Multiple Components - Please help!!!

[tattysilver]

I've been tearing my hair out for the past few days over this and I simply can't seem to work it out...

I have a site about to go online that is selling canvas prints. We have a gallery of around 350 images which are all thumbnailed. Each image/product has its own product reference and the whole thing is externally linked to a spreadsheet with various fields specific to each. I'm familiar with this and have used Actinic for a previous site in a similar manner.

What we need to implement is a choice of sizes (16 x 12 in, 38 x 46 in etc..) and colour options (full colour, b&w or sepia) for each print. I have created a component with 2 attributes (size and colour) and the relevant choices, each with permutations that affect the pricing. But this is only for 1 product and I need to use the same component in 350 products!

How can I automate it so that ALL products use this component with the SAME choices? (All our prints will be available in the same range of sizes and colours). I've read every thread over and over again about multiple components and some mention "associated products", but I'm not sure if that is what I should be using here. I have also noticed an Actinic fieldname "ComponentList" in the external links list. Is anyone familiar with this?

Perhaps I can create an external textfile with the universal component with its attributes/choices/permutations in it? If so, I could link to this from my spreadsheet by using the path and just do a fill down. This would be the ideal, but I need to know how to implement it.

This seems like it should be really simple to do. Maybe I'm missing something...

Could someone please suggest a way to do this?

[leehack]

If you have one product setup as you want it, have you tried an hierarchical export to csv file and then looking at the product you set up using excel for example. Most long winded repetitive tasks like this are done by extracting an example, copying the format and then importing back in. Backup before you try though.

You can also copy paste components, 350 copy-pastes is a breeze, that's far less work than you think.

[tattysilver]

Thanks for the info and the quick response!

Another problem that arises here though, is that some products are only available in certain sizes (e.g. landscape prints that cannot be sold as square). And some are only available in black & white. There are only a few combinations, and I already have fields in my spreadsheet named "availColour", "availBW" etc. which I added in case I'd need them.

Of course, copy and pasting the relevant component(s) 350 times would still be a possibility here (although much slower than if all components were the same) but what if we wanted to change our prices? This will happen regularly and we would have to re-copy and paste the combinations every time which would take time and could be prone to human error.

I tried exporting as you recommended and I have the component info in this kind of format from the csv file:


Component test ....
Attribute Colour Options ...
Choice Full Colour Full Colour 0 Standard
Choice Black & White Black & White 0 Standard
Choice Sepia Sepia 0 Standard
Attribute Size Size 0 0 Standard
Choice 16 x 12 inches (LANDSCAPE) - £29.95 16 x 12 inches (LANDSCAPE) - £29.95 0 Standard
Choice 20 x 15 inches (LANDSCAPE) - £44.95 20 x 15 inches (LANDSCAPE) - £44.95 0 Standard
Choice 24 x 18 inches (LANDSCAPE) - £59.95 24 x 18 inches (LANDSCAPE) - £59.95 0 Standard
Choice 32 x 24 inches (LANDSCAPE) - £79.95 32 x 24 inches (LANDSCAPE) - £79.95 0 Standard

...

Permutation Size:16 x 12 inches (LANDSCAPE) - £29.95;Colour Options:Full Colour 0 1 2 0 0 0
Permutation Size:16 x 12 inches (LANDSCAPE) - £29.95;Colour Options:Black & White 0 1 2 0 0 0
Permutation Size:16 x 12 inches (LANDSCAPE) - £29.95;Colour Options:Sepia 0 1 2 0 0 0

...



How can I make for example a text file for each component(s) using the hierarchical exported data above and link to it from our XLS file? I'm not very experienced yet with the variables library but there has to be a way to do this.

Cheers.

[leehack]

Matt if the extras that people choose in the drop downs are likely to change and you would want to do this globally across the site, why not create come hidden products on your site i.e. black frame £5.00, gold frame £10.00 and link the components to use these products and their prices instead of values you put in. This way if gold frames start costing £12.00, you adjust it on the one hidden product and the whole site will refresh.

You need to plough manually though or get a bottle of wine and teach yourself hierarchicals, they are a pig to get used to, but great once you have. There are some examples on how to set these up in your site1 folder. You can always set up one product as it should be and export it and copy that method on the others.

[tattysilver]

Thanks Lee I've cracked it now! And yes, it was very frustrating but well worth it in the end.

Thanks again.