This is a brain hurter about product options

[Gomeza]

First the problem that needs to be solved:

 

I'm transferring an old website that was a cobbled together mess using HTML, Javascript and the basic PayPal shopping cart into osCommerce. The old website never had a database, instead it loaded all product options with every web page and utilized a form drop down select menu to collect product option preferences from the client. The only advantage to this method was that both the option selection and the buy now button were on the same webpage.

 

If there were a reasonably small number of options, I would simply use the products attribute feature in osCommerce and enter them manually.

 

But this store is selling personalized products where a name must be selected from a set of rather long lists which are slightly different for each product. Some of these lists have 3,500 names on them.

 

So the question is: How can I create a selectable option that will appear in the osCommerce product listing from these lists which are now in HTML form option format?

 

Even a suggested plan of attack would be extremely helpful because I cannot visualize a clear path to accomplish this.

 

Thank you in advance, anyone who takes a stab at this.