Managing Stock on Permutations (or not?)

[tonygg]

Hi. I am currently working on upgrading our site to 2016. One of the key features that Sellerdeck highlight is the ability to manage stock at permutation level. I am struggling to get it working and was hoping someone might be able to explain how (and/or if) it actually works?

I have set up a product and enabled stock management + set a stock level against the product. I have setup 3 permutations as buying options (e.g. from our current production site:
Example product )

As a baseline I did not set stock at permutation level. When you buy any permutation the stock level is reduced by 1. So far so good.

I then enabled stock management on each permutation and set a stock level for each permutation. If you order any permutation it still reduce the overall stock level. You are prevented from ordering more than the stock amount set on the permutation. However when you download the order to the desktop the stock level on the permutation is not reduced. If you try to buy it again you can keep on doing so until there is no stock left at the product level. All the time the stock at the permutation level does not change from the number you 1st entered.

I tried setting the stock level on the product to 0 and leaving the stock amounts on the permutation level. That just stops you from ordering.

So based on my testing I am either doing something very wrong or the only thing that the new stock level at the permutation feature does is set a maximum order amount. Now that is an odd feature to add as another identified feature in 2016 is that the min/max order amounts can be inherited from associated products. Does anyone know if it is me or it is a "non-real" feature?

I have asked Sellerdeck support how the feature should work but I have not got a response as yet.

Any ideas would be very much appreciated?

Many thanks

Tony

[brucet]

Hi Tony

You can monitor the overall stock of the whole product, or you can monitor the stock of each permutation separately, but you can't combine the two.

If you've enabled stock control for the permutations then disable it for the product and it will all work OK.

[tonygg]

Checking Stock Levels

Hi Bruce,

You kindly helped me to get stock level working on permutations. (Disable on main product and enable on permutations). One area I don't seem to be able to get working is the Out of Stock functionality in sellerdeck. If I disable on main product and enable on permutations then the add to cart button is still available even if there is no stock on any permutation.

I understand that the greying out of permutations is controlled by the "updateStockDisplay" function in ActinicExtra.js. The check to grey out permutations is based on checking the stock level on the associated product.

To make it work with permutation level stock I need to replace the "mapStockByRef[sRef]" in the stock check with something that checks stock held on the permutation (the permutations are identified in "collNames").

I was hoping you could provide me with the function SellerDeck uses to check stock at the permutation level so I could use it in the "updateStockDisplay" function?

Many thanks

Tony

[brucet]

Hi Tony

Interesting, that looks like a bug to me. I will raise a ticket and get it investigated. I'm not sure how complex it will be to fix.

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the Javascript but I will see what I can find out.

[brucet]

Just a thought, do you have 'Hide out of stock options' ticked in the Layout tab of the Component? If not, try ticking that and uploading. It should have the desired effect.

[tonygg]

Hi Bruce,

That does not do it. looking at the Javascript that controls the "hide permutations" it does not do anything unless there is an associated product. It looks like the code was not upgraded to support these stock features with the new stock at permutation level.

If you can get me the code to retrieve the permutation level stock (given the "ajs-attr" eg. id="v_6195_1_3" or equivalent). I can upgrade the code to support this feature and I could post the solution on the community for others to use prior to any sellerdeck solution.

FYI. There are a number of places where the code has not been upgraded to support stock at the permutation level. For example you can have all permutation level stock set to zero (hence all out of stock) and the add to cart button still works but on pressing it you get an odd error/out of stock message (this is not just configuration as I tried all combinations).

The function to retrieve the stock level would be useful in a number of places and I guess for many people.

Please let me know?

Many thanks

Tony

[brucet]

Hi Tony

Unfortunately I'm not a programmer and I don't know Javascript, so I can't help with that. It worked OK for me with stock on permutations in a v16.0.3 test site, but there are so many possible product configurations, and so many ways a site can be customised that might affect the behaviour.

I can see you have a support ticket open for this, so it's best to see what you get back from the technical team about it.

[tonygg]

Hi Bruce. Thanks for the update. Please could you briefly explain the setup (or send me a couple of screenshots) of the product so I can replicate. Many thanks Tony

[tonygg]

Just wanted to update anyone following this post.

I am still awaiting resolution from the SellerDeck team on whether/how the software handles checking stock levels to hide out of stock options when the stock is managed against a permutation.

I will post once I have the solution.

Thanks

Tony

[Air-Tech]

I have what appears to be the same issue with assembly products & as far as I can see, yes it is currently a "non-real" feature at the moment.....

All this assumes that permutation & assembly are interchangeable in this scenario;

It doesn't matter which configuration of stock control over the "real" products & the virtual assembly product is used, it just doesn't work properly. I've currently got stock control switched off on the assembly product, off on the "real" constituent products - this gives an in stock indication at section level & at product level, then kicks up an error message if the buy button is clicked on the product page.

It's misleading from the customers point of view, but the other options work even less well for me (such as selling stock not physically in hand).

I raised this with support maybe a year ago, it's with development & did at one point have the bug reference SD-6455.

[padimark]

Ive had similar issues raised with support for nearly 2 years.

The latest response I had from Phil Rothwell after emailing him was that I could pay Sellerdeck £550 per day (or £73 per hour) + Vat to try and resolve the issue, as it is not commercially viable to fix the issue as part of a support contract.

This did strike me as a bit of a pricey way to get SD software to do as it says on the label. I would appreciate it if anybody has got this working better or had a fix for stock control that works across the platform without "breaking" other parts.

Thanks

Mark

[brucet]

I've tested stock on permutations in v16.0.3, in comparison with stock on associated products, with and without 'Assembly Product' checked. In each case, when all Permutations of one non-optional Component were out of stock, the product itself was marked out of stock.

The only scenario that I know doesn't work is if a component is associated with its own product - ie the parent product is the Associated Product of one of its Components. This is a recursive situation that isn't really supported, but the software doesn't actually prevent you from setting it up.

You do need 'Hide Out of Stock Options' ticked in the Layout tab of the Component, which often gets overlooked.

It is very possible for design customisations to interfere with the correction functioning. Unless such customisations were done by us, unfortunately we can't guarantee to support them, except at additional cost. In the past we generally tried to do so, and often succeeded. But with the increasing complexity of websites, widespread use of Javascript and the addition of responsive design, it's quite simply no longer affordable for us.

Those things apart, if anyone using v16.0.3 is still having issues in this area, please message me through the Community and I will do my best to investigate.

[padimark]

Hi Bruce

I create hidden products and then use the stock control on those. Im sure it used to work fine but then when we upgraded to 16.0.3 to help resolve another issue it seems to have stopepd working.

Im told today that it is a bug.... [1]SD-7017 but as this is a pretty fundamental part of ecommerce to be able to show products in stock and out of stock correctly I dont understand why its still a bug after so long.

The workarounds dont seem to work either.

One way or another I have had various stock control issues for over 2 years, is there not someone who can simply fix this especially as stock management was a key selling feature?

[brucet]

Hi Mark.

This particular problem appeared somewhere between v16.0.0 and v16.0.3. It was only identified as a bug quite recently, so we've not had much opportunity to investigate it yet.

I will try to get it looked into as soon as possible, but I can't give you a schedule at the moment.

[padimark]

Hi Br5uce

Sorry but I have had this specific issue raised with support for a year or so, it has gone to Ian as well and as I say im told now its a bug but originally i was told that it would cost a lot of money to resolve!

It worked fine in v16 originally so I cannot understand why its taking so long to resolve, I have offered a snapshot of a site with it working, but no one is responding to me.

It is an advertised feature that worked and then didnt so really should be resolved, and as I said previously it is a basic function of an e-commerce site.

Some update from either yourself or support would be good.

Thanks

Mark