> First of all thanks to the developers for this great framework.
> I've been playing with it for about a month for use in a shopping mall
> project, primarily modifying the admin functions while I wait for the
> designers to finish the display templates.
> The current implementation of attributes and variations seems to
> lend itself
> more to programming flags than actual item attributes. For
> example this is a
> great mechanism for implementing flags for items on special, high profile
> items to display on department pages etc. The scope is global
> rather than at
> the individual item level.
> In order to implement variations such as color or size , which are item
> specific and selected at the sku level, I added tables for options (you
> hogged all the good terms). They are created and managed at the
> item level(I
> did provide for global templates), included or excluded for display at the
> sku level.
> I choose to implement options as suffixes to the base sku (sm,
> med,lg..etc.)
> rather than have each color/size combination generate a unique sku. This
> will cause problems for inventory tracking and a few other areas.
> The proper
> way would be using Javascript arrays to generate co-dependant select boxes
> and the final sku based on the user's selections, much the way
> Leon's store
> selector at Restoration Hardware works.
> I am reluctant to use Javascript for something as critical as product
> selection and would appreciate any comments from those with more practical
> experiance.
Earl,
I really think you're duplicating the system that's already there. Yes,
it's true that one type of shirt may come in one set of colors, and other
type in its own set of colors... so, you can either deal with all the
possible colors being in one attribute, or you can make two
attributes...like shirt1_color and shirt2_color. When someone buys
something, these attributes are saved with the line item. Check out the
chair in subdepartment A on the demo site.
<http://www.working-dogs.com/freetrade/demo/htdocs/index.php3?SCREEN=item&it
em=2>
For a big hetrogenous store, it would be nice if the giant list of all
attributes didn't show up for all SKUs, perhaps. On the other hand, it's
makes managing the attributes more difficult.
I think the issue you may be getting at is that a red shirt may come in
small and medium, but not large. And a blue shirt might come in medium and
large. If you create one sku for the shirt and click off red/blue and
s/m/l, you can get people buying stuff that doesn't actually exist. MS site
server handles this by giving the user an error message! With FreeTrade, I
suggest making two SKUs, one for the red shirt and one for the blue shirt.
Then you just click off the sizes that apply. If there's three variables,
it's starts to get crowded...but we haven't encountered that situation yet.
Has anyone else?
I feel fairly strongly that the existing system can handle almost any set-up
you can imagine, but sometimes it takes talking to me because I understand
it better than anyone else.
Leon
------------------------------------------------------------
To subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Site: http://www.working-dogs.com/freetrade/
Problems?: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
