How to change product view

[catalepticstate]

Hi all,

I created a site for my client using osCommerce (current version) and added sample data.

On showing my client, he said:

 

I need to click on a category e.g. Leaflets and then have a grid/table come up with all the quantities coming down on the left hand column and the Sizes (A4, A5, A6) across the top. The user would have to click the price to add to cart.

 

Like below:

 

A6 A5 A4

250 £70 £120 £150

500 £69 £117

1000

 

The problem is I do not know how to do this, I'm not even sure if osCommerce is able to support this type of system. The version of the site I had before did this but I used paypal buttons at the far right column.

 

I hope someone can help me with this.

[aspiringdeveloper]

Hi all,

I created a site for my client using osCommerce (current version) and added sample data.

On showing my client, he said:

 

I need to click on a category e.g. Leaflets and then have a grid/table come up with all the quantities coming down on the left hand column and the Sizes (A4, A5, A6) across the top. The user would have to click the price to add to cart.

 

Like below:

 

A6 A5 A4

250 £70 £120 £150

500 £69 £117

1000

 

The problem is I do not know how to do this, I'm not even sure if osCommerce is able to support this type of system. The version of the site I had before did this but I used paypal buttons at the far right column.

 

I hope someone can help me with this.

 

Good question. I have no answer for you but it looks like you would have to really hack the php. I doubt there is an easy answer. This is the kind of customiztion I would like to do as well so post back if you find an answer please.

 

My store sells pet food and the food bags come in various sizes. I don't want a tedious list of repititive information such as repeating for each size bag of food a new row and picture. Each food size has a different price but the same picture and description should apply. I thought of just using the option drop down modifier but that seems wrong. I would like a table like you: Each column is the size and each row is a paricular food brand and flavour. In each cell of the grid would be the price and a tiny add to cart button.

 

I am not trying to hijack your thread because I think our probelms are similar so I am just joining your wagon.

[aspiringdeveloper]

I see you've double posted here also

http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=298666

 

You will need to creat a special category and a new field in the categories to identify certain products as members of a grid category.

 

Then, you'll need to creat a new table with grid categories, primary key-> grid_id

 

Your products table will need a new foreign key, grid_category_id.

 

The sql statements that generate the fetched products will need to see if the products, grid_category is set, if set, then perform a secondary sql which groups all the members of the grid together and generates a table complete with heading etc.

 

Pretty hard core stuff but I bet a mod has been written already for it.

[catalepticstate]

I see you've double posted here also

http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=298666

 

You will need to creat a special category and a new field in the categories to identify certain products as members of a grid category.

 

Then, you'll need to creat a new table with grid categories, primary key-> grid_id

 

Your products table will need a new foreign key, grid_category_id.

 

The sql statements that generate the fetched products will need to see if the products, grid_category is set, if set, then perform a secondary sql which groups all the members of the grid together and generates a table complete with heading etc.

 

Pretty hard core stuff but I bet a mod has been written already for it.

 

I'm lost :'(

[aspiringdeveloper]

I'm lost :'(

 

Me too LOL :lol:

 

I checked and could'nt see a customization that we can use. I need the same sort of thing so I'll roll up my sleeves and try to develop a customization that will hopefully answer yours and my needs. Here's how I invision it working from a usability point of view: (ignoring the mechanics)

 

The administrator of the store manages the categories and products, and decides on the membership of products into specific categories.

 

EG: I will create for my store various categories of products related to pets: I have two broad categories: Cat products and Dog Products. Each category is further subdivided: Accessories, Toys, Food...

 

My Food category is a special category for which in the admin panel I will add a special check box as follows:

Define category as a 'Grid type' : Yes/No

 

Therefor as the store administrator specifies sub-categories within Food, he will be required to make grids given the fact that the food category has check box for 'Yes' in the parameter 'Grid Type: Yes/No'. In other words the administrator will need to define tables that the end-user (the shopper) will be able to see. The tables will be with column headings for Size of Bag of food (in your case size of paper or whatever you decide). Rows will be product type such as flavour of foods.

 

The administrator will want to assign a description for this table of products such that when the shopper clicks 'More Details', he can read the full description and maybe add or read a product review. This description will apply to the entire familly of products that populate this particular grid- Each Flavour/ Size comination of product is an individual cell in the grid and represents an individual product with a unique price. However the familly of products in this grid should have a general description that pertains to the group. Otherwise why group them in the first place if there is nothing they have in common?

 

Now the detail description pertains to a table of products NOT an individual row-column cell in the table. IE: I will provide a detail description of my Food brand 'Fromm 4 Starr' for the entire range of food bag sizes. I am not going to repeat the same description for each size bag. Hence description is tied to grid type category and not an individual product.

 

Once the grid description is defined the administrator will specify the colum headings and finally populate the cells with prices for each row/col intersection.

 

Back to the shopper. The shopper in my store who browses to a category that is not defined as a grid-type will see a normal oscommerce list of products. EG: Toys- I have no reason to make tables of rows and columns to define famillies of toys. If my shopper selects 'Food' he will se a series of tables : 1 table for each brand of food I carry.

 

This type of customization is complex and involves some brain surgery to the oscommerce core. I believe it is a good investment in effort because I think table product views are very important.

 

If someone knows of a customization that exist please please save me the trouble of reinventing the wheel otherwise I have my work cut out for me.

[catalepticstate]

Hi,

I found this doing a google search

 

http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/index.php?sho...233591&st=0

 

Its almost what we need. Have been testing it, its abit strange, i'm modding it to add the Size of paper but its not going to work as we need to put in two sets of prices instead of one.

 

How are you getting on?

[aspiringdeveloper]

Hi,

I found this doing a google search

 

http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/index.php?sho...233591&st=0

 

Its almost what we need. Have been testing it, its abit strange, i'm modding it to add the Size of paper but its not going to work as we need to put in two sets of prices instead of one.

 

How are you getting on?

 

Still researching how and planning how to attach the problem. If I undertake it at all it may take a while. Ideally I 'd like to try to retrofit something someone else has done. I'll check out that link you submitted.

[aspiringdeveloper]

Still researching how and planning how to attach the problem. If I undertake it at all it may take a while. Ideally I 'd like to try to retrofit something someone else has done. I'll check out that link you submitted.

 

 

I'm making some progress on this. So far I've added a couple new database tables and experiemented with assinging a special new attributes group called 'grid-attributes.

 

I am hitting a roadblock now in trying to integrate my modifications so that it meshes nicely with oscommerce. Once you look under the hood of oscommerce, you realize that the brains of the program is inside of a complex network of functions (that begin with tep_..).

 

I need help in deciphering the mechanism behind the action when the shopper clicks on 'Add to Cart' in the products_info.php file. Clearly the shopper is directed to the shopping_cart.php file once the user clicks this button. However the product_info.php has no a-ref referece anywhere. I think there is some java magic going on but I can't find it. Can anyone help?

[dmnalven]

This is the online documentation, including developer info. I previously downloaded the pdf, but for the life of me can no longer find the link.

 

http://www.oscommerce.info/docs/english/

 

You may also wish to review and listen in at the developer forum, mail archive and other tools.

[aspiringdeveloper]

This is the online documentation, including developer info. I previously downloaded the pdf, but for the life of me can no longer find the link.

 

http://www.oscommerce.info/docs/english/

 

You may also wish to review and listen in at the developer forum, mail archive and other tools.

 

 

Thanks for that. Is there a more comprehensive developer's documentation? That forum is cursory in its coverage. I really need to go deep inside of oscommerce to do what I need to do.

[aspiringdeveloper]

Thanks for that. Is there a more comprehensive developer's documentation? That forum is cursory in its coverage. I really need to go deep inside of oscommerce to do what I need to do.

 

I found this useful resource http://svn.oscommerce.com/confluence/dashboard.action

it may help me unravel some of oscommerce's mysteries.

[aspiringdeveloper]

I found this useful resource http://svn.oscommerce.com/confluence/dashboard.action

it may help me unravel some of oscommerce's mysteries.

 

bump

[catalepticstate]

bump

 

Hi,

Have you had any luck with the grid?

I tried not hashing the MySQL dbase and used Product Model to store my Paper Sizes column.

All I need to do is to get the columns to print/echo in a loop for all sizes linked to the product. Then I guess I'm done.

 

Can anyone help?

 

I still need it to look like this - http://www.solopress.com/index.php?content...;category_id=14

 

This is an OSCom shop, I wonder if the person that made it would share the mod he/she has made.

[catalepticstate]

Hi all,

OK on further thought I have decided to change the site to include a file named after the categories so a page called flyers.php is called when the category called "Flyers" is clicked.

 

I changed index.php to not show the New products module

 

then I tried using this code

// show the products in a given categorie

if (isset($HTTP_GET_VARS['filter_id']) && tep_not_null($HTTP_GET_VARS['filter_id'])) {

 

found a few lines down.

 

And added it like this:

 

<td><?php

if (isset($HTTP_GET_VARS['filter_id']) && tep_not_null($HTTP_GET_VARS['filter_id'])) {

echo include 'flyers.php';

}

?>

<!--/*<?php // include(DIR_WS_MODULES . FILENAME_NEW_PRODUCTS); ?>*/--></td>

 

But the problem I'm getting is, that nothing comes up on any of the categories, is there something i've missed?

 

Currently I have this:

 

<?php

//if ($current_categorie_id =='Flyers') {

echo include 'flyers.php';

//}

?>

 

But this only displays the file on the top most category: "Business Stationary"

 

Any help or ideas?