Hide out of stock component

[lily10]

Hi - I've trawled around for an answer to this and think I found something that helped but this has led to another issue!

I have a component which is listed under about 100 products but which is out of stock - so I want to temporarily hide it as a selectable component. This led me to finding what I thought was the answer - selecting the 'Hide Out of Stock Options' checkbox in the 'Layout' panel. But this option is permanently greyed out so that I am unable to select it . I am not sure why this is and cannot seem to resolve. Any help much appreciated!

Thanks
Juliette

[lily10]

Hmm -is there anyone out there who can help me please?

Maybe I didn't word the original question very well.

In short , within the Component layout I am unable to tick the box 'Hide Out of Stock Options' under 'Permutation Layout Options' as it is greyed out and I'm not sure how to change this. Can anyone tell me as I am really stuck!

Any suggestions would be really appreciated.
Many thanks
Juliette

[leehack]

The hide out of stock option is for permutations, when you have the fill list used and a drop down list of choices, it takes the options out of the list for you.

[lazystudent]

Does the component have any attributes?

I ask only because any components that don't have any attributes wont allow you to hide them

[lily10]

thanks for your responses - the component doesn't have any attributes. The component I want to hide is a lawnmower cover - which is available for selection on all lawnmower product pages. As we have over 300 lawnmowers on the site I'm trying to find a way to hide this component on these pages but can't seem to do it. I'm sure it is blindingly obvious but I can't seem to work it out - any suggestions ?

[leehack]

It's not blindingly obvious, you're not missing anything. Permutations are the only standard way that I know of where stock control can be included into them.

You could have a yes/no option for an 'include cover' option and attach the product to the yes via the fill option on permutations. You could then have an out of stock message auto appear against the yes option, perhaps that is one way round it.

[TraceyHand]

This is one time when it'd be useful to be able to have duplicates of components.
AND to have a "hide on website" option
That way you'd only need to edit/delete/hide the main component and the rest would follow suit.

We can dream, eh?

(I'd LOVE this option!)

[lily10]

Thanks for your reponses - these have been helpful.
Below is the response from Actinic support for anyone else who encounters the same problem.

That option will be grey permanently if the component has no attribute and choice under it, so I guess the option here will be to either delete that component temporarily (a item only disappears from the content tree if its purged) and then update the site , or alternatively create an attribute and choice under it and then use the out of stock option.
Sorry about the procedure being long winded..




Thanks again
Juliette

[leehack]

Components can be copied, so instead of the checkbox approach, go with the drop down list option instead.

Create a component, add an attribute, add choices of yes and no, then go back to the component, 'fill list' associate the yes product with the cover and price it accordingly. Tick to hide out of stock options.

You should then have a drop down list, with something like "Would you like a cover with that?" have the default as 'no' and then the yes product buys the cover, but because the cover can go out of stock, the drop down list should update when it goes out of stock and show that the yes option is not available as out of stock.

You can then copy that component across to the 100 products, an hours work tops and you then have a global switch off for the product when it goes out of stock.

[Duncan Rounding]

I did some jiggery-pokery some time back related to this. I had to use some php to check the stock count and take action. The fun bit was that I had to create a variable and set it in one part of the code then check the status of it in other layouts in other parts of the code.

[demalpas]

By accident, I have discovered an even simpler solution that involves very little work. Proceed as follows:

1. Set the component (i.e. the Lawnmower Cover) as out of stock by checking the box "use stock monitoring" in the Stock Tab and setting the quantity on hand to 0.

2. In the Price Tab for the component there is a box titled Customer Message. Enter "Sorry Out of Stock" in this box.

3. To get this to display correctly (in dark red bold for example), edit the line (approx 332) in the design code for a mower having the lawnmower cover as a component and change the ComponentRetailCustomerMessage to:

<font color="#dc143c"><b>&nbsp;<actinic:variable name="ComponentRetailCustomerMessage" /></b></font>

This may not be the most wonder html but it works!

4. For every mower having the lawnmower cover as a component, this will now display with the Sorry Out of Stock message in red next to it.

5. Even better still, if on the web you try to order the lawnmower cover by checking the checkbox next to it, Actinic prevents you from doing so because when you click the Add to Cart button, it displays the following message:

"We are sorry, the combination you selected is unavailable at present due to Lawnmower Cover being out of stock.

Please wait for your browser to forward you to the next page or click here."

6. And then it returns yoiu to the product page with the check box for the lawnmower cover unchecked.

I think that the above really does solve the problem of out stock components pretty well - even if it was discovered by accident.