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**leehack** · 07-Nov-2006, 09:38 PM

Creating each occurrence of your product with its relevant choices is the only way as far as i know. In other words instead of having choices, you link the lists to actual products on your site (which are hidden). So you would have:

UV Flesh Plug BUEX01 - Red - 3mm
UV Flesh Plug BUEX01 - Black - 4mm etc....

Just out of interest, when you delete these sold out itmes from your catalogue, do you never get them in stock again? I ask this because if someone visits your site and sees something is out of stock, they are 100% more likely to return to see if you have it at a later date, than leave as if you never sell this product?

**feemish** · 07-Nov-2006, 09:49 PM

instead of having choices, you link the lists to actual products on your site (which are hidden).

oh right.. hows that done?

Just out of interest, when you delete these sold out itmes from your catalogue, do you never get them in stock again?

Yes, they're not out of stock for long, i dont purge the website so i can undelete them.

I ask this because if someone visits your site and sees something is out of stock, they are 100% more likely to return to see if you have it at a later date, than leave as if you never sell this product?

I've got a fragment up saying, please check back if your size isnt showing.. blah blah. I know its not ideal, but i didnt see another way...

Thanks for the reply

**leehack** · 07-Nov-2006, 10:22 PM

Hi Mark

The drop down lists you provide for your customers can just as easily be populated with actual products from your store, rather than choices you add.

So your products, such as:

UV Flesh Plug BUEX01 - Red - 3mm
UV Flesh Plug BUEX01 - Black - 4mm

are all created as separate products. The drop down lists you include on the main product links to these products, rather than choices you input.

When you add a component to a product, you get the choice on the right hand side to select a product from your catalogue and have this in as a choice. If you have created products for each of the options, they can be added as components. This is how you can also introduce stock control on the various options. If red 3mm are out of stock, then set that product as out of stock and it will not populate the list as an option.

**feemish** · 07-Nov-2006, 10:29 PM

Got it!

Nice one Lee... Cheers for that.

Its much better than the way i've been doing it, but still a bit longwinded eh?

http://www.arka-shop.co.uk

**leehack** · 07-Nov-2006, 11:01 PM

It is a little long winded, but once done saves a lot of pointless admin and headaches. Its not perfect and its not ideal, however i can't really think of any other way to do it in a better way.

Multiple choices and sizes is always going to be a headache however you approach it i guess. What i guess you are hoping for is something useful after you invest substantial time in creating it, the solution above should do you well.

I'm sure if i recall correctly that components can be copied in some way, maybe that will speed up things up a little for you. Give it a go and see how you get on.

Good luck.

**feemish** · 07-Nov-2006, 11:36 PM

Hi Lee,
having a bit of hassle.

I've created the various products and hidden them.
I then go to the 'master product' and add a componant, then choose the assosiated product. It only appears if i tick 'is optional', but then i just get the componants listed as tick boxes... ( and i can choose more than one)
I cant see how to generate the drop down list you spoke of...
Also taking the stock level of one of the hidden products down to 0, doesnt remove it from the list....
What am i doing wrong ?
Mark

http://www.arka-shop.co.uk

**feemish** · 08-Nov-2006, 12:06 AM

Hi Lee,
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, i think i've found my answer here

http://community.actinic.com/showthr...eferrerid=4688

Cheers

http://www.arka-shop.co.uk

**leehack** · 08-Nov-2006, 12:11 AM

Originally posted by feemish

Hi Lee,
having a bit of hassle.

I've created the various products and hidden them.
I then go to the 'master product' and add a componant, then choose the assosiated product. It only appears if i tick 'is optional', but then i just get the componants listed as tick boxes... ( and i can choose more than one)

The "is optional" is fine to select because if you do not select this, the product will be included as standard. What you are doing here is giving the customer the choice on which one they want. With regards to being able to choose more than one, is this never a possibility? If customer wants 2 versions, they can select them both in one swoop?

Originally posted by feemish

I cant see how to generate the drop down list you spoke of...
Also taking the stock level of one of the hidden products down to 0, doesnt remove it from the list....
What am i doing wrong ?
Mark

Have you enabled stock monitoring across the site?

It's 18 months since i even looked at this Mark and even then i just tried it as i never needed to use it personally. I have picked up the fact that you can do this, from reading many posts in this forum about it. This is complicated further as i do not have V7 anymore and have V8 so i have to be careful on what i say as it may be different or a slightly different process in V8.

Whether lists are in checkboxes or dropdowns is (i'm sure) customisable, however i will need to look into this further for you.

If you can search the forum for this and i do the same thing, maybe together we can find the solution. What i can assure you 100% is that being able to stock control products where there are a number of different options available is always recommended to be done in this way.

I will search until 12.30 now and if you do the same, i'm sure we will come up with an answer. Post your findings in here and i will do the same and we can move from there. I'm quite awake currently, so i shall not disappear for sometime yet.

**leehack** · 08-Nov-2006, 12:18 AM

LOL i just found that thread too and then realised you had posted. It seems that the option still remains as available even when stock levels are zero.

Therefore i may have misinformed you on this, however, I'm sure i have seen this mentioned and it can be done, just cannot think who, when or where. There is a possibility that it was an add-on off Norman or Jan etc. I will see what i can dig up.

**leehack** · 08-Nov-2006, 12:22 AM

these are what i have dug up so far which says it can be done and is to do with stock monitoring switched on, on the hidden product and off on the main product.

http://community.actinic.com/showthr...ing+components

**feemish** · 08-Nov-2006, 12:33 AM

Thanks for the help Lee, whatever happens, its a better solution than where i was.... all the best...

**Jan** · 08-Nov-2006, 06:45 AM

Out of stock options will still show in the list, but if you have a permuation that is linked to a product that has become out of stock you a message will be shown saying that it is out of stock if a customer tries to buy it.

In V7, you can't automatically remove the out of stock item from the list but in V8 you can (or you can put an out of stock message next to it in the list).

Regards,

**feemish** · 08-Nov-2006, 10:54 AM

Thanks for clearing that up Jan... i was still trying in vain to get it to work...

http://www.arka-shop.co.uk

**feemish** · 09-Nov-2006, 09:42 PM

Hhhmmm..
I've run into an annoyance.
I've set up the componant / hidden product thingy and its all working.
Trouble is, the hidden products now dont appear in the search results.... Doh!

So if someone searches for say 6mm items (see my search page... i use searchable properties in the search settings to do this) an item like BUEX01 6mm blue, doesnt come up in the results, where as it did before.
None of the items i've adjusted as discussed above do...

Any clues, ideas or workarounds....?

http://www.arka-shop.co.uk

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