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[Development] Products Specifications


kymation

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While filter class set to multiple selecting using checkboxes. Selecting more than one checkbox will only return products of the last selected checkbox.

Aha. Yes, that should work. Added to the bug list. Thanks again.

 

Regards

Jim

See my profile for a list of my addons and ways to get support.

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List of Links is working here, except for the problem with selection. I need more information to figure this one out. What filter class are you using?

 

I tried all filter classes, but I think exact match was the most obvious one. All reulst in the message:

There are no products to display. Please remove some of your restrictions and try again.

 

Jerome

Edited by JvdP
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When entering the specification text for a product in admin. the specification is not shown in the product preview. It is actually not stored in the database when editing existing products. When entering a specification text for the second time it does get stored and displayed. For new products it is not displayed as well but I think specification text is stored in the database on the first entry.

 

It looks like two or more actions are in wrong order in this process.

 

I noticed it yesterday but thought it was an error on my side, now I think this is a bug.

 

Regards,

Jerome

Edited by JvdP
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Congratulations for module!!! :)

 

I installed the 0.4.2 but I have a problem.

 

When I put in the Admin/Products in the text field of filter a word, this is not inserted in the database. In preview and update this not appear. I have to manually go in the table products_spefication.

 

Thank you

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Yes, that's a bug. Added to the list. Thanks to both of you for reporting it.

 

I'm working on a couple of bugs now. When I get these finished I'll upload a new version. Not everything on the list will be fixed, but the more critical ones are. I'm sure we'll find a bunch more to replace them.

 

Regards

Jim

See my profile for a list of my addons and ways to get support.

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I've uploaded version 0.4.3. Many of the outstanding bugs have now been fixed, or at least mutated into different bugs. Most of what remains on the list are actually missing features. See the bugs.txt in the distribution for details.

 

I haven't tested every possible combination of filters (See the Filters Matrix in the distro for the possible combinations. There are a lot of them.) If you find a bug in one of them, or anywhere else for that matter, please post it here. I'm trying to get ahead of them.

 

Next up is the ability to restrict inputs in the Products admin (Pulldowns, image boxes, etc.) and the addition of a reverse multiple match (e.g. product has several colors.) This is big enough that it justifies another minor version increase, so the next one will probably be 0.5. Depending on how many bugs I generate, the next step after that should be a release candidate. I only hope.

 

Thanks again to everyone who has submitted bug reports, and please keep doing that. I'd never be able to get this done by myself.

 

Regards

Jim

See my profile for a list of my addons and ways to get support.

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I have been following this project for the last month and first off, I would like to thank kymation for the hard work you have put into the project. This sort of addon I have been after since Feb.

 

I would like to ask if when this gets to RC or a full release will you put in a file the code that goes into modified files. Reason why I ask is that I have heavily modified my shop and I would have to compare the code and see what is extra.

 

Again thanks.

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It's actually a lot easier to use a file comparison program (Winmerge, Windiff, Beyond Compare, etc.) That's what I do, and it's far better than any instructions I could give you.

 

If you really want line-by-line instructions, use your file comparison program to compare the files in the distribution to stock 2.2RC2a and generate a diff. You can then use that diff file to do a manual update of your files. That's doing it the hard way, and I don't recommend it, but it can be done.

 

Regards

Jim

See my profile for a list of my addons and ways to get support.

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It's actually a lot easier to use a file comparison program (Winmerge, Windiff, Beyond Compare, etc.) That's what I do, and it's far better than any instructions I could give you.

 

If you really want line-by-line instructions, use your file comparison program to compare the files in the distribution to stock 2.2RC2a and generate a diff. You can then use that diff file to do a manual update of your files. That's doing it the hard way, and I don't recommend it, but it can be done.

 

Regards

Jim

my reply exactly.

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON

I do not use the responsive bootstrap version since i coded my responsive version earlier, but i have bought every 28d of code package to support burts effort and keep this forum alive (albeit more like on life support).

So if you are still here ? What are you waiting for ?!

 

Find the most frequent unique errors to fix:

grep "PHP" php_error_log.txt | sed "s/^.* PHP/PHP/g" |grep "line" |sort | uniq -c | sort -r > counterrors.txt

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Hi Jim,

 

You are fast for sure! thanks again for the update. 0.4, so I did a complete new and clean install including the database!

 

Didn't find any problems during installation of the database.

Didn't find any problems during entering specification_groups, specifications and filters.

 

When entering specification data to the catalog/products page, data can only stored in the database when entered the second time. After the first time ebtering the data no specification is displayed in product preview, nor is it entered in the database. the rows are added to product_specifications table after "update" or "insert" is clicked in product preview. However the entered data seems already been lost. The second time, when the rows already exists because of the earlier update, entered data is displayed and stored.

 

Now to the catalog:

Didn't find any problems displaying specifications on product_info page

 

Still the heading of comparison table is shown on comparison.php. No rows for products

 

However, filter functioning is not working :o "I get a message with There are no products to display. Please remove some of your restrictions and try again." Even with a simple pulldown type and exact filter class.

Something is not quite right here: at the bottom of the page you can see ?>

 

source view

<table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">

<tr>

<td align="center"><a href="http://localhost/oscSpecifications/redirect.php?action=banner&goto=1&osCsid=0256c301b699a1cdd4fcebacee4520e0" target="_blank"><img src="images/banners/oscommerce.gif" border="0" alt="osCommerce" title=" osCommerce " width="468" height="50"></a></td>

</tr>

</table>

<!-- footer_eof //-->

<br>

</body>

</html>

?>

 

Possibly some PHP code is broken somewhere.

 

Hope this one can be fixed easily.

 

Regards,

Jerome

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When entering specification data: This seems to work for me. However, when I tried this a minute ago, it entered the data just fine, but it picked up a suffix from another Specification. Obviously something is still wrong here. Back on the bug list. Again.

 

Comparison table: This still works here. I can't fix this unless I can reproduce the error.

 

Filter functioning: I'll have to try this some more. I have it working with three Specifications on my test site. Maybe something wrong with only one?

 

The spare ?> is harmless, but I still need to find it. Somewhere on the filters page. Bah.

 

Thanks for the bug reports. I'm still working on this as much as I can.

 

Regards

Jim

See my profile for a list of my addons and ways to get support.

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Filter functioning: I'll have to try this some more. I have it working with three Specifications on my test site. Maybe something wrong with only one?

The spare ?> is harmless, but I still need to find it. Somewhere on the filters page. Bah.

 

No, I used two specifications. One or two specifications didn't not make any difference. I know the ?> is harmless on itself. But it comes from somewhere while it is obviously not used as PHP code. High chance it is just superfluous left over code, but it is possible it should have been used as PHP code resulting the problem.

 

 

Figured out: filtering can only be applied within a certain (sub)category of products. For instance in strategy under software. While filtering when the parent category software is selected filtering is not resulting in any products.

 

Regards,

Jerome

Edited by JvdP
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When entering specification data: This seems to work for me. However, when I tried this a minute ago, it entered the data just fine, but it picked up a suffix from another Specification. Obviously something is still wrong here. Back on the bug list. Again.

 

Comparison table: This still works here. I can't fix this unless I can reproduce the error.

 

Maybe these two are related. Could it be any restriction in retrieving data from the database on my MySQL configuration, any Appache mod or PHP function? It is possible to mail you a phpinfo() result or ini files but I rather don't post them here.

 

Regards,

Jerome

Edited by JvdP
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Right now I'm assuming there are still bugs in the code. I should probably wipe my development database and start over. I may have something still in there from a previous incarnation of this code.

 

We are running slightly different versions of PHP, and the settings could quite well be different enough to cause problems, so it's possible that's the explanation. I'd rather wait until I have something that works completely at my end before I blame your setup. There are still enough bugs to blame for weird behavior. Not to mention bugs/weirdness in PHP itself. I keep forgetting about some of those. One of them just bit me again yesterday.

 

Regards

Jim

See my profile for a list of my addons and ways to get support.

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Comparison table: This still works here. I can't fix this unless I can reproduce the error.

 

OK, have a clue on this one:

 

Specifications are linked to certain (sub)categories. The product does not have a row in the product_specifications table default. A row will be added for every new product and for every existing product when it is updated.

 

As long the product_specifications table is not completly filled with rows for every product in every linked (sub)category things seem to go wrong. I have removed all links from the specification that had no products in the product_specifications table and made sure all remaining products where updated at least once.

 

Now all specifications are displayed in comparison.php correctly. Still, no productname is given, but that is another issue. Adding links to new categories (ones that were never linked before) removes 1 product from the list in comparison.php for every new product. The amount of listed products equals the difference between "linked and listed" and "linked but not listed" products in product_specifications table. If the latter is higher than the former the list will be empty.

 

Hope this will help you find a fix for this problem.

 

In an ideal situation all products in linked (sub)categories must have specification data but this is not always possible. By creating new specifications or specification groups or new (sub)categories or add them in an existing store not all products will have an entry in product_specifications table. Maybe the best solution is adding and deleting rows in product_specifications table when linking and unlinking (sub)categories? That would fix the entering data bug for me as well.

 

Of course, for you to judge. I don't know what consequences this might lead to.

 

Regards,

Jerome

Edited by JvdP
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That's very interesting. Thank you for doing all of that detective work. Adding an empty entry to the products_specifications table for each new/linked product might indeed fix the whole mess. Let me think about this a bit. I don't see any negative consequences right now, but I want to make certain.

 

Thanks again for all of yourbug reports.

 

Regards

Jim

See my profile for a list of my addons and ways to get support.

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A few more questions/possible bugs about filters:

 

1. In v0.4.2 we were able to approximate multiple specs on a product (e.g. multiple sizes, multiple colours) by using "like" as the search filter type. So if we had "Red, Blue, Black" as the colours in the product spec for colour, the "like" filter would return results for Red, Blue or Black on the front. It only didn't work when the filter choice was a subset of another filter choice (e.g. in sizes where "Large" would match "Large" and "Extra Large"). In version 0.4.3 this no longer works - has the way the "like" filter works been changed in v0.4.3 or is this a bug? Is there any way to approximate the multiple specs in this version at all?

 

2. When you create a copy of a specification group in admin, the group name and specs are copied, but any filters under them are not. If you had sizes of clothing with 20 filter options under each this means that creating copies you have to recreate the filter options every time. If that could be fixed/added as a feature in a future version that would be great.

 

This mod is coming along great and we're following it with great interest.

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It's actually a lot easier to use a file comparison program (Winmerge, Windiff, Beyond Compare, etc.) That's what I do, and it's far better than any instructions I could give you.

 

If you really want line-by-line instructions, use your file comparison program to compare the files in the distribution to stock 2.2RC2a and generate a diff. You can then use that diff file to do a manual update of your files. That's doing it the hard way, and I don't recommend it, but it can be done.

 

Regards

Jim

 

 

I will agree but the shop has been heavily modified so I would like to see what your mod has to change. Also I may want to change the look a bit.

 

Thanks for the help.

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A few more questions/possible bugs about filters:

 

1. In v0.4.2 we were able to approximate multiple specs on a product (e.g. multiple sizes, multiple colours) by using "like" as the search filter type. So if we had "Red, Blue, Black" as the colours in the product spec for colour, the "like" filter would return results for Red, Blue or Black on the front. It only didn't work when the filter choice was a subset of another filter choice (e.g. in sizes where "Large" would match "Large" and "Extra Large"). In version 0.4.3 this no longer works - has the way the "like" filter works been changed in v0.4.3 or is this a bug? Is there any way to approximate the multiple specs in this version at all?

Like was always supposed to be "sounds like" (Soundex, etc.) It was broken/incomplete in earlier versions. Use Start or Partial for partial matches. It sounds like what you want is a Multiple match anyway.
2. When you create a copy of a specification group in admin, the group name and specs are copied, but any filters under them are not. If you had sizes of clothing with 20 filter options under each this means that creating copies you have to recreate the filter options every time. If that could be fixed/added as a feature in a future version that would be great.

Oops. I forgot to copy filters. Added to the bugs list.

 

Thanks for the bug report. I'm still working to fix things.

 

Regards

Jim

See my profile for a list of my addons and ways to get support.

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I've added an update (0.4.4) to the usual location. All of the bugs are now fixed, or at least I think they are. Doubtless someone here will prove me wrong. Please do.

 

I'm now concentrating on the system for entering product specifications in the Admin. You'll see some of the basis for this in the current release: A new database table and a new pulldown for Enter Filters as in the Specifications admin. This doesn't work yet, but it should in the next release.

 

If you have any ideas for features that aren't in yet, now would be a good time to make them known. After I get all of the features on my list done, I'm going to start a Release Candidate. That means bugfixes only until the release of version 1.0. So, if there's something you want to see in that initial release, speak now. Or type, anyway.

 

Regards

Jim

See my profile for a list of my addons and ways to get support.

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Have installed 0.4.4 and am having some trouble testing the multiple options feature of the filters.

 

Here's what we want to do: create two filters - colour and size and assign them to a series of clothing products so you can see the products that are available in the various colours and sizes. Each product may have multiple colours and sizes available. So we set up the two specifications clothing and size and assigned the filters to them. We chose multiple as the filter type as per your previous post.

 

If a product has multiple colours how is this entered in the edit product screen? We have entered the various colours e.g. red and blue as 'red, blue' because we're not sure what to separate the various options with. Is this the right way to do it? No matter what we choose (even if there is only one colour assigned to a product), choosing anything from the filters on the front end returns no results.

 

We've noticed in admin that at Group level "Filters in this Group" always says 0 no matter how many filters are defined (they all show up in the drop down on the front) and at Spec level "Filters on this Specification" always says 0. Does this mean that there is something that is not set up correctly or could this be indicative of a bug?

 

In terms of feature ideas, when adding specs to products it would be great to be able to select/add specifications in a similar way to how the Ajax Attribute Manager contribution does its job. That's a fantastic contribution for attributes so something similar would be really good. The use of Ajax for filtering on the product listing pages without page refreshes would be great as well.

 

When we can test the filtering we'll probably be able to suggest some other feature ideas as well.

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That's a problem I haven't solved yet. Right now, only single values can be added to a product specification. I need to figure out how to usea list of values like you have been trying to use. For now, that won't work.

 

Filters in this Group is a bug. Filters on this Specification is a bug. Both have been added to the list.

 

AJAX has a lot of disadvantages as well. There's a lot of overhead involved. A page refresh may not be obvious, but it's actually happening as far as data being sent from the server. If not, you have to send the data fro every product, even though most of it will not be used. Either way, there is a cost in complexity. This addon has already grown far beyond my original concept. I think we'll have to leave AJAX functionality until after 1.0 is out. Or we may never get there.

 

Thanks for the bug reports. I'm continuing to work on this.

 

Regards

Jim

Edited by kymation

See my profile for a list of my addons and ways to get support.

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Hello Jim,

 

Version 0.4.4 is a very good release. I only have seen a few glitches, mostly caused because non or only few products have specification data set. As well some filtertypes are not completly working. I am sure these will be fixed during the next phase because most have relation with entering data on the admin site as well. Anyway what I have noticed:

 

Probably not a new bug and just a minor:

http://localhost/oscSpecifications/admin/c...p;osCAdminID=...

shows the specifications correctly, we can update

clicking the product icon shows the preview again:

http://localhost/oscSpecifications/admin/c...p;osCAdminID=...

Does not show the specifications of the product.

 

Comparison.php column listing is fixed, howver products without specifications are displayed as well.

when only 2 out of 4 products have specification data filled in the result is as followed:

Spec_pref optie2 Spec_suf

Spec_pref optie1 Spec_suf

Spec_pref Spec_suf

Spec_pref Spec_suf

Somehow I still find it strange all products are listed instead of all products in the selected category or some selected products. I admit, that last option could implicate a complete different functionality.

N/A could be an option on empty (or more likely forgotten) specification fileds.

I see productname must be set as a specification. This works in comparison very well. Could it be possible to filter on this specification as well? it is available as an option in Admin, but doesn't show up in the Catalog. This count for manufactuerer as well. We certainly like to see the ability to filter on Manufacturers in the first release candidate.

 

To filter with Radiobuttons, you have to click twice, one to select a certain option, the second (any other option) executes the filtering of the first choosen option.

when having a set of radiobutons and add a set of checkboxes, checkboxes loose their value when filtering is started. Only radiobuttons appear to be functional. A single set of checkboxes don't give any problems.

 

Another feature I would like to use is displaying the number of products resulting after filtering in the available options as I mentioned in post 26.

 

When using checkboxes you must click the filter button to actually execute the filter. Is it possible to execute the filter after any checkbox change that occurs? With missing feature 9 in mind, this would prevent empty filter results when additional specificatiions can be filtered before the filter button is clicked.

 

An addon to Easy Populate to handle specifications as you mentioned in post 44 might be valuable indeed.

 

Compliments for the work you've done so far!

 

Reagrds,

Jerome

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Clicking on the product listing to show the preview: How is that not working? It uses the same preview code. Oh well, bug.

 

Products without specifications being displayed is a bug. I though I had that blocked. Oh well, time to tune the SQL.

 

The comparison list should be restricted to the current category. Are you seeing products from all categories, or just subcategories? Neither should be showing. I haven't seen this.

 

Showing only selected products on a comparison page is indeed a major new feature. I would consider adding this, but only after 1.0. It's essentially a new comparison page, plus an extra column on the regular Product Listing page to set it up.

 

N/A should be showing for empty specs. Bug.

 

You should be able to set a filter on an existing field such as the Product Name or Manufacturer. I've done it on the Price field using a Range class. I'll go do more testing.

 

I have both checkboxes and radio buttons set up on my test store, and both work. Note that checkboxes must be set with a Multi class or they'll mess up. Otherwise I'm unable to figure out what's wrong here.

 

Display number of products after a filter: Oops, I forgot to add this to the features list. Added now.

 

Addon to Easy Populate: Also forgotten. Added, but don't expect this until after 1.0 either. I haven't coded an addon for EP yet, so I will need to learn the existing code.

 

Regards

Jim

See my profile for a list of my addons and ways to get support.

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The comparison list should be restricted to the current category. Are you seeing products from all categories, or just subcategories? Neither should be showing. I haven't seen this.

 

It realy shows all products, see linked image.

Action is slected and all products of the subcategories are listed. (the first two are linked copies, both are not in action)

 

Manufacturer is a multi-pulldown with class Multiple. However, it is not avaialble for filtering.

 

I have both checkboxes and radio buttons set up on my test store, and both work. Note that checkboxes must be set with a Multi class or they'll mess up. Otherwise I'm unable to figure out what's wrong here.

Class is Multiple. Did you test a combinations of filters as well? First tick one or two checkboxes and then a radiobutoon. The radiobutton triggers the filter and not the filterbutton beneath the checkboxes. The ticked checkboxes are ignored in the filter action. Updating the filterlist after each change of checkbox set could fix this.

 

regards,

Jerome

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