Attribute / Choice as Text Box

[oracle]

I'm building a site that sells prescription glasses. There are lots of components, attributes and choices on the product page so people can enter their prescription and choose lens options.

There is one part of the prescription where it would be preferable if people could enter the value into a blank text box rather than choose from a pre-populated list. Is there a way of entering a text box like this inside a component?

What I have is a component for each eye in the prescription area, so:

Component = Right Eye,
Attribute 1 = Sphere,
Attribute 2 = CYL
Then I need a text box for Axis
Then Attribute 3 = Addition

Then repeat the same for Left Eye.

I'm using new Attribute lists to put different attributes in different places on the page so I guess I could use a prompt to ask a question and then place that prompt in between attributes 2 and 3.

But it does say in the Help menu:

To make the questions appear before the customer clicks the 'Add to Cart' button, use a shopping mode of 'Quantity on Product Page'.

I didn't really want a quantity on the product page, so if this is the way to go can I just comment out the quantity in the code?

So many questions!

[NormanRouxel]

can I just comment out the quantity in the code

You'll need to replace the visible Quantity field with a hidden field pre set to 1. Copy your Product Layout to a new Layout and in that replace

<span class="actrequired"><Actinic:Variable Name="QuantityPrompt"/></span><input type="text" name="Q_<Actinic:Variable Name="ProductReference"/>" size="4" value="<Actinic:Variable Name="DefaultQuantity"/>" class="form_input_general" />

with

<input type="hidden" name="Q_<Actinic:Variable Name="ProductReference"/>" value="1" />

You can use the Other Info Prompt to capture customer entered text but you're limited to a single line. As you only want to capture 2 items my (paid for) Multi Other Info add-on may be overkill. You could investigate hiding the Other Info input field (as above) and create two separate fields that use some onChange JavaScript to move the pair of contents into the other Info.

[oracle]

Hi Norman,

Thanks for that. Actinic is currently on a go-slow (taking about six minutes to add one choice at the moment) but I'll have a go with your suggestion when it has recovered.

my (paid for) Multi Other Info add-on

you have me intrigued... what is this (and how much?)

[NormanRouxel]

Multi-Other-Info is an add on that extends the single Actinic text input prompt to contain numerous fields. Some fields can be made mandatory and some optional. In addition you can set the width, maximum numbers of characters allowed and even style the text individually for each entry. It is documented on www.drillpine.biz/actinicstuff

I've done a few add-ons for opticial prescriptions in the past. As these tend to be standardised I could make a new V8 add-on that's a general purpose prescription plug-in. As a standard plug-in I guess it would cost between £75 and £125 per site (I'm pricing this on the assumtion that I'd get a few orders eventually). I'd only start on this if I got a firm order.

[oracle]

Hi Norman,

How much is your multi-other-info add-on for V8? What I need to have is multiple prompts with text boxes for the customer to fill in - each prompt / text box would need to be in separate places on the product pages, not all together. Is that possible?

I've tried to work it out using the AUG but the learning curve is steep enough as it is and I think I have enough to deal with already. If you have already sussed out this multiple other info issue then I may as well make good use of your experience.

Thanks, Rob.

[NormanRouxel]

Details and a contact me link are now on http://www.drillpine.biz/actinicstuff/

It won't allow you to separate the prompts and entry fields. They have to be in a single table.

[oracle]

OK I'll give it a whirl. I'll email you my details shortly. Thanks.