need to keep track of attribute variations because there are none to keep track of, just the parent product itself. But SBA forces the product to store it's quantities as separate variations of the checkbox attribute's option values. To simply put it, I think the issue is that if you buy a tshirt with optional checkboxes to add different silkscreens to it, then there is only one quantity to keep track of for that tshirt, and no matter how you decide to select the checkboxes in any combination, it should all just subtract from that quantity. If you guys can think of any other way checkboxes are used for product listings, please let me know so that I can think of a proper solution for how to handle checkboxes with regards to SBA.

Here's a link to the latest SBA with all the bug fixes. http://www.robophung.net/zencart/creinold_SBA5.1_alpha_version1.5_for_zencart_V1.5.0.zip

Have fun guys.

RoboPhung:

I've modified Creinold's 5.0 alpha to fix a bunch of bugs.

1 - Inline AJAX editing of stock levels in the Products with Attributes stock page in admin has been fixed (actually an old fix that was addressed long ago in the SBA versions for 1.3.9h)

2 - Restored ability to create radio buttons / checkboxes / etc. Dropdowns remain dynamic.

3 - Feature to restore stock levels per each attribute's stock when deleting an order has been fixed.

I believe these are the immediate bugs that needed to be addressed to make this addon module useable and feasible for zc 1.5.

I plan on tacking on a bunch of additional features and to squash any remaining bugs to make this module the ultimate end all and be all version of SBA, as I feel like this addon is pretty much the most needed feature inclusion in zen-cart.

I need you guys to test to see if any other bugs remain...and I also need you guys to chime in on a couple of things...

1. I'm not too familiar with dynamic dropdowns and the documentation in the original module addon is pretty bare. What exactly is the difference between singledropdown and multipledropdown? They look the same to me, and singledropdown was a broken option from the original dynamicdropdown addon module that was never fixed. If there is no difference between the two options, then I'd rather just remove it from SBA altogether rather than attempt to fix it since it seems like a redundant option.

2. I plan on implementing actual live stock count displays of each variant on the product pages. This is a simple solution when we're talking about adding just one attribute variation to a product (i.e. color) when dealing with radio buttons, or dropdowns. But it becomes hard to figure out a way to elegantly display stock quantity of variants when you have more than one attribute tied to a product (i.e. size and color). For instance, if you have 3 sizes and 6 colors of each size of a particular widget...how is it possible to display the individual stock count of each of these variations in the case of radio buttons and dropdowns? Any ideas or inputs you guys can provide would be helpful.

3. Lastly, I think the checkbox feature itself is just inherently broken when a store is modified to store product quantities by attributes. The only scenario I can imagine using checkboxes for a product is if they are optional features that can be applied to a particular product (i.e. perhaps a selection of one or multiple images to silkscreen on a tshirt). In this situation, you don't need to keep track of attribute variations because there are none to keep track of, just the parent product itself. But SBA forces the product to store it's quantities as separate variations of the checkbox attribute's option values. To simply put it, I think the issue is that if you buy a tshirt with optional checkboxes to add different silkscreens to it, then there is only one quantity to keep track of for that tshirt, and no matter how you decide to select the checkboxes in any combination, it should all just subtract from that quantity. If you guys can think of any other way checkboxes are used for product listings, please let me know so that I can think of a proper solution for how to handle checkboxes with regards to SBA.

Here's a link to the latest SBA with all the bug fixes. http://www.robophung.net/zencart/creinold_SBA5.1_alpha_version1.5_for_zencart_V1.5.0.zip

Have fun guys.
This is exciting news and I am happy to help test it as you make this a better solution.. I thought that of all the various SBA variants out there that this one had the most potential to become the go-to SBA add-on if only it worked as it should.. (no offense to Creinold at all -- I think what he has done has taken this mod closer to where it needed to be than other variants have)

Regarding optional attributes, here are some other scenarios where you have attributes which are "optional". By optional I mean these are attributes which should be excluded when creating stock variants:

• Monograms (using a text type attribute)
• Read Only attributes (special messages etc)
• Giftwrapping, special finishes, custom options, etc (optional Yes/No attributes using checkboxes for which there is no stock quantity that should be associated with the option)

I think this is an especially important feature.. I have a client for example who sells Italian linens. A table cloth might have a color and size option that the customer selects.. each of these color and size combos have a stock value, but options such as monograms (a text field) and giftwrapping (a checkbox) do not affect stock levels. These are simply optional variables that you can choose with your purchase.. ALL current versions of SBA force you to include all of these attributes when creating products stock variants and that is just NOT how this should work.. I hope in all of your changes, you will be addressing this and other SBA shortfalls (including real support for products which have stock variants that consist of more than one attribute)

DivaVocals:

This is exciting news and I am happy to help test it as you make this a better solution.. I thought that of all the various SBA variants out there that this one had the most potential to become the go-to SBA add-on if only it worked as it should.. (no offense to Creinold at all -- I think what he has done has taken this mod closer to where it needed to be than other variants have)

Regarding optional attributes, here are some other scenarios where you have attributes which are "optional". By optional I mean these are attributes which should be excluded when creating stock variants:

• Monograms (using a text type attribute)

• Read Only attributes (special messages etc)

• Giftwrapping, special finishes, custom options, etc (optional Yes/No attributes using checkboxes for which there is no stock quantity that should be associated with the option)

I think this is an especially important feature.. I have a client for example who sells Italian linens. A table cloth might have a color and size option that the customer selects.. each of these color and size combos have a stock value, but options such as monograms (a text field) and giftwrapping (a checkbox) do not affect stock levels. These are simply optional variables that you can choose with your purchase.. ALL current versions of SBA force you to include all of these attributes when creating products stock variants and that is just NOT how this should work.. I hope in all of your changes, you will be addressing this and other SBA shortfalls (including real support for products which have stock variants that consist of more than one attribute)

Thanks for the feedback. So basically, checkboxes (and textfields) are meant to strictly be optional addon attributes that should never be forced to be kept track of as its own individual variant by SBA as I originally suspected? If so I will look into forcing SBA to sidestep these two types of attributes altogether on a permanent basis, unless there is a reason that checkboxes should be subjected to it's own stock variant in certain situations.

Since you seem to have a lot of experience with this mod and knowledge of it's shortfalls, Diva Vocals, what else do you think needs to be improved upon? You mentioned real support for products that have variants consisting of multiple attributes...can you elaborate? I wasn't aware that this feature was not properly working. I've tested adding up to 3 attributes to a product to create variants and SBA seemed to function as expected.

Also, regarding my original question about the dynamicdropdown options, do you know exactly how the singledropdown option is supposed to be different than the multipledropdown function? The way it appears now, multipledropdown lists all the option values and dynamically updates to label which ones are OOS. Sequenceddropdown just takes them out of the dropdown selections altogether. But from what I can tell, singledropdown does the same exact thing as multipledropdown?? I just want to make this mod as streamlined and bare minimum as possible. Dynamicdropdowns is a great mod, but as it is currently, it's also heavily bugridden, and I'm just not understanding all the options. I want to address this too as I continue to work on this SBA mod.

Hey all, thanks so much for keeping this addon up to date.
I'm running a very old v of zencart, with the original danielcor stock by attribute mod on it...also running various other addons - does anyone know if I can do what amounts to a relatively "simple" upgrade to 1.5 or am I going to need to completely reenter all of products to get things to work?

Hi,
The link you have provided is not working. Can you provide a new link to download the files?

Hi,
The link you provided is not working. Can you provide a new link to download the file?
Thanks in advance.

ambika:

Hi,
The link you provided is not working. Can you provide a new link to download the file?
Thanks in advance.

Soooo.... you missed the link posted a few posts above yours??

One feature that I would absolutely love is a config option or setting on the page to allow stock to be based on one single attribute even if there is more than one attribute. Like where you are going with the checkbox idea but allowing for any type of setting like radio or dropdown. Because I use radio buttons and dropdowns for non-stock specific attributes and I bet I am not the only one. I can't use checkboxes because only one attribute option is allowed to be selected in my scenario and checkboxes allow more than one selection.

Maybe there could be a checkbox next to each attribute when adding stock variants, if the box is checked this option is used for stock variants. So, if I have a product with 4 options but only one determines stock since the other 3 are non-stock relevant options like monogram or gift wrapping, I check the box next to the one attribute that is relevant for stocking levels and all other options are ignored. But, if I have a product with 4 attributes and 2 are factors for determining stock then both can be checked and factor into stock variants.

The current way is so clunky because one product can have 30+ variants in my case when all attribute combinations are set up even though most could have only 3 or 4 since that's all that determines my actual stock quantities.

I would be willing to help in any way on this since it's very important for me. Please let me know how I can contribute.

lankeeyankee:

One feature that I would absolutely love is a config option or setting on the page to allow stock to be based on one single attribute even if there is more than one attribute. Like where you are going with the checkbox idea but allowing for any type of setting like radio or dropdown. Because I use radio buttons and dropdowns for non-stock specific attributes and I bet I am not the only one. I can't use checkboxes because only one attribute option is allowed to be selected in my scenario and checkboxes allow more than one selection.

Maybe there could be a checkbox next to each attribute when adding stock variants, if the box is checked this option is used for stock variants. So, if I have a product with 4 options but only one determines stock since the other 3 are non-stock relevant options like monogram or gift wrapping, I check the box next to the one attribute that is relevant for stocking levels and all other options are ignored. But, if I have a product with 4 attributes and 2 are factors for determining stock then both can be checked and factor into stock variants.

The current way is so clunky because one product can have 30+ variants in my case when all attribute combinations are set up even though most could have only 3 or 4 since that's all that determines my actual stock quantities.

I would be willing to help in any way on this since it's very important for me. Please let me know how I can contribute.ALL OF WHAT HE SAID:laugh:..

When I speak of optional attributes THIS is what I mean.. SBA simply needs to be flexible enough to allow shop owners to exclude whatever attributes they want to exclude from stock calculations regardless of whether they are radio buttons, checkboxes or dropdowns.. That said it does go without saying that read-only and text type of attributes should not be included in stock calcs.

^ will I be able to add product model and/or SKU to each attribute with the mod?

First of all, Big thanks for the effort you put in this module !! :thumbsup:

I am currently running ZC 1.5.1 on a test server, with the SBA version found a couple of posts back. It works fine except, but I found one issue.

I have a shop with only Euro's as currency. The first attribute drop down shows the Euro sign okay, but the following boxes do not show the sign, but € . (see image)

Some other things I noticed in the installation files :
The boxes folder can be deleted if this mod is truly only for ZC 1.5x
Some files need to be updated to contain ZC 1.5 code. I will post a list with the exact files later.

Has anyone tried out RoboPhung's version of SBA to see if it works as the 1.39 version did for textboxes? I was planning to but haven't had the time.

valvoj:

Has anyone tried out RoboPhung's version of SBA to see if it works as the 1.39 version did for textboxes? I was planning to but haven't had the time.Depends on what you mean by "works as the 1.39 version did for textboxes"... You'll probably need to explain this before anyone can answer your question..

Textboxes should work as they did...because i just imported the textbox functionality over from the 1.3.9 version of SBA...

That being said though, SBA concerning textboxes and checkboxes are just broken in general because those "attributes"
should not have their own stock count. They were broken in SBA for 1.3.9, and they are broken here still...looking into fixing it currently, but it's looking to be a lot more complex to fix than I had anticipated.

Hi,
I finally got the mod working on my 1.5, but the generation of the page really takes a lot of time, minutes, cause I've thousends of products in stock..

Is there a way to list only X products when I click on "Products with attributes stock" instead of the entire catalog? Then I will just use the search button to get the products I want to correct..

Thanks!

RoboPhung:

Textboxes should work as they did...because i just imported the textbox functionality over from the 1.3.9 version of SBA...

That being said though, SBA concerning textboxes and checkboxes are just broken in general because those "attributes"
should not have their own stock count. They were broken in SBA for 1.3.9, and they are broken here still...looking into fixing it currently, but it's looking to be a lot more complex to fix than I had anticipated.

How did you integrate the add to cart qty boxes and the multiple attribute stock quantities on the purseobsession website?

dewragdave:

How did you integrate the add to cart qty boxes and the multiple attribute stock quantities on the purseobsession website?
This is not an SBA support related question.. this is a question on how to change the layout of the product info page and as such you should post a new question in separate thread..

dewragdave:

How did you integrate the add to cart qty boxes and the multiple attribute stock quantities on the purseobsession website?

It's done using another addon module called Products attribute grid.

Here's the link to the support thread: http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.php?85649-Product-Attribute-Grid/page36&highlight=product+attribute+grid

You can refer to that thread to get yourself started, but I'd approach this addon with a lot of caution. It's quite buggy, and I don't think there is any official support for zc 1.5, although some people have attempted to install it on 1.5 with some success.

I think this is another very valuable and extremely useful optional way of displaying the attributes in addition to the standard radio buttons and dropdown boxes, and I hope to acquire permission from the original author to integrate it into future releases of SBA for zc 1.5, but I'm currently in the middle of upgrading my own webstore from 1.39h to 1.51 so...must handle the efforts by priority.

The current SBA for 1.5 however, is fully functional, and has worked out many kinks that existed since its 1.39 days (i.e., inline AJAX stock updating now works in the "products with attributes stock" admin menu, and restocking the quantities when deleting an order now fully works!!!)

RoboPhung:

I hope to acquire permission from the original author to integrate it into future releases of SBA for zc 1.5I've got it working on a v1.5 store with little issues.. Don't think you need the author's permission as no one has minded that module in quite some time.. Besides it's open source so if you are willing to adopt it, I don't think anyone is going to object.. (least of all me..):laugh: