Stock monitor headache

[startingactinic]

I will be selling dress on our own website. The dresses are available in different sizes. The stock level monitored by Actinic is the total number of dresses in stock. How do I know the stock level of different sizes? Many thanks
JohnW

[wjcampbe]

Create a hidden product for each size of each dress, set up and maintain stock control on this product. On the visible product that is sold, associate each component size to the hidden product.

[Blackrun]

Hi Bill (or anyone else that could help us)

Really sorry but could you please explain this in more detail please because we're really stuck.

We have items that we sell in 4 different sizes that we want to keep accurate stock levels of.

For example we have a jacket that is listed with a size attribute that has 4 options in a drop down box (S M L XL).

We have 4 hidden jackets listed (S M L XL) where we specify stock levels of each size.

On the visible product that is sold, how do we associate each attribute choice's stock level to the hidden product.

Many Thanks

[Blackrun]

.........Following On

In each attribute we get the following options. I'v used our Small attribute as an example........

Choice Name : S (8-10)
HTML for Name : S (8-10)

-Separator-
[ ]New paragraph [ ]Space [ ]New Line [.]User Defned

HTML:


So how do we specify that ths attribute gets its stock level from what is defined in the hidden product?

[wjcampbe]

The first thing you add to the product is a component. Then add your attribute and choices to that component. The relationship back to the original (hidden) product is then set up on the permutations tab of the component.

This is option D on page 52 of the Starter Guide (In Actinic, click Help | Starter Guide).

[buspassjohn]

Colour choice stock levels

Hi Bill,or anyone here,
Having implemented this to stock control colour choices, we now get a packing list that shows Qty ordered 1 for the main item and Qty 1 for the Hidden product (colour).
I can't find any reason for this and must get it to show 1 only for the colour choice,. otherwise when we are really busy I can see double the sales being sent out!

Hope you can help

[Jan]

To fix this you need to edit the packing list report and remove the quantity for components. You need to use Crystal reports 8.5 to do this.

Regards,

[buspassjohn]

Thanks Jan,
It's certainly not economical to buy Crystal Reports to do this, particularly as it's a fault in Actinic rather than something we are trying to change.
Perhaps you can PM a price for making this mod?

I must say the more you use Actinic, the more you realize how it's been bodged over the years! thanks again, I can now go home.

[wjcampbe]

John,

From the online help
-----------
Component as Separate Order Line
Select this box if you want the component to appear within its own separate line in the shopping cart, and in the Actinic order processing system.

If you do not select this box then the details about the component will just appear as part of the product name.

Also, if you do not select this box, you will not be able to select 'Use Associated Product Tax' within the 'Permutations' tab.
------------
I would try unticking the box first and place a test order to check what happens, before changing the reports.

[Jan]

It's not a fault with Actinic actually, the figure is there because you can have more than one attribute included for example if your product was a package consisting of a bottle of champagne with 2 glasses, so you might have a champagne attribute with 1 and a glass attribute with a quantity of 2, in this case you need to see the attribute quantity.

Maybe it would be nice if a quantity of 1 was optionally hidden.

I have send you a couple of emails.

Regards,

[buspassjohn]

Thanks Bill & Jan,
I finally made it work only to discover that Actinic has a known (over a year) bug that allows ordering of more than you have in stock of a component/colour, so making the whole excercise a complete waste of time.

[anqi]

this is not a bug actually. it is an odd actinic approach to develop this software in my opinion. actinic does not make use of stock level at server side. in this case, you have to use "maximum quantity" in "details" tab to disallow order over your stock. but the consequence will be you must keep changing "maximum quantity", keep uploading ... and what if customers placed two separate orders which totaling over your stock level? i have no idea.

i have read some whitepaper saying this approach is to safer online store. of course it will be very safe if information is kept on island. i mean, i am concerned about security, but i am more concerned about a secure access to the information.

on my site, i can give customer a login account. frankly, this account facility has very limited functions. customer can't change addresses, can't change password, can't get reminder for password, can't lookup the history of purchase, can't ... customer can only login, then what? if i am a customer, i won't use it because of bad user experience. and this is proved on my site - customers usually use it once, and never use it again.

so, i do appreciate if actinic v9 can come up with mysql or something similar.