Dynamic product options (attributes) with inventory per option combination

[guntersammet]

Hi all:

Been working on a new and improved inventory system. It's almost ready for release and it would be nice if I could get some testers and input from the community to weed out bugs and such.

 

The admin for the attributes can be found here:

http://oscommerce.sammysolutions.com/showc...attributes2.php

 

-->On this page you can add/remove options from a product and update the inventory.

-->To the right of the products selector is a link to "[Add/Edit/Delete Option Groups and Values]". I hope everything is pretty intuitive to use. There are a few tiny issues. Please check below in the todo list and known bugs list. Also want to mention that if you click on this link, you only will be able to add a new option group after you selected an option.

Option values can be sorted on this page. Unfortunately options can't be sorted at the moment. I might address this down the road but it would have been a lot of work (at the time I discovered that this would be a nice to have) to add it right now and I don't have the time. Sortorder is the ID for option groups. Workaround would be, to delete option groups and recreate them. E.g. for clothing it would make sense to have the size first and then other attributes.

 

 

The shop URL is as folows:

http://oscommerce.sammysolutions.com/showcase2/index.php

 

-->Product with multiple attributes will have a dynamic generated drop down. If the browser supports it (tested on Firefox and IE. Would be nice if testers could test it on different browsers). only attributes with inventory will show. I set up a sample here: http://oscommerce.sammysolutions.com/showc...products_id=140

If JavaScript is turned off or the browser doesn't support it (didn't test browsers that don't support the dynamic option generation), there will be a link displayed. If the user clicks it, a session variable is set and all attributes will be displayed. The inventory check will be done during checkout.

 

 

todo list:

======

-Add the product status to the drop down selector in admin.

-Display the option values in admin in sorted order (as set in the option admin page).

-Add an "Add Option Group" button to the option admin popup before an option is selected.

-Package the changes to release it as a contribution.

-Write an installation manual and basic usage manual.

-Write a "how to" to add programming changes to contributions that need to change the inventory (e.g. order admin contributions).

-Functionality to increase inventory again when order status is changed to specific statuses (e.g. Cancelled). Currently it only increases the inventory when the order is deleted and the "increase inventory" checkbox is selected.

 

known bugs:

========

-If you update inventory (form submit) and you click on the "[Add/Edit/Delete Option Groups and Values]" link and then click the "[Return to Attribute Admin]" link, the page refresh does another form submit. If you confirm the form submit, it does the action again. If you inserted inventory for a product the first time, it will result in a sql error. If you cancel, the changes to option groups/values won't be reflected at the current screen. You have to select another product and then return again.

 

known annoyances/potential issues:

=======================

-There is no inventory check in the checkout_process.php. If sombody stays for too long on the confirmation page and somebody else orders the last product, the order still goes through resulting in a negative inventory.

 

 

Looking forward to lots of input!

Thanks,

 

Gunter

[guntersammet]

I packaged this functionality as a contribution. Looking for a few people to do a test install before I upload it to the contribution section.

Thanks,

 

Gunter

[beerbee]

Hi all,

 

pushing this one up, because i want to encourage everyone to give this one a try!

 

I did. An my findings are:

 

If You are running a store selling items with more then one attribute it could be called essential if You dont´t like waisting Your time discussing with customers about items ordered with eg size/colour out of stock.

 

But even if that doesn´t catch You, You will find included a seamless comfortable module for managing and sorting Your products attributes!

 

So please contact Gunter and help him by testing this one and we will have a new very useful contribution very soon.

 

best regards

Christoph