Multiple products choices on same listing

Hello everyone, I tried searching but couldn't find what I was looking for. Sorry if this has been covered already.

Is there a way to add multiple products to the same listing? From my understanding, if I sold t-shirts, I could use attributes to choose S,M,L,XG and/or the color. But this isn't what I want.

I would like a listing for, as an example, toilet paper. You click on the item and default is one roll (like the hotels use). Scrolling down, you see the option of 4 pack, 12 pack, 36 pack, 100pc case. All the options have add to cart buttons.

I've been looking at sites in the showcase section and haven't seen any sites with this so far. I'm starting to think it's not possible?

Thank you for any help.

Jenovee:

Hello everyone, I tried searching but couldn't find what I was looking for. Sorry if this has been covered already.

Is there a way to add multiple products to the same listing? From my understanding, if I sold t-shirts, I could use attributes to choose S,M,L,XG and/or the color. But this isn't what I want.

I would like a listing for, as an example, toilet paper. You click on the item and default is one roll (like the hotels use). Scrolling down, you see the option of 4 pack, 12 pack, 36 pack, 100pc case. All the options have add to cart buttons.

I've been looking at sites in the showcase section and haven't seen any sites with this so far. I'm starting to think it's not possible?

Thank you for any help.

Are you wanting to be able to add multiple of say a 4 pack and a 100 pack at the same time? Otherwise, simply using price by attribute and a single dropdown that has each of your quantity in it would suffice. Each quantity would have it's own price that when selected would add that product (and quantity if quantity is to be provided) to the cart... If want to show multiple images one for each quantity type then they too could be incorporated... I forget what it's called but there is some sort of quantity by grid plugin that would allow entry of x product of whatever "size" is available to be added to the cart when pressing a single add to cart button.

Otherwise you could use a category to have your different products with an add to cart button and quantity adjacent. Thuse while looking at the category listing with one product at a time (each of it's own size), then could do an add to cart for all selected items (non-zero) or each item could be added independently...

Beyond that, when looking at a single product's info there typically is not some other method of purchasing a product.

mc12345678:

Are you wanting to be able to add multiple of say a 4 pack and a 100 pack at the same time? Otherwise, simply using price by attribute and a single dropdown that has each of your quantity in it would suffice. Each quantity would have it's own price that when selected would add that product (and quantity if quantity is to be provided) to the cart... If want to show multiple images one for each quantity type then they too could be incorporated... I forget what it's called but there is some sort of quantity by grid plugin that would allow entry of x product of whatever "size" is available to be added to the cart when pressing a single add to cart button.

Otherwise you could use a category to have your different products with an add to cart button and quantity adjacent. Thuse while looking at the category listing with one product at a time (each of it's own size), then could do an add to cart for all selected items (non-zero) or each item could be added independently...

Beyond that, when looking at a single product's info there typically is not some other method of purchasing a product.

Thank you for the reply. I will have a go at the attributes and see if I can figure out how to set it all up and whether it's what I'm looking for. I just set up the cart and it's my first time with Zen, so I'm still in a confused state about everything. lol!

When adding the various items to cart, they all have their own SKU, weight and price. If the attributes lets me define all the details, then it should work.

As for using the categories method. Let's say I have 10 different products with 5 different quantities each, all of the same type. Using this, when someone clicks on category "toilet paper" (versus category 'paper towels', etc) there would be a list of 50 items on the screen? Or would there be a list of 10?

Jenovee:

Thank you for the reply. I will have a go at the attributes and see if I can figure out how to set it all up and whether it's what I'm looking for. I just set up the cart and it's my first time with Zen, so I'm still in a confused state about everything. lol!

When adding the various items to cart, they all have their own SKU, weight and price. If the attributes lets me define all the details, then it should work.

As for using the categories method. Let's say I have 10 different products with 5 different quantities each, all of the same type. Using this, when someone clicks on category "toilet paper" (versus category 'paper towels', etc) there would be a list of 50 items on the screen? Or would there be a list of 10?

Will have to get back to you with some FAQs to help sort out attributes (or someone else will as another Zen Cart helper), but if you went the route of having six products, one of each size/model, each with a quantity of five available, then when looking at the category view, they would see six products in the list... Regarding the unique sku, that too is something that the new version of Stock By Attributes (SBA) handles as it has a custom field to be able to capture that information if it is desired to have.

mc12345678:

Will have to get back to you with some FAQs to help sort out attributes (or someone else will as another Zen Cart helper), but if you went the route of having six products, one of each size/model, each with a quantity of five available, then when looking at the category view, they would see six products in the list... Regarding the unique sku, that too is something that the new version of Stock By Attributes (SBA) handles as it has a custom field to be able to capture that information if it is desired to have.

Yes, I think I need to get a really good grasp on the attributes function. I will search around and see what I can learn.

I've been trying to find a store to show an example of what I want to do. But, for the life of me, I can't find any yet. Basically, all stores list products like this:

Snickers Bar - quantity of 1 --- this is one listing
Snickers Bar - 2 bar pack -- this is one separate listing
Snickers Bar - 12 bar pack -- this is one separate listing
Snickers Bar - 120 bar full case -- this is one separate listing

So, when looking at this store, there's 4 separate listings just for this one Snickers bar. If you have a store with 1,000+ products, it could look really messy. I think I have an idea with using the attributes function. I will see if I can get it working.

mc12345678:

Will have to get back to you with some FAQs to help sort out attributes (or someone else will as another Zen Cart helper), but if you went the route of having six products, one of each size/model, each with a quantity of five available, then when looking at the category view, they would see six products in the list... Regarding the unique sku, that too is something that the new version of Stock By Attributes (SBA) handles as it has a custom field to be able to capture that information if it is desired to have.

Hi again MC. Can you explain this to me ? If I have a product that comes in three sizes , how can I give each of those sizes an unique SKU (ideally,that would be a barcode). I'm looking at the new version of SBA and I just can't see how to do it.
Hope I'm asking this in the right thread !

cefyn:

Hi again MC. Can you explain this to me ? If I have a product that comes in three sizes , how can I give each of those sizes an unique SKU (ideally,that would be a barcode). I'm looking at the new version of SBA and I just can't see how to do it.
Hope I'm asking this in the right thread !

May be better "served" on one of the SBA threads, but seems to be applicable to the direction of this one.

So, I don't know how much about attributes you know, so I'm going to try to explain the sequence given the above example. First off, if only considering size as something "unique" about ths product, then I would use the term single attribute. Though technically it is a single option name... Use of multiple attributes is a little more involved, but follows a similar process.

So, need to create/use an option name throughthe option name manager such as size. Identify the type of selector to use: ie. Dropdown, radio button, etc... Give it a name such as Size.

Then need to identify the values that the option name is to have through the option values manager. At minimum should have all the sizes that any such shirt can have: Small, Medium, and Large. Give them each a sort order (recommend 10, 20, and 30, respectively). It is also advised to add an option (sort order 0) that states something like please select a size. This last one will be made as a display only default selection so that when the product is displayed, the user must make a conscious choice of a size and thus also prevent/minimize accidental orders.

Then need to go to attributes manager and add the size option name and all desired option value sizes for that product... Okay so now have a product that has attributes (single option name with potentially multile option values).

Now it is off to SBA to address stock quantities and the unique identifier for each attribute.

Catalog->Stock by Attributes.

Find the product, add variants... From here you could add several variants with a single click, or you could add one at a time... If multiple at once, then only the quantity to be applied to all of them can be added. If one at a time, then all data can be added at once and the next variant added.

What you are wanting is to use the customid field to apply the unique SKU (which truly must be unique as compared to all other product in the table). So if adding one product at a time enter it when adding a variant, if adding multiple variants at a time, then when looking at the table like view, should be able to click on the customid field and it should become editable to enter the SKU and then clck save at the top or bottom of the screen...

Now as for display of the customid (SKU) there are some options in the stock configuration option window, but basically done... The selection of a sized t-shirt will have the SKU associated with it in place of any model information that may have been entered.

Thanks Mc , got it.I was overlooking that custom id field. I'll play around with this and see how it works with what I'm trying to achieve . If it was possible to successfully integrate Admin New Order , SBA , custom attribute id , and UPC/IPN product fields we would have a basic bar code scanner POS system for a shop that could share inventory with a website.
Maybe I'm just dreaming !

cefyn:

Thanks Mc , got it.I was overlooking that custom id field. I'll play around with this and see how it works with what I'm trying to achieve . If it was possible to successfully integrate Admin New Order , SBA , custom attribute id , and UPC/IPN product fields we would have a basic bar code scanner POS system for a shop that could share inventory with a website.
Maybe I'm just dreaming !

Not s much dreaming, more like not understanding the underlying database structure. The UPC/IPN product fields are typically applied one-for-one against the product (some implement this by modifying the products table, others may make it possible to have multiple by creating a separate table that is against the product table and then have a separate "counter" to allow multiple to one.) The customid works in this way of one customid for each variant where multiple variants can be applied to one product.

The next thing admin new order, well, yeah it would need some type of "add-in" to interface with the SBA table when such table and data were present... Ideal to work in with that and Super Orders as well, but would require some custom coding more than likely taking from existing SBA code and possibly some from EP4 (verfication code of the presence of SBA and it's "capabilites".)

I'll be showing my ignorance of how things work now,but all it really needs is for the admin catalog/ product search function to look in the customid column of the products_with_attributes_stock table . If I create a new order from admin and input the barcode in the search screen there, it will add the product to the order , when the barcode has been added in the Product UPC field on the product page . Would it not be relatively straightforward to get the search function to look in the customid column as well ?

cefyn:

I'll be showing my ignorance of how things work now,but all it really needs is for the admin catalog/ product search function to look in the customid column of the products_with_attributes_stock table . If I create a new order from admin and input the barcode in the search screen there, it will add the product to the order , when the barcode has been added in the Product UPC field on the product page . Would it not be relatively straightforward to get the search function to look in the customid column as well ?

I'm relatively sure that now I don't understand. :)

1. What is the significance/relationship of the UPC to the attribute(s)? Meaning does a large shirt of style x have a different UPC than a small shirt of style y?
2. Where is the UPC code that is being discussed as being entered actually get entered? (Ie. what portion of the product life cycle is it entered? When the product is initially created in the database, when the product is purchased, etc...?)
3. The "search function" that you're talking about, is this like a "live" lookup while typing type thing, or a field that is populated, a button pushed and the equivalent/associated data is retrieved?

It is pretty much all a "database thang" using referential data to pull one thing or another from somewhere else. Even by identifying the product from the database, it would be possible to provide a "pick list" of items that could be chosen based on that main product... Do need to also consider that someone hasn't done database entry and how to work around that, but...

Again though, if any portion of the checkout process requires the UPC code (assuming dependent on the attribute selected) to be a single value in the products table then none of this will work because that code would have to be modified each time a product were so scanned in real time and not conflict with any other similar modification happening at the same time or shortly after/before. That type of information is more applicable to a session than a database value. (Change of a value specific to the evolution being processed without affecting any other similar process needing a similar but unique value.)

Ok ,I'll try and explain it a bit better. "Multiple products choice on same listing". There are other threads on the same kind of thing going back years, but they all end up going nowhere and this is the most recent.
Why do people want multiple products choice on the same listing? Because shirts of style X and style Y will,typically, have two different model nos. that is, humanly readable identifiers
But shirt style X and style Y will not themselves have unique barcodes.If style X comes in three sizes then each size of style X will have a unique barcode.
The styles ,or models, themselves do not have barcodes ,only the sizes in a style do. For the purposes of automated inventory control , every size in a style is itself a unique item and the style or model is non-existent. So if we want to show shirt style X on our website in a way that can allow us to integrate with our semi-automated inventory and sales systems ,we have to list three different products. Style X small ,style X medium, and style X large. So we have three items in product listing instead of just one.
(I think gjh proposed this as a solution in a similar thread years ago .That was when the big problem was showing different levels of stock for products with attributes was the issue .Thats not an issue now, thanks to the work you've done on SBA.)
But nobody really wants to do it like that because you get such a multiplication of identical product images.So the originator of this thread is wondering ,I would guess ,as I was ,is there any way to show ie: shirt style X in medium on a product listing ,and yet to have ,within the same listing ,as associated but different products, shirt style X in small and shirt style X in large.
Thereby avoiding a multiplication of products and images in the product listing,and yet still being able to retain the UPC information (barcode) for each size.
What I can do at the moment is enter a barcode for a product into the UPC field when I create a product,which is fine if my product has no options, but once my product has options I have to make a new product out of every option in order to be able to enter the UPC information.
That was why I jumped on your mention of the unique id in the PAS table ,because here was a way of being able to enter the UPC information for each option,and yet still be able to group those options under one style (or model no.) So at the moment, let’s say I create shirt style X as a product and then enter the barcode for style X ,size M in the UPC field ( using the UPC/ISBN add on),update product.
I then go to admin/customer/create new order/add products and I have a search box.I enter the barcode into the search box and shirt style X size m is added to the order.
How does it do this ? That’s where I'm up to at the moment.
Developers toolkit gives me / admin/includes/modules/category_product_listing.php
Line #246 : p.products_upc,
Line #259 : or p.products_upc = '" . zen_db_input($_GET['search']) . "'
Line #270 : p.products_upc,
But I'm not sure what’s doing it.
Let’s say I go back to shirt style X and create three new attributes for it ,S,M,L. Then I go to SBA stock page add quantity for each variant,and give each variant a custom id,which is it's barcode.
Then I have in my products with attributes stock database table a custom id which is the barcode.
I wonder about trying to get an extra function for the search in edit order/adding a product to the order , (which can already find a model by it's UPC ).
That function would request of the machine intelligence that it look in the products with attributes stock table for the custom id, and that it would then connect the custom id
with the stock id that goes with the custom id, and that it would then output whatever product goes with that stock id.
Well, that’s what I was thinking ,but having looked again at it just now ,I don't think it would be that easy.
I can't even figure out what the custom id does.
I think I better leave it at that ,except to explain what this is about now .To get that extra function working would be a big step towards the integration of a retail shop based EPOS system
with an ecommerce shopping cart. That’s like ...the Unholy Grail.

Once the barcode has been used to find the product in the search it's finished with - except for the fact that that item has to be deducted from stock at some point.

@cefyn, you're making all this too complicated. :smile:

mc12345678 was right and you can use the customid field in SBA for your UPC. I know because I've used it with my POS...
The only thing that would need tweaking is the OTHER plugin that you're using (admin new order) and I'd actually suggest asking this type of question in the support thread for that plugin (if any) to get better assistance. You're right, it won't be that easy, but perhaps someone will point you in the right direction and help you figure out the function you need... I wish I could help, but I've never used that plugin myself so I really don't know how it works.

Thanks for the info Balihr , I'm obviously making a fundamental error somewhere ,but having entered the barcode in the custom id field I'm unable to find it with any search function that I have. It just sits there. How do I make use of it ? I guess I should be asking this in the SBA thread but I'm keeping it in the right context here ,I hope.

Never mind , got it working, thanks guys.

Well, I wrote this earlier, still has a few salient points even after the above discussion.

So the customid of SBA "does" whatever you want it to "do" provided that each and every customid entered is different than all of the other customids that have been entered or it is blank...

So back to what you are describing? Yes it is basically that exact thing that potteryhouse and jeking built into SBA. But it could be for whatever is desired... The records are tied to one another to be able to basically use the existing SQL queries just adding the additional ties and data from the products_with_attributes_stock table...

Awesome !:smile: