Attributes Stock Tracking (development)

[zonetown 0]

After getting osCommerce installed and currently being worked on. I noticed the biggest flaw is the fact that there is no way of controlling stock beyond what you have for that specific product. So if your offering different sizes or colors or both, there is no way of tracking stock for that. Since I determined that this is probably the most important add-on to osCommerce, I am currently having this developed.

 

How the module is plan to work.

 

There will be sub attributes that can be made for the main attributes, each level of attributes, the stock can adjusted. By adjusting the stock at the bottom of the tree (or the last attributes) it will auto adjust all attributes stock above it aswell as the master stock level for that product. The example shows how it should work or appear.

 

1. My master stock for "Jordan 23 Shirts" are 30 available (master stock).

2. I have 10 available (a stock) in size "Large" (Main Attribute)

a. 5 available (b stock) of size "Large" in color white (Sub Attribute)

b. 3 available (b stock) of size "Large" in color blue (Sub Attribute)

c. 2 available (b stock) of size "Large" in color red (Sub Attribute)

3. I have 15 available (a stock) in size "Medium" (Main Attribute)

a. 5 available (b stock) of size "Medium" in color white (Sub Attribute)

b. 6 available (b stock) of size "Medium" in color blue (Sub Attribute)

c. 4 available (b stock) of size "Medium" in color red (Sub Attribute)

4. I have 5 available (a stock) in size "Small" (Main Attribute)

a. 2 available (b stock) of size "Small" in color white (Sub Attribute)

b. 2 available (b stock) of size "Small" in color blue (Sub Attribute)

c. 1 available (b stock) of size "Small" in color red (Sub Attribute)

 

The attributes will be definable, stock for each attribute aswell as sub attributes will be definable. It will show on the customer end aswell in usual drop down box. In the admin, it will use the idea based on the Alternative Product Attribute Handling Method by David Garcia Watkins, so you simply add what attributes to have right on the New Products form aswell as adjust stock.

 

I'm having this script made exclusively for http://www.zonetown.com however I plan to make it available as open source to the osCommerce community once finished.

 

If you have a suggestions, please express it.

 

Joe

[greree 0]

How about a "weight" attribute that adjusts shipping charges? Say, if I ordered a large widget, I get charged $20.00 shipping because it weighs a lot. A medium widget would be charged $15.00, and a small widget would be charged $10.00.

 

What I'm looking for is a way to sell financial manuals online. The same book will be available printed, on a cd, or downloaded. All three have different shipping charges, with the shipping charge for the download being zero. The customer should be able to click on an icon to go to a description page, where he can read about the product, then click on a drop down menu to select printed, cd, or download.

 

If your contribution will do anything close to that please let me know.

[CC 0]

Greg

 

You dont need Joseph's mod to do this, although on that note I will say Joseph's mod sounds fantastic, and will fill the needs of many OSC-ers.

 

All you need to do is create a number of zones, calculate shipping by weight. Alter the weight calculations to fit with your shipping charges.

Set attributes to reflect CD, Printed or download.

 

It is very simple really.

 

Just copy 'Zone' in shipping and rename 'ZONES' to 'ZONES2' and 'zones' to 'zones2' then make sure you have the text fiiles set in respect of these in your languages folder. (Please note this is from memory, so dont just do this it maybe slightly wrong! - Just BACKUP)

Then configure your new shipping zones.

 

It is a little more complicated than I have just paraphrased it to be.

But this will give you a head start.

Hope it helps tho.

 

CC.

[greree 0]

If that's the simple version then I'm in trouble, because I didn't understand it at all.

 

If I have a product called "The Book", I can set the attribute as print, cd, or download. I can also set the weight of "The Book" at 2 lbs. But I can't assign different attributes with different weights. I can't see how your instructions solves this problem.

 

I can create three different products, "The Book Print", "The Book CD", and "The Book Download", and assign different weights to each, but I don't want to do this. If someone is browsing products, and sees "The Book" as a cd, but wants it as a download, he would have to back out of the product info page for the cd and find the page for the download. That's too much trouble. I would lose sales that way.

 

Take a look at the demo store. If you pick Unreal Tournament, it gives you a description of the product, plus a choice of Box or Download from a drop down list. That's how I want it, except Download should charge no shipping. For some reason osCommerce charges shipping for downloads.

 

If I knew PHP I could do it myself. The problem is I don't know it at all. I'm smart enough to take existing code from osCommerce and apply it to other areas, but I'm not smart enough to create code from scratch.

[rseigel 0]

If I knew PHP I could do it myself. The problem is I don't know it at all.

 

http://php.net/

 

Everything you need to know all in one place. :wink:

[♥radders 0]

.

The attributes will be definable, stock for each attribute as well as sub attributes will be definable. It will show on the customer end as well in usual drop down box.  

Sounds great Joe, It would be useful if stock levels are optionally shown at the customer end.

[Guest]

Joseph, this is exactly what I need as well. Any idea on the time-frame for this?

 

Thanks!

[vtec 0]

any updates on this contrib?

[zonetown 0]

UPDATE

 

Just to show that I didn't forget about you guys, I have some pictures (not best quality) to show some areas of progress.

 

http://snone.com/stock/1.jpg - where you can define quantity levels

http://snone.com/stock/2.jpg - using a contribution found on osCommerce. Module will be enhanced on finished version.

 

I have to say, it's actually coming out good. If you compare these two pictures and look at the stock numbers, you can see how they work together.

 

email me if you have any questions or suggestions.

[zonetown 0]

Just to explain what needs to be fixed or planned to be added.

 

"NEW PRODUCT" form "PRODUCT QUANTITY" field needs to be an un-editable box.

 

"NEW PRODUCT" form needs shortcut to "STOCK" page.

 

"NEW PRODUCT" form needs "UPDATE/REFRESH" button (maybe)

 

Move the Attribute Tables Contributions from "NEW PRODUCT" form to "STOCK" page and add a "UPDATE/REFRESH" button. (probably)

 

I am still debating on how it will be displayed on customer's end. It will probably be displayed together in either a drop down box or radio box.

 

Joe

[Michelle 0]

Hi

Just wondering how this is coming along. I was going to try to use QTPro but I think that it uses a much older version of oscommerce and the code seems to have changed quite a bit. Your contribution would be much appreciated :D

[fjelsten 0]

<aol>

Me too

</aol>

:D

[loxly 0]

If that's the simple version then I'm in trouble, because I didn't understand it at all.  

 

If I have a product called "The Book", I can set the attribute as print, cd, or download. I can also set the weight of "The Book" at 2 lbs.  But I can't assign different attributes with different weights. I can't see how your instructions solves this problem.

 

Linda has a new contribution that will be ready soon that will assign a weight to an attribute.