SKUs and Product Attributes

[spc337]

I've seen a lot of different threads on the need to handle Product definitions differently to handle SKUs that are specific to Product Attribute combinations along with other data.

 

I'm hoping someone knows of any contribs or future OSC releases that will address the major gap in the products capabilities.

 

I have a massive catalog to manage. Within it, I have a bunch of catagories & sub-catagories (& sub-catagories, etc..). Each of these have different attributes (Color & Size). It would be cool to do this at the Catagory level to avoid duplicate data entry but all the real business logic is at the Product Level. Furthermore, not every permutation exists thus attribute dependancies exist. For example, for odd sizes, I may not offer all colors.

 

Once a user selects the appropriate color & size, I can then check stock via a unique SKU. The SKU should be contained within the Order (emails & online cart) for reference. Additionally, a frequent user may wish to use the SKU to place the order by passing the catalog altogether.

 

Pricing information & weight may also be necessary at the attribute level. For example, I may charge extra for XXXL and due to the weight, shipping may cost more.

 

Lastly, it is critical to have an Up/Down load capability to make bulk changes to my Product/Catagory/Attributes data....

 

I'm quite sure this topic has a wide interest group and should be pinned to consolidate the topic moving forward.

 

Can anyone from the Development Team and/or Contrib authors shed light on any viable solutions readily available or planned in the future?

 

Thanks,

Sean

[Guest]

*PING*

 

Did you ever get anywhere with this - I'm quite new to this.

 

Would I be correct in thinking that each product/attribut combination has a unique entry in the products_attributes table, or does this mess up when multiple sets of options are applied to a product?

 

 

(Puts on flameproof suit)

 

Is anyone else ineterested in making a solution to this problem?

 

Or has it been tackled already?

 

Harv

[Guest]

Hi all,

 

Just in case someone is looking for a solution to this problem, I thought I would share where I found the answer.

 

The excellent Master Products contribution allows you to set a master product and then add slave products to it, these slave products can have their own SKU or product ID. In effect the slave products become attributes.

 

The contribution can be found here http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,1681/

 

Harv :thumbsup: