Filtering and properties

[AdamKing]

Hi all

There is something I would like to do with the filtering and properties but I cannot think of a way to do this in Sellerdeck. Im hoping that someone can help with a solution or simply tell me this is not possible!

Essentially the problem is this: we are a company that sells maps, and on each of our products there can be a number of recognised mountains and hills, such as Ben Nevis. It would be helpful to customers if they can, by way of a scrolling drop down list in the filtering options, select the mountain they wish to climb and the website return a list of maps that this mountain is on.

The problem as I see it, arises when a map has multiple mountains. For instance:

MAP A - shows: mountain 1, mountain 2, mountain 3
MAP B - shows: mountain 1, mountain 2
MAP C - shows: mountain 2, mountain 3, mountain 4

The question is how to add this information to the products, such that a customer can select 'mountain 2' and maps A, B and C are returned.

A variable called 'Mountains' with a long list of choices would not be suitable as you can only assign one option to each product.

Does anyone have any bright ideas? If I have not made my problem that clear, please just say!

Thanks all, Adam

[peblaco]

There are a couple of methods, text values or components. See Filtering with multiple values

[AdamKing]

Hi Louise, thanks again for having a look.

I have used the text variables before and that works well for other cases. The difference in this problem is that I only want 1 property in the filter sidebar layout, which is a drop down list containing the names of each of the mountains.

There are 200 plus mountains i would like to use so the option to filter by 'MOUNTAIN' with a single drop down list is preferable.

In the text variable solution i believe it might look a bit like this, and with 200 plus instances that is not going to work:

MOUNTAIN 1
mountain 1 (1)

MOUNTAIN 2
mountain 2 (3)

MOUNTAIN 3
mountain 3 (2)

etc....

[NormanRouxel]

The plain old Search capability may be enough.

In each maps long description simply list the mountains it covers.

Then you can create a custom search that creates the search terms from a home brewed drop-down list.

An issue you'll have to consider are multi-word mountain names. E.g. Ben Norman and Ben Rouxel as such search terms may result in all Ben <whatever> being returned. I believe that SD treats "-" as a valid character so Ben-Norman will be a unique single word. Test with both spaces and hyphens and see.

This will extend nicely, as you could have optional second, third drop-downs that allow for additional mountains to be added, and if your search is set to be of type any words and you're using unique hyphenated names, you will be able to show only maps that cover several requested mountains.

[AdamKing]

Hi Norman, many thanks for your reply, this is something i will need to investigate further and have a play with.

When you talk about creating a custom search and a home brewed drop down list, do you know of any guidance or tips i could look at regarding this, as it strikes me that I am not familiar with this part of it.

But what i think you are suggesting is this:
1. firstly, list all mountains in each product and for multi word names, use a hyphen
2. secondly, create a drop down list (custome search?) that contains the hyphenated names of the mountains and place it in the sidebar somewhere (or anywhere) so that a customer can simply select one of the names from the list, and it returns the results in the Search Results page

Have I understood you correctly?

[NormanRouxel]

That's basically it. The pre-populated custom search is probably already documented. Try the Help and Advanced Guide (lot on the Search there - and "independent search form" is particularly appropriate ) and search the Community.

Or, if you're lucky, someone may be able to point you to an appropriate article.

[AdamKing]

Great, thanks Norman, i think that may be the best solution. I will have a root around the guides and see what i come up with.

[AdamKing]

Thanks for your reply Louise. I do like the idea of the choices method so i will look into that too.

I am not familiar with choices, etc so i will do some reading on that first, before i inevitably come back with my plea for help!! Thanks everyone

[AdamKing]

Louise, i think that Choices wolution works well, i have tested on a couple of products and it does exactly what i was hoping for, so it is just a data entry job from here.

http://www.harveymaps.co.uk/acatalog...r-maps-p1.html

However, could you possibly help me to tweak the box width of the drop down menu in the sidebar? It goes too far to the right. I have had a look using firebug but im not certain how to adjust this myself.

Also, is it possible to limit the height of the resulting drop down menu, so that it stops at say 15 entries with a scroll option to go further down the menu? There will be about 230 in that list, so this feature is much needed!

[peblaco]

Drop down list entries don't wrap so bear in mind smaller screens and mobile devices.

[AdamKing]

Thanks Louise, ill bear that in mind