Linking products to attributes

[davidrus]

This seems like something a normal thing people might want to do, but I haven't found any topics in the forums. I apologize if this has already been asked.

 

I would like to link products automatically to certain attributes. I think an example would be better than trying to explain it.

 

I have a shoe store. There are 2 attributes associated to every product. Size and Color. The way I'm entering products is each color is a separate product, but each product has multiple size values. Basically, size doesn't matter in this case.

 

This is what I would like to do:

 

In the product info page, the attribute select boxes are populated. Size is populated normally, but color is populated by reading the one color attribute assigned to it (there is always only one color per product) and then searching the database queried against the product name (so in the database there will be multiple shoes named "Nike Air" with different color attributes) and populating the rest of the color options with the color attributes assigned to the respective products. Then, I need to link those options to the product Ids so that when they are selected it will reload to that product.

 

That is my strange logic to be able to do this, but I'm not sure how the attributes are linked to the products in the database, so I'm confused on the query I have to send. Plus, I assume that I will need to write a new tep_draw_pull_down_menu function, which I'm also confused on.

 

Here is a link to what I'm talking about. When you choose a different product, it refreshed to show that "color" which is a different product:

 

http://www.shoes.com/Shopping/ProductDetai...spx?p=EC1128163

 

I'm sorry this is so long winded. I'm trying to be detailed, although I'm obviously a bit confused on the logic. If any one has any pointers, please help me out. Thanks.