Purchasing one item requires second item purchase

Question?

I am working on a site for a friend that sells products that are customized.

He has many products and many different stock layouts for customization.

Example product: Coffee Mug 16oz.

Example attributes:

• Layout 1 - One line of text
• layout 2 - One logo
• layout 3 - One line of text (top) log bottom
• layout 4 - One line of text (Bottom) logo top
• layout 5 - Two lines of text (top and bottom) logo center.This results in 5 products in the data base. and if he has 100 different styles of mugs we would end up with 500 products just in mugs.

Here is what i'm thinking:

Category: Mugs (100 Products)
Catagory: Mugs Layout (5 Products)

Mod: Master - Slave categories (Needs more PC name)
Description: Purchase product from master category requires purchase of product from slave category.

In this example Mugs would be the master and Mugs Layout would be the slave. The result of this would be 105 products in the database and a product screen that looks similar to the cross sell product screen.

Not only would this be easier for the customer to view all of the choices side by side but it would reduce the number of page requests.

I am not a programmer but I think from what I have seen in the cross sell mod that it could possibly used as the foundation for a mod like this.

Anyway to the question: Is there any mod out there that does this.

Thanks

If I understand your description correctly: This looks to be just five attributes that can be added to the mug product and selected when ordered Kinda like:

Mug 16oz Tall:

Select from list:

• One line of text
• One logo
• One line of text (top) log bottom
• One line of text (Bottom) logo top
• Two lines of text (top and bottom) logo center.

Another Product:

Mug 16oz Short:

Select from list:

• One line of text
• One logo
• One line of text (top) log bottom
• One line of text (Bottom) logo top
• Two lines of text (top and bottom) logo center.

Bullets represent radio buttons or this could be selectable from a drop list

Kobra

Yes. on the surface it looks like 5 attributes but it is really five attribute groups.

Example:
Layout 1 - 1 line of text.

• Enter text here "Text box"Layout 2 - 1 Logo
• Upload File "upload Image"(The first 2 could be done as attributes - And the follow is where it gets tricky)

Layout 3 - One line of text (top) log bottom.

• Enter text Here "text box"
• Insert Image Here "upload Image"layout 4 - One line of text (Bottom) logo top
• Insert Image Here "upload Image"
• Enter text Here "text box"layout 5 - Two lines of text (top and bottom) logo center.
• Enter text Here "text box"
• Insert Image Here "upload Image"
• Enter text Here "text box"The way you explain in your post would work but the customer would have to type a message to you in the comment of the order so you would know what text they want and then they would have to send you an email with the image and you would not be able to price each option based on the number of letters or words.

If they were linked products that must be purchased together. You could sell any mug with any layout option and still have the flexibility to set price by attribute and have a fraction of the products.

It would also be a great presentation to the customer. The customer chooses the mug they like and all of the possible layouts are shown below (Like the x-sell products.

Let me know if this makes more sense.

Or, make it so you have:
Top Line
Logo
Bottom Line

Put a price on each ... If filled in there is a charge and if blank no charge occures ...

Does it really matter to the customer if you call it Layout 1 - 5? Or you see the picture based on what they fill in? :smile:

Linda

Thanks for jumping in. :)

Let me see if I understand what you mean.

Lets say I build attributes like this.

Name: Layout 1 Value: Topline 1 Input: Text Price: If populated
**Name: **Layout 1 Value: Image 1 Input: File Upload: Price:

Name: Layout 2 **Value: **Topline 2 **Input: **Text **Price: **If populated
**Name: **Layout 2 Value: Image 2 Input: File Upload: **Price:
**Name: Layout 2 **Value: **Bottomline 2 **Input: **Text **Price: **If populated

**Name: **Layout 3 Value: Image 3 Input: File Upload: **Price:
**Name: Layout 3 Value: Topline 3 Input: Text Price: If populated

And use one of the options in each group as option as images so the customer can se the layout style.

Im not sure how many different styles he has but I think it is some what more that the 5 examples I used.

Linda

I set up a product following your example (I think).

Here is the link - http://www.wcs-signs-awards.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=5

I looks like it will work for him but here are the things I ran into.

Many different options - It will not allow me to add the same option to 1 product multiple times so I had to prefix the option with otp1, opt2 and so on.

The layout is a little confusing (or cluttered). It be less confusing if there was line breaks between The options groups.

The word "TEXT" shows up under each image and I was up till 3 and still did not find where that is coming from.

The customer can check out without inputting any options at all. If it was one option group I could make it required but since it is 3 different options I can not use that feature.

Please let me know what you think.

P.S. - I got to thinking if it was possible to make a mod to do what Im loking for. Would that solve the age old attributes with separate stock problem.

One example I read in the threads was a jewelry store that sells necklaces and charms together. The store sells necklaces and charm individually also so the individual product are already built. The store was modified to have the "Attribute separate stock" contribution. but now I would think that the store owner has to split his stock of charms between his regular charms product and his attribute in order to keep them available.

Anyway thanks for listening.

Doesn't it come down to the cup can be printed with any combination of:

Top Line Text
Middle Logo Upload File
Bottom Line Text

What is the difference of making the layout groups vs just present the 3 options and the price?

I would think it would simplify things for the customer ...

Linda

I forgot to explain that there are multiple choices of the same combination of the 3 lines. This difference will be displayed in the picture.

Example: Top line - Center Image - Bottom line. All 3 lines being used.

• round Image with contoured text on top and straight text on bottom
• round image with straight text top and bottom.
• round Image with H1 text top and H6 text bottom.
• Oval Image with contoured text on top and straight text on bottom
• Oval image with straight text top and bottom.
• Oval Image with H1 text top and H6 text bottom.So basically he has many different layouts that he can let the customer choose from. these layouts may have the number and ordering of lines in common but they could look very different in the image.

I was thinking it would be much less confusing to the customer if I created a product for each of the layouts (Including an example picture of the layout) and then the customer would purchase the mug of his/her choice and the layout of his/her choices.