halbert Posted May 22, 2003 Posted May 22, 2003 I'm a newbie trying to use OSC for a gem store. Almost all of the products will be unique, one-off items but within certain categories (ie: black opal, white opal, rough opal, lapis lazuli, etc.). Once the item is sold it should remain in the catalog for a period of time (marked as *sold*) as an example item. I would go through and delete the entry manually later. I have set up several categories to class each product under as listed above, but need help with the actual product description fields. I want to have fields for carat weight, dimensions, catalog number, price, description, source location, and up to 6 different photos of the item. I think that the photos can be handled using Dynamic Mopics but haven't seen any contribution that might help with the database fields. Is there a way to change the database product description items easily (without dealing with sql directly) from the admin tool? What about having these changes be reflected in the various modules? And would these fields be searchable using the search function (as in being able to search on price, cat #, source, etc)? I have programming background (reformed geek) but haven't actually coded in a few years... I can do it if necessary, but don't necessarily want to! I know a few characters more than nil of php and slightly more than that in html. Thanks! -al
halbert Posted May 24, 2003 Author Posted May 24, 2003 Okay, so I've been diving in with phpMyAdmin on my database and decided to change the products_description table to add some more fields. That was far too easy. So of course, we come to the part which isn't. I'm trying to add the fields to the admin tool so that there's an easy way to add and update product entries. I've discovered that it seems everyone else who's changing the database has chosen to change the products table, and as a result I'm running in to problems when trying to add the fields to the admin tool. Never mind the catalog itself yet! I've been trying to follow sandalwood's docs on how to add new product fields but it's for adding fields to products. http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,1158 I also read the discussion and examples mouflon and MaxiDVD posted but again it's the products table. http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=36053 Does anyone have any sage advice or examples of what they did for fields they added to the products_description table? Or perhaps I should be modifying products table and forget about using the other one? Though it seems more logical to me to have the changes in the products_description table, it doesn't really matter to me where it is. :? Thanks, -al
halbert Posted May 26, 2003 Author Posted May 26, 2003 Okay, it seems that the Shoppe Enhancement Controller will do all I need with respect to keeping the product in the catalog with a "sold" or like graphic plus many other nice little additions. It's made my life much easier in the last day. Too bad I didn't find it earlier! http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=45268 As far as the database changes go, I've decided to put the changes in the products table as that seems to be where everyone else has done their mods. It doesn't seem to be the technically correct place to do them but what the hell, it seems to be the easiest! If anyone has any advice I'd appreciate it. -al
Ajeh Posted May 26, 2003 Posted May 26, 2003 Okay, it seems that the Shoppe Enhancement Controller will do all I need with respect to keeping the product in the catalog with a "sold" or like graphic plus many other nice little additions. It's made my life much easier in the last day. Too bad I didn't find it earlier! http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=45268 I only just finished it the other day. I would be sure to use the SEC v1.0a for snapshot 05-18-2003 I have a new update coming out for that snapshot as well on Monday or Tuesday. A few bug fixes, enhancements and additions. As far as the database changes go, I've decided to put the changes in the products table as that seems to be where everyone else has done their mods. It doesn't seem to be the technically correct place to do them but what the hell, it seems to be the easiest! Most your fields would be the products table, for those things that cannot be done via the attributes. I would need to know a bit more about your shop and inventory to really say what way to handle gems. I wear them ... but I have never inventoried them ... 8)
halbert Posted May 26, 2003 Author Posted May 26, 2003 Thanks for all the work on the SEC! It has organised a few things that I'd been adding one at a time and makes it much easier to deal with all the settings. What I'm trying to do is get rid of the manufacturer, model, url, and mopics fields (going to integrate Dynamic Mopics instead) and add in fields for Gem Weight, Length, Width, Height, and Catalog Number. I might be able to use the model field as the catalog number but I haven't looked at that code yet. I'd like it to display so that the product page appears as such: --- CatNum Product Name [thumbnail] Gem Weight: 5.9 carats Dimensions: 11.9 x 10.2 x 5.3 mm Product Description text..... [thumb 1] [thumb 2] [thumb 3] etc. No In-stock quantity, just available or Sold Price Add to cart button ---- I don't think the product attributes will work as each stone is unique in most aspects except category. You can have a look at my work-in-progress at the following link. I'll put a few more pieces into the catalog so you can see what would be typical things. Thanks! -al http://www.frozenlightning.com/catalog/default.php
Ajeh Posted May 27, 2003 Posted May 27, 2003 I will poke around on your site a bit and try to get a better handle on this. Meanwhile, note that there is a new feature to pull in an HTML text file into a product. The sample I used was products_id 29 http://www.frozenlightning.com/catalog/pro...&products_id=29 That file is located in the new folder /prodtext Rename it something like .txt and it won't load in the middle of your Black Opal ... very nice looking btw ... 8)
Ajeh Posted May 27, 2003 Posted May 27, 2003 Also note ... I have invisible corners if you need them in one of the extra /images directories in the SEC v1.0 and SEC v1.0a
halbert Posted May 27, 2003 Author Posted May 27, 2003 Thanks for the help! I'm slowly getting a handle on things and have been playing around with the settings to see what they do... as you can tell I'm not near production yet :D -al
Ajeh Posted May 27, 2003 Posted May 27, 2003 Thanks for the help! I'm slowly getting a handle on things and have been playing around with the settings to see what they do... as you can tell I'm not near production yet :D Playing with the code and breaking ... er ... testing things ... before you go live makes life a lot easier now and later ... than trying to test and play later when it really counts. My theory is ... you did not have the store last week or even last month ... what's another week or month going to kill you to learn what power really lays within the code of the shop you are trying to design? :wink:
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