Cascading Attributes Menu

[Pete Clay]

Does anybody know if there is a way of getting a cascading menu into the attribute of a product?

I am building a site for a motorcycle accessory firm, where a single product may fit up to 30 bikes. Using conventional methods, this would have far to many products and sections and would create a site that's difficult to navigate.

I would like to create a product and have the user specify the make, model and year of their bike preferably by use of a cascading menu or similar (so choices and errors can be resricted).

If a Java menu is imported into the place of the standard attribute pull down menu can the results from the multiple levels be reported in the shopping cart?

Or is there an easier way round this problem?

[NormanRouxel]

There are several ways that spring to mind.

1. Have the "Product" as a Section name and the Manufacturer / Models that it fits as Sub-Sections and finally a real Product containing as it's product name the Manufacturer / Model / Part. You'll have to create lots of near duplicate entries but this would lead to a fully Product centric structure. With this you could use my free NorTree cascading menu system to make the entire navigation a single click job.
See www.rouxel.cwc.net/actinicstuff.html and follow the NorTree link.

2. Have a look at the Business capability of searching by custom properties. I'm not sure if this would deal with the exceptions you might have.

3. You could also make a single product and put hidden text within it's description that would cover all the manufacturers / model / years that the product fits. You could make up a custom search button that allows the entry of the Product / Manufacturer / Model / Year (possibly from drop-down-lists) and concatenates that lot (with * in between).
Now the search results should then show up only the product that contains that unique string.

e.g. a single product (Widget ) with this in the product description.

!!<<noscript>>!!
Widget*Honda*Rebel*1997
Widget*Honda*Rebel*1998
etc
etc
etc
!!<<noscript>>!!

These are just some suggestions. I'm sure there are other ways too. Perhaps someone else has already done this.

Norman

[Pete Clay]

Thanks for looking

I'm trying to avoid the mass duplication of option 1 and option 3 is already implemented in the site to some extent, but does not give the option of seeing which bike the part was ordered for when the order is received.

Custom Properties (Option2) may be the way forward, though we currently don't use Actinic Business - I would consider upgrading for this reason - I'll read up on it, to see if its worth pursuing.

I would be interested if anybody else has achieved this.

Thanks

[NormanRouxel]

but does not give the option of seeing which bike the part was ordered

This may not be quite relevant to what you want but it may help.

I don't think there's a NETQUOTEVAR available that contains the Section Structure but the following fudges that.

Getting the Product Section Description into the shopping cart.

This will allow the Section Names to be put into the shopping cart using the Other Info Prompt. 
Note that your section names cannot contain the double quote (") character.

Put the following code into Act_Primary.html (just above the </HEAD> tag):-



<script language=JavaScript>
 var thissect = "";
 thislevel = 0;
</script>





Replace Act_ParentSectionsLink.html with the following:-


<!-- ParentSectionsLink HTML begin -->
<!-- Insert HTML for the beginning of a parent section link -->
<script language=JavaScript>
<!--
 if (thislevel > 1)thissect += ' -> ';
 if (thislevel != 0)thissect += "NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONNAME";
 thislevel++;
// -->
</script>
<A HREF="NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONLINK"><SPAN CLASS="actxsmall"><I><B>NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONNAME</B></I></SPAN></A>

<!-- Insert HTML for the end of a parent section link -->
<!-- ParentSectionsLink HTML end -->





Replace Act_ParentSectionsThis.html  with the following:-



<!-- ParentSectionsThis HTML begin -->
<!-- Insert HTML for the beginning of "this section" in parent section list -->

<script language=JavaScript>
<!--
 if (thislevel >= 1)thissect += ' -> ';
 thissect += "NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONNAME";
// -->
</script>

<SPAN CLASS="actxsmall"><B>NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONNAME</B></SPAN>

<!-- Insert HTML for the end of "this section" in parent section list -->
<!-- ParentSectionsThis HTML end -->





In your Product Template(s) replace:- 


NETQUOTEVAR:OTHERINFOPROMPT


With:-


<!-- NETQUOTEVAR:OTHERINFOPROMPT --></span>
<script language=JavaScript>
<!--
 document.write('<input type=hidden name="O_NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTREFERENCE" value="' + thissect +'">');
// -->
</script>



Now in your product details under Prompts make sure you set the Other Info to 
something like "Model" as you need something in there in order for the Other Info text
 to be displayed.

Norman