OSCommerce has these features?

[animas]

1. Can admin define different sets of custom input fields for different categories? Like Category Books will have different input fields than category Electronics.

 

2. Can admin upload multiple images for a single product?

 

3. Can one product be in multiple categories?

 

4. Is there any product feature comparision module?

[wizardsandwars]

1.) not with stock code or contribution. Will need to be custom coded.

2.) not with stock code, but with contribution

3.) not with stock code, but with contribution

4.) not with stock code, but with contribution

[bcwright]

As for (3), one product can already be placed in multiple categories, however the admin function for that is somewhat awkward, especially if you have a number of such products. Basically in the Categories / Products page you just copy the product to another category, and choose "Link Product" rather than "Duplicate Product."

 

If you have or can create two or more file suitable for uploading with EasyPopulate, with the products that are to be in multiple categories placed in one category in one file and another category in another file, EasyPopulate will add the products to each of the categories. I don't think there's a way to do this within a single EasyPopulate upload file, you'll need to have a separate upload file for each of the categories where you want the product(s).

 

The real awkwardness shows up when you want to move a lot of products to a different category or simply remove them from one of the categories to which they belong. I don't know of any simple way to do that other than by writing your own SQL query say in phpMyAdmin or in your favorite SQL application interface - depending on how familiar you are with SQL and how easy it is to write a query that selects exactly the products you want, this can be anywhere from trivial to nearly impossible. It would be nice if the admin section included a friendly interface at least for the easier operations of that kind of bulk move.

[bcwright]

I should add that unless you've had a chance to look through osCommerce and understand its table layouts very well, the type of bulk update using a manual SQL query that I mentioned above can very easily trash your store. I've done this succesfully so I know it can be made to work - but don't blame me if you get your query wrong! <_<

 

Best of luck,

[kymar]

Oh well, it's a year later, and this is the topic I've been researching the last few weeks, as it's rather crucial to my store, since the kinds of items I sell - one of a kind collectibles, are often browsed by genre, date, or format.

 

As a matter of fact, I almost had a car accident the other day spacing out while trying to visualize the ideal matrix of categories that would organize my store - if you picked a genre, you could could then browse within it by date or format... if you picked a time period, you could then browse within it by format or genre, etc. Something simpler would be fine - just the 3 or just 2 linked categories easily modifiable with easypopulate would be more than adequate.

 

I'm thinking that, as far as store formatting goes, this process could probably be mimicked with the search function and embedded key words, but it would be much more elegant if it could be done through multiple linked categories.

 

And, no, I don't understand mySQL anywhere near well enough at this point to trust myself executing queries.

 

I guess I'll try experimenting some more, including with multiple redundant files.

 

Unless someone can point me to a contribution or discussion, possibly a new one, that would land me in the right place...

 

Anyone?

[Guest]

For the osc admin you could use something like this:

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,4416

 

It will allow you to group categories and/or products to a certain-custom way naming each group. The challenge will be on the catalog end how to manipulate and display the information grouped. However it will be much simpler as you already have a framework in the back end.

 

You do need a good understanding of mysql to use it.

[kymar]

For the osc admin you could use something like this:

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,4416

 

It will allow you to group categories and/or products to a certain-custom way naming each group. The challenge will be on the catalog end how to manipulate and display the information grouped. However it will be much simpler as you already have a framework in the back end.

 

You do need a good understanding of mysql to use it.

Thanks for your reply. I have another post on a different help forum that no one has replied to yet, though it hasn't been long - and no one ever replied to the original post on the forum until I did (months and months later).

 

I may have gotten side-tracked on the ideal matrix issue - ideal enough (and mimicking what's currently available on platforms like eBay stores) would simply be having flat file control over linkage in a simple, straightforward category tree where many items appear in more than one category (two or possibly three).

 

Failing that, I'll check out the contribution you point to in the hope that it will at least enable to me to group items in second (or possibly third) simple categories without having to add links to them one by one - which would be far too laborious a process for thousands of items, as should be obvious.

 

Looking over EP and reading the post about adding categories with extra files, it does look to me that EP in its current versions falls just short of being able to handle this one smoothly. I don't know PHP and mySQL well enough to begin making the adjustments. Maybe next year.

[kymar]

OK - it looks like all you have to is to upload the same product on multiple lines:

 

SO LET'S SAY IT'S PRODUCT WITH 0001 AND I WANT IT IN CATEGORIES 1, 2, and 3, SUBCATEGORIES 1A, 2B, and 3C

 

My EP File has 3 lines including the following cells under, respectively, the v_products_model, v_categories_name_1, and v_categories_name_2 headers:

 

0001   1	1A
0001   2	2B
0001   3	3C

 

The product will come as "linked" in my catalog, and will appear in all 3 categories and subcategories, which will be created on the fly if they don't already exist.

 

So it can all be done in one file, but I will need multiple lines. A little cumbersome, but doable - seems somewhat easier than, e.g., a second file or a mySQL operation.

 

Anyone know any better way?

 

Will post in other forum covering same subject, then continue posting wherever I receve replies, if any.