One of a kind products - setup

Hi

I sell unique, one of a kind artisan jewelry. There is never more than 1 item in stock for a product. The way I have the products set up is to create a category with the same name as the product - and then another category with the same name to contain the product - so a category nested inside a category that contains the product.

This works great as far as the presentation, but when a customer purchases a product, of course only the product is removed from the site and not the category with the same name that it is nested inside of. I have to manually de-activate it in the admin area.

So If a customer clicks on the category "Necklaces" and then the category of a specific necklace that has just been sold, they see the icon but when they click on it there is no such product anymore.

Is there a better way to set up the products that I am missing? Or, is there a way to get the parent category to disappear when the stock contained inside reaches zero?

I'd appreaciate any ideas. I've searched the threads but didn't find any useful posts.

Thanks

Cherie
:dontgetit

Artsfish Design Studio - handcrafted artisan jewelry

I take it switching the Product to Sold Out is not an option here?

Maybe change the text on the missing product to read:

Sorry, you snooze you lose ... someone beat you to it!! :lamo:

Nope sorry, not an option :no:

Even if it were an option, I would still need to change the text manually for each sale - I can't spend my life hanging around the computer waiting to catch each sale! I need something automated, just like the removal of the item from the page when the item is sold. I frequently travel far and wide and am not near a computer. When I'm gone I post a notice that items will be shipped after XX date, but the orders (hopefully!) keep rolling in until I return.

I switched from Cartweaver and so happy I did, but I really need to resolve this issue. I'm sure I'm not the only one with this problem

Any other ideas?? :huh:

Turn on Track stock and when it goes out of stock it will automatically switch to Sold Out ...

This is in the Configuration ... Stock ... settings where you can configure this feature ...

You can also change the Sold Out images to something neat that would show off previous items to encourage more sales rather than waiting for later ...

Hi again thanks for your reply!

Well I see a "Check stock level" which is already set to true, I didn't see a "Track stock" but I assume that's what you are talking about.

But that doesn't solve my problem of how to make the parent category and image disappear when the sale is complete............... :unsure:

No the idea was to leave them there to show off you previous sales ... often times that is a great selling feature ...

You could also have this customized that all sold peices get moved to a Sold Category and remove the previous category for you or some other method could be used ...

Or, you can have it disable the categories_id when it disables the products_id based on the master_categories_id being the categories_id ...

Then, both categories_id and products_id are disabled ...

This won't make the lucky Click on a product that just went out the door on an order or one that got googled ... which is why I suggested the Sold Out to stay in the Catalog and show off all the things that get sold ...

Hi,

Thanks again!

I just checked back, ready to post a question as to how to do most of what you already suggested. :smile:

I did realize that the sold items are still in cyberspace on Google Base and other places and when the item is clicked the customer gets a "not found" - not kosher!

So I was thinking that, yes, it would be FAB if there were some way to get the item (as well as the parent categories) to automatically move into a "Sold Item Gallery"category, keeping the same page URL and having a "sold" icon replace the "buy it now" button.

I'm sure this feature would be a great advantage to any artist or artisan that wants to use Zencart.

I guess the question then is;
How, where, and what php, etc. do I mod? :unsure: