Attributes turned off with out deleting

Is it possible to have an attribute not show for a product without deleting it in the attribute controller.

2 reasons for this;

1. if you delete it from the attribute controller it throws out the stock by attributes table and I get a load of blank attributes. I seem to have a load of product with out attribute description showing in the stock by attribute table all of a sudden (this may be a different bug but I think it is related)
2. and the main reason; some times a product goes out of stock for a long time and I would like to hide the attribute, however if I delete it when it comes back into stock it has to be recreated and will be recreated with a new ID number - I am linking to my accounts programme and it creates a sku based on the product_ID and the ID in the stock by attributes table - this ends up changing if I have to delete it in the attributes controller.

Hope this makes sense help would be appreciated.

Thnks

MG

I would also like to be able to "turn off" attributes temporarily.

We run various fund raising campaigns so I add an attribute to our 'donation' product to keep track of how successful the campaign is. When I deleted the attribute to add a new campaign we lost the records of the last campaign.

There isn't a method to temporarily delete or disable attributes at this time ...

Ajeh:

There isn't a method to temporarily delete or disable attributes at this time ...

This is something I'd definitely like to see in a future version of zen cart !

For the time being it would be best to give some thought to the Attributes being discussed. You need to ask yourself; "How can an Attribute be used so that it never has to be deleted regardless of how it used?"

Once that question is answered you then assign the Attribute(s) accordingly. When a Product which uses that Attribute is to be temporarily unavailable, you can turn Off or Hide the Product. This should also retain previously saved information as well as adding new information when the Product is re-enabled.

In theory anyway. :smile:

Rob, Sometimes I want to turn off attributes for a certain length of time, say when instead of offering a free accessory with the purchase of a product, I want to offer a reduction in the entire price of the product. In that case, I don't want to give the free accessory and the discount at the same time so I want to disable the free accessory product until the end of the period during which the price reduction applies. At the moment, I have to delete the attributes which is a pain.

Its just something I'd like to have, just like a spoilt kid who has everything and wants even more :D

Ok, can you not then assign a different Attribute the Product?

I'm thinking that one can apply different methods instead of deleting to see how things go. Not being a mySQL coder I'm not sure how things work within the Database for Attributes, I just know they can be difficult when wanting to use them with some customization. Perhaps talking to a mySQL coder would give you some better ideas on how to do things?

Oh sure, it must be possible but I'd rather not overcomplicate things ! I can live with it !

Has anyone got this going yet?