Can OSC and Easy Populate, manage 25K items/1200 Colors/ 10 Sizes??

[jkay]

Hello All,

 

I'm considering oscommerce for our cart, yet need help with handling product attributes and options. I've used Easy Populate with success for items not requiring any attributes or options to speak of. I’m now working with a new dataset of 10 categories with 25K items available in 1200 colors, 20 different sizes, and broken into 4 different packaging units. I'm not sure how Easy Populate would handle this amount of attributes to be imported, if even possible. Considering the above, is oscommerce still a viable option for this project or should I look for another cart. Alternately if this is possible how would I approach this within reason. How should I be thinking about the product in relation to the attribute/options? Presently I have a flat file of 25K records/products, with a unique model name that varies by color, for example (STYLE-SIZE-COLOR)

 

v_products_model

2007-3-AQUA

2007-3-BLUE

2007-3-CLEAR

2007-4-AQUA

2007-4-BLUE

2007-4-CLEAR

 

Obviously I don't want to show 'All' the products in the cart but only the 2007 style and leave size and color for optional choosing. Yet using Easy Populate I beleive the import file would be thousands of columns wide and therefore unmanagable. Please help me to understand how I should be approaching this import.

 

Many Thanks

JKay

[pynchon]

Hello All,

 

I'm considering oscommerce for our cart, yet need help with handling product attributes and options. I've used Easy Populate with success for items not requiring any attributes or options to speak of. I’m now working with a new dataset of 10 categories with 25K items available in 1200 colors, 20 different sizes, and broken into 4 different packaging units. I'm not sure how Easy Populate would handle this amount of attributes to be imported, if even possible. Considering the above, is oscommerce still a viable option for this project or should I look for another cart. Alternately if this is possible how would I approach this within reason. How should I be thinking about the product in relation to the attribute/options? Presently I have a flat file of 25K records/products, with a unique model name that varies by color, for example (STYLE-SIZE-COLOR)

 

v_products_model

2007-3-AQUA

2007-3-BLUE

2007-3-CLEAR

2007-4-AQUA

2007-4-BLUE

2007-4-CLEAR

 

Obviously I don't want to show 'All' the products in the cart but only the 2007 style and leave size and color for optional choosing. Yet using Easy Populate I beleive the import file would be thousands of columns wide and therefore unmanagable. Please help me to understand how I should be approaching this import.

 

Many Thanks

JKay

 

sorry I don't know about easy populate .. however, as to oscommerce's viability .. I helped build a prescription glasses website that has 1,500 frames, each having almost 300 attributes assigned to each frame ... the product attributes table has 450,000 lines to it. i have tested the site up to 900,000 lines in the single table and it all still works perfectly well, though not quite as quickly as I would like.

download a copy and set it up on a local machine ... its the only way of knowing I suppose

[jkay]

sorry I don't know about easy populate .. however, as to oscommerce's viability .. I helped build a prescription glasses website that has 1,500 frames, each having almost 300 attributes assigned to each frame ... the product attributes table has 450,000 lines to it. i have tested the site up to 900,000 lines in the single table and it all still works perfectly well, though not quite as quickly as I would like.

download a copy and set it up on a local machine ... its the only way of knowing I suppose

 

pynchon,

Thank You for the quick reply. Did you hand enter each frame and setup attributes or did you populate the database another way? As well how do you handle the attributes and options for the frames, do you use the OSC > Admin > Products Attributes manager?

 

jk

[pynchon]

pynchon,

Thank You for the quick reply. Did you hand enter each frame and setup attributes or did you populate the database another way? As well how do you handle the attributes and options for the frames, do you use the OSC > Admin > Products Attributes manager?

 

jk

 

 

We didn't use the admin panel as such : we incorporated two contributions : the Options Type Feature and Attribute Sets Plus, which made the process much more manageable.

 

it meant that all the attributes could be assigned with the checking of eleven tick-boxes for each product. It saved an enormous amount of time

 

I did try to integrate an Attributes Copier .. and if that had worked we would have only needed to assign the attributes once.

 

The setup of the attributes took about 5 hours (2 textareas, 22 radio buttons and 8 drop-downs (2 of the drop-downs have 100 values each, the others have less)) .. and a few mistakes were made, but it all works fine.

 

john k

[jkay]

We didn't use the admin panel as such : we incorporated two contributions : the Options Type Feature and Attribute Sets Plus, which made the process much more manageable.

 

it meant that all the attributes could be assigned with the checking of eleven tick-boxes for each product. It saved an enormous amount of time

 

I did try to integrate an Attributes Copier .. and if that had worked we would have only needed to assign the attributes once.

 

The setup of the attributes took about 5 hours (2 textareas, 22 radio buttons and 8 drop-downs (2 of the drop-downs have 100 values each, the others have less)) .. and a few mistakes were made, but it all works fine.

 

john k

 

Thanks Again John,

I can see by your reply that we may be able to handle the attributes once the database is populated. I guess this questions extends to the 'how to' actually import all the records 'with attributes' into the OSC database. I'm wondering how to handle the item skews which remain the same throughtout a product category with only a color code change, ie: (2007-3-BLUE, 2007-3-AQUA, 2007-4-BLUE...)-BLUE, -AQUA, etc... Do I think of the items as One/1 skew with hundreds of attributes, or multiple skews each having only 1 attribute?? Know what I mean? If as a single item with many attributes, how do I handle 'Out of Stock' items (are products seen as separate items if having different attribute options?), if you know? Again, Thank You, I appreciate your help very much.

 

J

[pynchon]

Thanks Again John,

I can see by your reply that we may be able to handle the attributes once the database is populated. I guess this questions extends to the 'how to' actually import all the records 'with attributes' into the OSC database. I'm wondering how to handle the item skews which remain the same throughtout a product category with only a color code change, ie: (2007-3-BLUE, 2007-3-AQUA, 2007-4-BLUE...)-BLUE, -AQUA, etc... Do I think of the items as One/1 skew with hundreds of attributes, or multiple skews each having only 1 attribute?? Know what I mean? If as a single item with many attributes, how do I handle 'Out of Stock' items (are products seen as separate items if having different attribute options?), if you know? Again, Thank You, I appreciate your help very much.

 

J

 

the creation of the attributes is still done from the admin panel ... the contributions provide extra functionality ... and inserts the values directly into the correct database tables.

 

we made attribute sets (ordertype, lens choice, prescription items) that apply to all products .. but you could make an array of attribute sets that you can choose to apply to individual products. we may be at cross-purposes here.

 

JK

[jkay]

the creation of the attributes is still done from the admin panel ... the contributions provide extra functionality ... and inserts the values directly into the correct database tables.

 

we made attribute sets (ordertype, lens choice, prescription items) that apply to all products .. but you could make an array of attribute sets that you can choose to apply to individual products. we may be at cross-purposes here.

 

JK

 

John,

May I have some help with attribute sets, possibly an example file? Many Thanks Again.

J

[Velveeta]

John,

May I have some help with attribute sets, possibly an example file? Many Thanks Again.

J

As for your question about whether to have each product with say, 100 color options, or 100 products with 1 color option each, I would personally go w/ 1 product w/ 100 color options, as it doesn't bloat your catalog unnecessarily and make the customer dredge through 100 different variations to find the right color they're looking for... Plus, if you went w/ the 100 products w/ 1 option each, you'd have no need for attributes at all, you could simply specify the color in the product's name and description... You should be able to break that massive file up into multiple files and upload each one individually via Easy Populate, to make sure it doesn't choke on 1 massive file... And as for handling individual quantities based on the attributes chosen, there are a few contributions that should be able to handle individual quantities for various product attributes...

 

Richard.

[Guest]

if you have a huge number of attributes to cover every possible request from customers, then instead of complicating so much the attributes code use the option type feature contribution and let the customer enter the RGB code for the color. Or even better since they may not understand what is that, provide a popup window to select from a palette and the selection will populate the input box.

[pynchon]

hi jkay

 

Velveeta's route is probably the one I'd suggest if you are going to use attributes. If that is the case then email me and I'll help you as much as you need.

However, enigmas popup idea is intriguing. If you could get that to work it would give your site quite a sophisticated edge.

I'm sure there will be a javascript resource that would give you the code you'd need ... it would still need adapting to your colour codes .. but it certainly sounds like the most elegant solution

 

if you want a hand ... just post here and I'll give you my email address

 

John K

[jkay]

hi jkay

 

Velveeta's route is probably the one I'd suggest if you are going to use attributes. If that is the case then email me and I'll help you as much as you need.

However, enigmas popup idea is intriguing. If you could get that to work it would give your site quite a sophisticated edge.

I'm sure there will be a javascript resource that would give you the code you'd need ... it would still need adapting to your colour codes .. but it certainly sounds like the most elegant solution

 

if you want a hand ... just post here and I'll give you my email address

 

John K

 

Velveeta, Enigma1, & John K,

Thank You so much for your help and yes I'd really appreciate your further input. I'm working on this project daily and it seems to be shaping up very well as we approach the actual final decisions for how the data will be imported and displayed. There are basically only 2-3 'attributes' (Q: Are color & size attributes or options?) for these 25K items, color & size. Over 1200 colors & 100 sizes. (Q: Besides color & size should I consider 'packaging unit, ie;single boxes of 144pcs' an attribute/option?) So because there are not a lot of options per se, I'm seriously considering the idea of 1 item skew with 100's of color options (over the reverse) as Velveeta points out to reduce catalog 'bloat'. Yet am not sure how to handle 'Out of stock, Attribute' items. In other words doesn't each color attribute need a quantity associated with it, (ie: item '2007-4' is available in red, but not blue) or is this a contribution issue? As well the idea of a popup palette has been on the design table since the get-go, and with Enigma1's input has given me some better direction. I'll look closer at the contributions mentioned and see how that may also help and in the meantime please feel free to push ideas my way. I'm listening.

Thank You Again for the help

Cheers

JKay

[jkay]

Velveeta, Enigma1, & John K,

Thank You so much for your help and yes I'd really appreciate your further input. I'm working on this project daily and it seems to be shaping up very well as we approach the actual final decisions for how the data will be imported and displayed. There are basically only 2-3 'attributes' (Q: Are color & size attributes or options?) for these 25K items, color & size. Over 1200 colors & 100 sizes. (Q: Besides color & size should I consider 'packaging unit, ie;single boxes of 144pcs' an attribute/option?) So because there are not a lot of options per se, I'm seriously considering the idea of 1 item skew with 100's of color options (over the reverse) as Velveeta points out to reduce catalog 'bloat'. Yet am not sure how to handle 'Out of stock, Attribute' items. In other words doesn't each color attribute need a quantity associated with it, (ie: item '2007-4' is available in red, but not blue) or is this a contribution issue? As well the idea of a popup palette has been on the design table since the get-go, and with Enigma1's input has given me some better direction. I'll look closer at the contributions mentioned and see how that may also help and in the meantime please feel free to push ideas my way. I'm listening.

Thank You Again for the help

Cheers

JKay

 

I'm working on this project and have come up against this problem. I've installed 'Quantity for Product Attributes' contribution and while I can enter the color and size attributes for the products with the quantities for each attribute, I realize that I cannot relate them. For example I have a product available in a dozen colors in size 3, and over 50 colors, in size 4. How do I relate that with regards to quantity? So can I populate the size attribute with relation to its color palette?

Thank You

JKay

[Velveeta]

I'm working on this project and have come up against this problem. I've installed 'Quantity for Product Attributes' contribution and while I can enter the color and size attributes for the products with the quantities for each attribute, I realize that I cannot relate them. For example I have a product available in a dozen colors in size 3, and over 50 colors, in size 4. How do I relate that with regards to quantity? So can I populate the size attribute with relation to its color palette?

Thank You

JKay

I haven't tried any of the attribute stock level contributions yet personally, but that was one question I've always had about them, is if they actually generate a list of all possible combinations of attributes, so you could have small red, small blue, small green, medium red, medium blue, medium green, etc... You may be able to tweak the code some yourself to account for the combinations, but I'm trying to think of how to relate them all without making a table with a fixed number of fields for those combinations, i.e. a table with columns for product id, attribute 1, attribute 2, attribute 3, and price, as it's not really scalable and you'd have to add a new column everytime you expanded the number of available attributes... I'll brainstorm on this, but in the meantime, hopefully someone's got an answer for you, or you may be able to find something you can use to solve this problem in one of the other attribute stock level contributions :)

 

Richard.

[Guest]

I'm working on this project and have come up against this problem. I've installed 'Quantity for Product Attributes' contribution and while I can enter the color and size attributes for the products with the quantities for each attribute, I realize that I cannot relate them. For example I have a product available in a dozen colors in size 3, and over 50 colors, in size 4. How do I relate that with regards to quantity? So can I populate the size attribute with relation to its color palette?

Thank You

JKay

Yes and as Rich suspected that's probably the case. These attribute modules that are available do not approach the attribute stock properly. Just checked the qtpro and it cannot do what you're looking for. But even if it did setup the right tables again your case is different if decide to go with a couple of input boxes and popup selections. You would need to create a new stock table such that each value the customer inputs is compared and verified against a stock table. It will be an extra level at the top of the "option type feature" module, applicable only for certain "Products Option Types".

 

However you should would worry about the stock after you make the decision how to display and process attributes. Personally I would prefer the input option with the "option type feature" module for your case, because you going to have a hard time with customers unable to select the right product attributes from long lists. In other words if you have say more than 10 options for a product attribute in your catalog you should consider replacing these with a popup of selections and an input box. Especially if all products of the store are like that.

[jkay]

Yes and as Rich suspected that's probably the case. These attribute modules that are available do not approach the attribute stock properly. Just checked the qtpro and it cannot do what you're looking for. But even if it did setup the right tables again your case is different if decide to go with a couple of input boxes and popup selections. You would need to create a new stock table such that each value the customer inputs is compared and verified against a stock table. It will be an extra level at the top of the "option type feature" module, applicable only for certain "Products Option Types".

 

However you should would worry about the stock after you make the decision how to display and process attributes. Personally I would prefer the input option with the "option type feature" module for your case, because you going to have a hard time with customers unable to select the right product attributes from long lists. In other words if you have say more than 10 options for a product attribute in your catalog you should consider replacing these with a popup of selections and an input box. Especially if all products of the store are like that.

 

Enigma, Richard,

Thank You Again for your continued help. Richard, yea, it's looking more and more like having to possibly do some modifications on the product/order pages. I'd be happy to listen to any advise you have on that. The ability to create attribute combinations would certainly be welcome, but I haven't found much discussion of it. I'm thinking something like, using Easy Populate to load the database with the products and attributes. Then modifying the cart pages to make the relations between attributes. Enigma, the 'Option type feature' looks to be just the part needed to make color entry easy, how to provide the palette in a pop-up might be a bit more tricky, if you have ideas for that please feel free to share them. It looks as though I'll have each color in their own image file.

So to clarify in review, presently I'm looking for a way to use a single product_id for each 'series' of product and have the color, size, and pkg unit as options. Again, the present product sku's look something like

2007-AQUA-3

2007-CLEAR-3

2007-BLUE-3

2007-AQUA-4

2007-CLEAR-4

2007-BLUE-4

 

I'd like to add a product called '2007' and have size'3&4', color'AQUA,CLEAR,BLUE' as options / attributes and related by color first then search for available sizes.

The payment process goal is defined as; Customer

Selects Category > Selects Product (2007) > Selects Color Attribute (AQUA,CLR,BLUE) **Color Attribute select would need to then query the db for results on what 'Size' stones are available in the previously selected color. > Select Size (Menu dynamically populated by results of 'Select Color Attribute' search.) > Select packaging unit (Gross, 1/2 Gross, Dozen, Singles) > Quantity of packaging unit > Checkout.

 

This is where I'm at... and am certainly appreciating all the help, please let me know if the above sounds reasonable and if you have any ideas about it.

Cheers

JKay

[Guest]

for the color and other attributes selections have a look for the html area.

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,1800

look in the popups\select_color.html in the archive and then the htmlarea.js (Search for select_color.html and see from there).

 

Maybe there is something simpler in the web where you could extract the code from but at least you will get the idea from the contribution above.

[jamotion]

Thx enigma1 for referring me to this post.

jkay, Im running into the same issue as you are and was wondering which method you choose to implement the product/size/color upload.

 

enigma1, I love the idea of the pop up color palette and having the customers select the color from there, but I do have a strong developing/programming background. I checked the http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,1800 but not sure how this applies to your suggestion.

 

Can anyone assist? Much appreciated.

[Velveeta]

Thx enigma1 for referring me to this post.

jkay, Im running into the same issue as you are and was wondering which method you choose to implement the product/size/color upload.

 

enigma1, I love the idea of the pop up color palette and having the customers select the color from there, but I do have a strong developing/programming background. I checked the http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,1800 but not sure how this applies to your suggestion.

 

Can anyone assist? Much appreciated.

HTMLArea gives you a pretty little editor box with a toolbar similar to MS Word... Among those features I think may be a button to select the font color, which may popup a color palette box... That's probably what he was referring you to take a look at and see if you could duplicate..

 

Richard.

[jkay]

Thank You Everyone,

I'm still working on this project and am having some limited success with the 'Master Products' contrib which seems like it might actually work. The Master Products contrib could benefit greatly from a 'how to / step by step' manual on laying out Master / Slave product relationships and how they're shown or not shown in the cart. Just what is a Master? Slave? and how do they relate in terms of attributes. An example is our wish to display the top level Master product and color attributes while then querying 'the slave1?' for size(but not shown), then 'slave2' (not shown) for packaging unit, and end up at a [qty] < 'Add to cart' button. Does this make sense? I'm really unsure how this works yet. Your advice is welcome.

Cheers

JKay