BUG?: Out of stock products not removed online from permutation drop down list

[malbro]

1. Drop down list not synced with the offline preview

This is done on the PC using a blockif to control the inclusion of the options, for this to work you would have to upload all pages that are changed to site each time that the site is synced. A far better solution is to use the existing RTSC javascript that sorts out product stock and expand this to control the options. Ideally as you say it should be part of the Actinic system.

[Mike Hughes]

A far better solution is to use the existing RTSC javascript that sorts out product stock and expand this to control the options.

One of the things that concerns me about this is what happens to search engines and people who have javascript disabled?

i.e. Can we have it so that people with javascript enabled see the 'dynamic' options and people and search engines that don't have javascript are presented with the static versions?

What we need to avoid is making the options dropdown invisible to customers without javascript* and search engines. Stock availability messages aren't a concern but core ordering functionality is.

Mike

* Still about 5% acording to my stats.

[malbro]

One of the things that concerns me about this is what happens to search engines and people who have javascript disabled?

i.e. Can we have it so that people with javascript enabled see the 'dynamic' options and people and search engines that don't have javascript are presented with the static versions?

What we need to avoid is making the options dropdown invisible to customers without javascript* and search engines. Stock availability messages aren't a concern but core ordering functionality is.

Mike

* Still about 5% acording to my stats.

Dynamic Real Time Stock Control does not work without javascript, if you disable javascript you get nothing displayed on screen and the buy button is not disabled when there is no stock, however you will still get the error message from the perl scripts that there are not enough in stock when you place the order. So if you want it to work without javascript then it is the perl scripts that have to be modified so that they monitor both product and component stock. The javascript can then add dynamic information on screen but core functionality remains when javascript is disabled.

[Mike Hughes]

Dynamic Real Time Stock Control does not work without javascript, if you disable javascript you get nothing displayed on screen and the buy button is not disabled when there is no stock, however you will still get the error message from the perl scripts that there are not enough in stock when you place the order. So if you want it to work without javascript then it is the perl scripts that have to be modified so that they monitor both product and component stock. The javascript can then add dynamic information on screen but core functionality remains when javascript is disabled.

I'm not sure I understand why the perl scripts need modifying. I would have thought RTSC does work with javascript, just that the RTSC messages aren't displayed to the customer on the product page.

You seem to be saying the perl scripts need rewriting to work the way I thought they did already?

Mike

[brucet]

I can confirm that this is a known limitation, pretty much as has been described at the top of the thread.

Individual products are taken out of stock in real time (providing the shopper has Javascript enabled). But the permutation drop downs are static elements, so it's not possible to update them in real time ATM. They can only be updated using Publish to Web or Refresh.

It's something I would love to resolve if at all possible, but we weren't able to facilitate it in the first iteration of the real time stock function.

[leehack]

Thanks for confirming Bruce. Do you think given this limitation you could perhaps look to add an auto upload scheduler (similar to the syncing tool), we don't really want to resort to buying a plugin to get full use of this new feature. If we are forced to upload the site to update the website, we're not gaining as much from this feature (without an auto upload) as we could do when compared to v9.

The more pressing issue seems to be the fact that you say a product is out of stock when in fact it is not though, if someone tries to order more than is in stock. I'm hoping this is a bug and due to be fixed PDQ? It would be a shame to have such a limitation in a feature that has been waited on, planned on and requested for so many years. I hope you agree that's not something acceptable, no matter what hurdles it presents.

[leehack]

Any chance of a response Bruce, been a couple of days and i've got two customers and myself (that makes at least 3 of your customers) waiting for a reply.

[malbro]

The more pressing issue seems to be the fact that you say a product is out of stock when in fact it is not though, if someone tries to order more than is in stock. I'm hoping this is a bug and due to be fixed PDQ? It would be a shame to have such a limitation in a feature that has been waited on, planned on and requested for so many years. I hope you agree that's not something acceptable, no matter what hurdles it presents.

As I understand the system, you only get a problem ordering if for example you order 5 off of an item with a component where the component is linked to a product with say only 4 in stock. In this case the perl scripts return an error message to say that you can't order the items as there are only 4 of the component in stock. Isn't this how it should be or have I missed something?

[leehack]

As I understand the system, you only get a problem ordering if for example you order 5 off of an item with a component where the component is linked to a product with say only 4 in stock. In this case the perl scripts return an error message to say that you can't order the items as there are only 4 of the component in stock. Isn't this how it should be or have I missed something?

When i try to order 5 of a permutation where there is only 4 in stock, i get told it is out of stock, NOT that there is only 4 in stock. Couple that with no ability to show stock count on permutations and you have a mini disaster, IF of course this is how it is setup. If you are not getting that, then great, perhaps i'm exclusively experiencing this and it is designed as we'd want it.

[brucet]

It's definitely not designed that way, Lee. On my test site it works as Malcolm is seeing - the warning message accurately states why you cannot order, and tells you how many of the component are in stock.

I would raise it with technical support, there must be a specific reason why it's not working as it should on that particular site. We will probably need to take a look at the snapshot. Have you modified the script at all? If not, then perhaps there's a particular combination of settings that doesn't work as it should.

[malbro]

When i try to order 5 of a permutation where there is only 4 in stock, i get told it is out of stock, NOT that there is only 4 in stock. Couple that with no ability to show stock count on permutations and you have a mini disaster, IF of course this is how it is setup. If you are not getting that, then great, perhaps i'm exclusively experiencing this and it is designed as we'd want it.

Lee

Try the demo site for the AJAX cart, the error messages are extracted from the return page from the cart script so they are standard Actinic messages, if you try the PC product that is setup with different quantities for the optional monitors, you can see the different error messages by ordering large quantities, try more than 10 with the largest monitor the other two are set around 20 and 50. This was specifically setup to test what happened with optional components linked to products with stock control.

see the screen shot for a Actinic style error message

Other than copying the PC stuff from a V9 default site and the AJAX code that is an 'out of the box' Actinic V10 site.

[malbro]

Agreed, but if it going to do it at that stage, why not do it in the first place and avoid this, can you get a better solution than showing stock count right next to the choice?

For anyone who wants to display the stock levels against components the RTSC plug-in now allows this as well as dealing with SPP using sections and correcting the display of stock levels if the suspend level is not 1. Components will show stock level or OUT OF STOCK message, and with a negative suspend level will display a BACK ORDER message.

Demo at http://stockplugin.toddesigns.co.uk/...k_Display.html