Digital download - product/component issue

[PA.com]

Hi,

I have a slight issue with digital downloads which I was wondering if anyone could help me with. Its nothing to lose any sleep over, as its doesn't prevent things working well enough, but any views would be welcomed.

I sell MP3 files on my site Piano-Accompaniments.com. Most people buy products called 'full sonatas' - and these products include components which comprise the movements of that sonata. As such, these 'full sonatas' are essentially dummy products used to buy groups of other products, all of which contain digital download files.

However, in order for the components' download links to be set up, I seem to have to include a digital download product for this 'dummy' product. For this I have set up a basic Notepad file containing some instructions. As a result some customers get confused seeing on their receipt - 'Full Sonata' click here to download etc... and just getting a Notepad file. The proper files are immediately below, so most customers figure it out, but its perhaps not ideal.

Is there any way of not needing to include a digital download file for such dummy products, so just the component download links appear?

Thanks, Paul

[wjcampbe]

How about making the Full Sonata product the first movement, and the components the additional movements?

[PA.com]

Thanks for the reply Bill, appreciate the input.

The slight problem with that might still be that the customer downloads the link saying 'full sonata', thinking that this is initiating a download of the full work, and then later find that they only have the first movement.
Plus I want people to be able to buy the movements individually if they want to - for example say they only want the first movement of a sonata, then they can simply buy that stand-alone product.

Its a bit of a poser, but only a minor irritation really. Given the fact that Actinic allows me to do 99% of things I need to set my business up online, I hardly feel its right to complain about the other 1%! I imagine there might be a solution somewhere, but I suspect it may involve hidden products and components and having to completely re-format the way I have set up the catalogue......?

[wjcampbe]

Could you replace the Notepad file with an html file containing the instructions and the download links?

[PA.com]

That sounds like a nice elegant idea, but I'm not sure how I would be able to set up a file with the exact links. The download links are generated at the time of each order (to enable the 24 hour expiry etc.) so I can't see how I could designate the links beforehand in a file to go in the digital download box.
The idea sounds good in principle though and I may try and implement something like this. I'll sleep on it and see what I come up with!

Cheers, Paul