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osCommerce

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Custom Product Builder


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I'm super excited to try this, i would just like to see how it looks on a stock osc install if you have it

A great place for newbies to start

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DO NOT PM ME FOR HELP. My time is valuable, unless i ask you to PM me, please dont. You will get better help if you post publicly. I am not as good at this as you think anyways!

 

HOWEVER, you can visit my blog (go to my profile to see it) and post a question there, i will find time to get back and answer you

 

Proud Memeber of the CODE BREAKERS CLUB!!

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I'm super excited to try this, i would just like to see how it looks on a stock osc install if you have it

 

Hi Lindsay,

 

Yes the demo site is still running and is up to date.

 

Click here to see the catalog

 

Click here to see the admin side

Username: admin

Password: admin

 

:)

Never underestimate the power of stupid people, especially in groups.

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Either i am using it wrong, or there is a glitch in your install.. I selected various products to be added to the "buld" and then clicked the BUILD button at the bottom right and it brought me to the main page with nothing in my cart.

 

I also do not think that this will work for my "calender creation" needs. Or maybe i am misunderstanding where all those products are coming frolm.

A great place for newbies to start

Road Map to oscommerce File Structure

DO NOT PM ME FOR HELP. My time is valuable, unless i ask you to PM me, please dont. You will get better help if you post publicly. I am not as good at this as you think anyways!

 

HOWEVER, you can visit my blog (go to my profile to see it) and post a question there, i will find time to get back and answer you

 

Proud Memeber of the CODE BREAKERS CLUB!!

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Hi,

 

I've installed this and had a good fiddle around with the settings etc.

A few questions have sprung up. I would like to use this for a custom clothing store, and my idea was to be able to select different parts of an item and have the whole created for you.

 

However, the separate parts wouldn't be something you would sell in the shop, as I see it, i need to create categories for each part, so would need a category for sleeves and a separate one for necklines? Is there a way of hiding these categories from the public? Best I can do is to hide the products within that category

 

Is there a way of setting the software so if someone selects a type of collar that wouldn't fit a type of neckline they wouldn't be able to select it?

 

The Dependencies screen is currently showing every product in the shop, but really would only be needed for these specific items, is there way of "switching off" the products hat have nothing to do with the Product Builder?

 

The Cost also appears to be missing the decimal point, if an item is £5.00 (GBP) it appears as £500 !!

 

This looks like it's going to be a really useful piece of software and I can see real possibilities for it.

 

Well done for getting it this far, really impressive!

 

Cheers

 

Mat

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Hi,

 

I've installed this and had a good fiddle around with the settings etc.

A few questions have sprung up. I would like to use this for a custom clothing store, and my idea was to be able to select different parts of an item and have the whole created for you.

 

However, the separate parts wouldn't be something you would sell in the shop, as I see it, i need to create categories for each part, so would need a category for sleeves and a separate one for necklines? Is there a way of hiding these categories from the public? Best I can do is to hide the products within that category

 

Is there a way of setting the software so if someone selects a type of collar that wouldn't fit a type of neckline they wouldn't be able to select it?

 

The Dependencies screen is currently showing every product in the shop, but really would only be needed for these specific items, is there way of "switching off" the products hat have nothing to do with the Product Builder?

 

The Cost also appears to be missing the decimal point, if an item is £5.00 (GBP) it appears as £500 !!

 

This looks like it's going to be a really useful piece of software and I can see real possibilities for it.

 

Well done for getting it this far, really impressive!

 

Cheers

 

Mat

 

Hi Mat,

 

Something I meant to include in the installation instructions... I would recommend installing a contrib like 'Hide and Unhide Categories' - a very simple mod but quite a mission really because you need to modify every php file that touches the products file, if you exclude the builder php files in this mod then only the builder will be able to see the hidden categories. Or you could tell the builder (in admin) to allow disabled products in the build (and popup!) - then you would need to disable all your component products - the builder would see them but the catalog wouldn't. I'm not sure how well this would work because I really haven't tested it like that, but I have provided the controls for this purpose. It would be much simpler if it worked at category level though, i.e. first suggestion.

 

The neckline story.. that's what the dependence is for, but if you wanted the builder to have, let's say, parameters that it could intelligently select the right options then that's way beyond this one. In fact when I started out with this contrib I had to decide whether to use 'parametric dependence' or 'pre-defined dependence'. The latter was a much easier development path but the former would have made this a truly awesome contrib.

 

Just a quick note about dependency. The builder categories screen in admin has a 'Dependence Category' field or each builder category - this tells the builder which category it is dependent on. That's not enough to limit the choices though, you need to get into the 'Dependency editor' to define the individual product/component relationships. When you're in the dependency editor the products at the top represent the visitors current (selected) choice for a previous category, the products down the left represent the options that are available for the current category. I hope this makes sense.

 

If the dependency editor is showing every product in your catalog then please make sure you have selected an osCommerce product category for each of your builder component categories, out of the box these are not set so you need to change them (even if they appear correct) - then make sure you hit the 'update' button. On a sidenote.. I kicked myself for not mentioning the update button anywhere in step 14 (install doc).

 

If the pricing is screwy then please make sure your currency has a decimal point defined - I'm sure it has but I'm hoping it hasn't - I admit I messed a bit with this just before release - I'm sure I tested it properly. I'll check again.

 

Thanks.. compliments appreciated!

Never underestimate the power of stupid people, especially in groups.

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When you created this thing, you said you were doing with two types of "packaged" products...

 

This whole thing is VERY complicated for what i am trying to do, but if i can start to understand it better, i THINK it will work for my use.

 

What i would like to do is basically offer a CALENDER as a product. All of the other products on my site are just images. the images have no value, but the attributes do have a value, those are the actual products.

 

So i was thinking of creating teh CALENDER as a build item, and making everyproduct from ONE subcategory an option to add to the calender. Now, there would be no dependencies or anything like that.. They can choose 13 images to have put on their calender..

 

So here are my questions.. are the categories the "sections or deparments" in which each product is a part of? So can i create a category called "January" and put ALL of the products (or images) in that category.. then create a new category called FEBRUARY, and do the same - put all the products under that category.

 

Is that how this works?? i played with it a little, but i was at work and the whole thing really confused me.. Also, it said "best viewed in IE" and i have firefox..

A great place for newbies to start

Road Map to oscommerce File Structure

DO NOT PM ME FOR HELP. My time is valuable, unless i ask you to PM me, please dont. You will get better help if you post publicly. I am not as good at this as you think anyways!

 

HOWEVER, you can visit my blog (go to my profile to see it) and post a question there, i will find time to get back and answer you

 

Proud Memeber of the CODE BREAKERS CLUB!!

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Hi Mat,

 

Something I meant to include in the installation instructions... I would recommend installing a contrib like 'Hide and Unhide Categories' - a very simple mod but quite a mission really because you need to modify every php file that touches the products file, if you exclude the builder php files in this mod then only the builder will be able to see the hidden categories. Or you could tell the builder (in admin) to allow disabled products in the build (and popup!) - then you would need to disable all your component products - the builder would see them but the catalog wouldn't. I'm not sure how well this would work because I really haven't tested it like that, but I have provided the controls for this purpose. It would be much simpler if it worked at category level though, i.e. first suggestion.

 

The neckline story.. that's what the dependence is for, but if you wanted the builder to have, let's say, parameters that it could intelligently select the right options then that's way beyond this one. In fact when I started out with this contrib I had to decide whether to use 'parametric dependence' or 'pre-defined dependence'. The latter was a much easier development path but the former would have made this a truly awesome contrib.

 

Just a quick note about dependency. The builder categories screen in admin has a 'Dependence Category' field or each builder category - this tells the builder which category it is dependent on. That's not enough to limit the choices though, you need to get into the 'Dependency editor' to define the individual product/component relationships. When you're in the dependency editor the products at the top represent the visitors current (selected) choice for a previous category, the products down the left represent the options that are available for the current category. I hope this makes sense.

 

If the dependency editor is showing every product in your catalog then please make sure you have selected an osCommerce product category for each of your builder component categories, out of the box these are not set so you need to change them (even if they appear correct) - then make sure you hit the 'update' button. On a sidenote.. I kicked myself for not mentioning the update button anywhere in step 14 (install doc).

 

If the pricing is screwy then please make sure your currency has a decimal point defined - I'm sure it has but I'm hoping it hasn't - I admit I messed a bit with this just before release - I'm sure I tested it properly. I'll check again.

 

Thanks.. compliments appreciated!

 

Hi Mike

 

Thanks for the reply, I've only got a live shop to play around with, so I've had to tread carefully with this, but I think this is going to warrant me setting up a test version locally to get to grips with it.

I like the idea of the "Hide and Unhide Categories" sounds like a good solution for the problem if a little long winded to implement, but I have plenty of time... :)

 

I Checked the currency, and all appears to be right, (Plus it works correctly for everything else..), I'll admit to having created it myself, as GBP wasn't in there to start with...

The decimal point is in the settings, and I have this when I check in admin.

 

Currency Code Value

UK Pound (default) GBP 1.00000000

 

Hope this helps. (BTW this is the only currency)

I think with a bit of fiddling I should be able to get it doing what I want.

Am I right in thinking it puts the built item into the users cart, or does it create a new product that the customer then has to add to their cart? The former would be preferable... (At the moment it seem to do neither, but thats probably me...)

 

Cheers

 

Mat

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hey. Im viewing your TEST STORE on firefox at home now (i was on my PC at work before) and now i cant get ANYTHING to work.. None of the boxes will open when i click the down arrow and nothing happens when i click INFO.. also, if i click on somehting underneath the first category, i get a "selections above first"

A great place for newbies to start

Road Map to oscommerce File Structure

DO NOT PM ME FOR HELP. My time is valuable, unless i ask you to PM me, please dont. You will get better help if you post publicly. I am not as good at this as you think anyways!

 

HOWEVER, you can visit my blog (go to my profile to see it) and post a question there, i will find time to get back and answer you

 

Proud Memeber of the CODE BREAKERS CLUB!!

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I installed this to test today.

 

I have come across my first problem.

 

In the options I cant get the OSC Category for Built product to save the correct category. It keeps defaulting back to my assembly Fees.

 

Any Ideas?

 

Thanks

 

David

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I installed this to test today.

 

I have come across my first problem.

 

In the options I cant get the OSC Category for Built product to save the correct category. It keeps defaulting back to my assembly Fees.

 

Any Ideas?

 

Thanks

 

David

 

I noticed this too. It's not serious - the category you are choosing is being saved peoperly, it's just not being reloaded and displayed correctly (you're probably running RC2a). Here is the fix for this:

 

##### Edit /catalog/admin/builder_options.php

 

## FIND:

 

<?php echo tep_draw_pull_down_menu('cpb_build_osccat', tep_get_category_tree(0, '', '0', '', false));?>

 

## REPLACE WITH:

 

<?php echo tep_draw_pull_down_menu('cpb_build_osccat', tep_get_category_tree(0, '', '0', '', false), $cpb_build_osccat);?>

 

##### Done!

Never underestimate the power of stupid people, especially in groups.

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Hi Mike

 

Thanks for the reply, I've only got a live shop to play around with, so I've had to tread carefully with this, but I think this is going to warrant me setting up a test version locally to get to grips with it.

I like the idea of the "Hide and Unhide Categories" sounds like a good solution for the problem if a little long winded to implement, but I have plenty of time... :)

 

I Checked the currency, and all appears to be right, (Plus it works correctly for everything else..), I'll admit to having created it myself, as GBP wasn't in there to start with...

The decimal point is in the settings, and I have this when I check in admin.

 

Currency Code Value

UK Pound (default) GBP 1.00000000

 

Hope this helps. (BTW this is the only currency)

I think with a bit of fiddling I should be able to get it doing what I want.

Am I right in thinking it puts the built item into the users cart, or does it create a new product that the customer then has to add to their cart? The former would be preferable... (At the moment it seem to do neither, but thats probably me...)

 

Cheers

 

Mat

 

I was playing around with it this morning. I had to set the decimal point, and also the number of decimal places to 2 - then it worked perfectly.

 

The builder can operate in two modes; building a single product, or building a bundle. A single product build creates a new product in your catalog - when the visitor clicks 'Build Product' it will create the product and then show a preview of it, the visitor must then click 'Add to Cart' (exactly the way osCommerce does it when a product has attributes). You can set the builder to add to the cart automatically but I don't like the way this has been coded, it's only 99.9% reliable. In bundle mode the 'Build Product' button changes to 'Add to Cart', when the visitor clicks this the component products are simply added to the cart - individually (as a bundle). There is a problem with this though as two builds in a cart could be quite confusing - that's why I have included an option to clear the cart before dumping a bundle. (FYI: Running in bundle mode and setting the clear cart option is exactly how the old builder used to work).

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Hi, nice contrib.

 

I have installed it on my test site. The builder keeps forwarding me back to my index page after i have clicked "add to cart". It won't show in my shopping cart.

Is there a problem with my sql db?

 

Thanks , really hoping to use it succesfully on my site.

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Hi, nice contrib.

 

I have installed it on my test site. The builder keeps forwarding me back to my index page after i have clicked "add to cart". It won't show in my shopping cart.

Is there a problem with my sql db?

 

Thanks , really hoping to use it succesfully on my site.

 

Hi. This is odd, a few people have reported this. Do you have an address so I can have a look.

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hey. Im viewing your TEST STORE on firefox at home now (i was on my PC at work before) and now i cant get ANYTHING to work.. None of the boxes will open when i click the down arrow and nothing happens when i click INFO.. also, if i click on somehting underneath the first category, i get a "selections above first"

 

Hi Lindsay. I haven't been ignoring you. If you have a look at the demo site now you'll see that I have changed it for the way I think you need it to work. If you look on the admin side you'll see that all the builder categories point to the same osCommerce category (pictures). I have also changed the options for no dependence.

 

Getting to your questions (this and your previous posts):

 

The builder can build in two different ways - singles or bundles. The old PC Pro Creator only did it in bundles - i.e. simply dumping all the components into the cart. For your needs this was totally useless because by the time the components got to the cart they lost their 'builder category identity' so you would have no idea which product went where. The cool thing about the single builds is that the builder category id follows the component because it's an attribute, so you know exactly which goes where and also, being single products it doesn't matter how many builds you throw into the cart - they are self contained products.

 

The builder categories are 'component containers' - each builder category can only point to one osCommerce product category, all products within that product category (including subcategories) will be made available as components, for that particular builder category. Builder categories are totally flexible, they can (if you wish) all point to the same category or subcategories within each others main categories.

 

Visitors using the builder are presented with the list of builder categories (component containers) you have defined and these are basically a list of options that make up the final built product. Each builder category will be limited to the products in the osC product category you have pointed it to, the visitor can only choose one component in each builder category.

 

The FireFox issue is more noticeable in the admin dependence editor (which you will not need anyway). I am not aware of any other FF issues, but I will make sure I have the latest version.

 

'Selections above first' means the you have priority building on - you'll need to go to admin (builder options) and select 'No' for Enforce 'top-to-bottom' Priority Building and do the same for the Auto-Clear list too (two options further down).

 

I hope this helps. The options may seem complicated but it's purely for the sake of flexibility. I doubt there will be many people who use all the options.

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Hi Mike,

 

Had a really good play with the software this morning, having found an OS Commerce Virtual Machine. (Which BTW is great for setting up a quick shop to play around with)

 

The dependencies appear to be able to do what I'd like, I've been able to have a neckline without a collar appearing in the list, so thats great, just what I needed.

 

I've still got the currencies issue (though I did drop a backup of my store onto the image so may still be me. I tried deleting the extra 0's off the currency settings, but OS commerce just put them back.

I did notice that if I set something as £0.05 then this registers as £5 with the builder, however the popup bit shows this as 005, but the total shows £5.00 so maybe something weird going on there?

 

Had real problems getting the item to appear in a category or added to the cart. Nothing I do will get the custom item into either, have tried setting it as Bundled Mode on and off, no difference.

 

Ideally I'd like it to go straight into the cart as I think this will be less confusing for customers, and ideally as One custom Item as apposed to many seperate items making up the whole order.

 

Just another thought, if the customer was to put multiple custom orders into the cart, would this work?

 

would love to give you an URL for this, but like I say I'm running this locally.

 

Cheers

 

Mat

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Hi Mike,

 

Had a really good play with the software this morning, having found an OS Commerce Virtual Machine. (Which BTW is great for setting up a quick shop to play around with)

 

The dependencies appear to be able to do what I'd like, I've been able to have a neckline without a collar appearing in the list, so thats great, just what I needed.

 

I've still got the currencies issue (though I did drop a backup of my store onto the image so may still be me. I tried deleting the extra 0's off the currency settings, but OS commerce just put them back.

I did notice that if I set something as £0.05 then this registers as £5 with the builder, however the popup bit shows this as 005, but the total shows £5.00 so maybe something weird going on there?

 

Had real problems getting the item to appear in a category or added to the cart. Nothing I do will get the custom item into either, have tried setting it as Bundled Mode on and off, no difference.

 

Ideally I'd like it to go straight into the cart as I think this will be less confusing for customers, and ideally as One custom Item as apposed to many seperate items making up the whole order.

 

Just another thought, if the customer was to put multiple custom orders into the cart, would this work?

 

would love to give you an URL for this, but like I say I'm running this locally.

 

Cheers

 

Mat

 

Okay, so you're basically running it on a plain vanilla osC install. RC2a or MS2?

 

I'd like to duplicate what you have, from there it'll be easy to find the problem. I'll try the virutal machine - sounds interesting.

 

Oh, and what browser are you using?

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Okay, so you're basically running it on a plain vanilla osC install. RC2a or MS2?

 

I'd like to duplicate what you have, from there it'll be easy to find the problem. I'll try the virutal machine - sounds interesting.

 

Oh, and what browser are you using?

 

Not a plain vanilla one, no, as I've copied a backup of mine over the top. Everything else is working fine, and can add orders etc.. Copied the database too. It's not massively modded though, just a few mods for pics etc, more "pretty" mods than underlying changes. The Cart and Checkout are pretty much stock.

 

I'm running RC2a and using Internet Explorer 7 (Also tried with Firefox 3.03, Chrome & Opera)

Chrome BTW took much, much longer to populate the first drop down of components. (And theres only 5 items in it...)

 

Good tip about the "Hide Categories" mod, works like a charm!

 

Mat

Edited by random183
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Ok.. I think i understand the mod a little more now. I Am really excited to get working on this. I'm going to install it on my "test" store which is vanilla, and then another test store which has all my shop mods to see how it goes...

 

HOWEVER, i still cant add any of YOUR test store products to my cart. It keeps bringing me back to the home page

A great place for newbies to start

Road Map to oscommerce File Structure

DO NOT PM ME FOR HELP. My time is valuable, unless i ask you to PM me, please dont. You will get better help if you post publicly. I am not as good at this as you think anyways!

 

HOWEVER, you can visit my blog (go to my profile to see it) and post a question there, i will find time to get back and answer you

 

Proud Memeber of the CODE BREAKERS CLUB!!

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Ideally I'd like it to go straight into the cart as I think this will be less confusing for customers, and ideally as One custom Item as apposed to many seperate items making up the whole order.

 

Have you tried to set "Preview build before going to Cart" to "No"?

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Have you tried to set "Preview build before going to Cart" to "No"?

 

Yes, but I don't like the way I've coded it - very clumsy and completely incorrect. In testing, I found an intermittent problem with it and so even though it may appear to be working fine I'd rather say don't use it, not until I (or someone else) releases a patch for it.

 

I seem to be picking up a certain tone in your question... er.. has it trashed your site?

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Ok.. I think i understand the mod a little more now. I Am really excited to get working on this. I'm going to install it on my "test" store which is vanilla, and then another test store which has all my shop mods to see how it goes...

 

HOWEVER, i still cant add any of YOUR test store products to my cart. It keeps bringing me back to the home page

 

That is totally wierd, I've tested it with the latest FF 303 and IE6 (I loath to touch 7). Anyway, I've tested everything top to bottom and I'm quite pleased.

 

After clicking 'Build Product' do you get the preview page? And if you do then what happens after clicking 'Add to Cart'?

 

FYI: If you click on the 'What's New' infobox (the little arrow) the product you built should be at the top of the list. If it is then experiment with it - click on it and then try to add it to the cart.

 

The builder uses a fair amount of javascript. I'm not sure if that might have something to do with this. Also, I know of at least one 'Register Globals' patch for MS2 that stops the builder working - dramatically - this is subtle.

Never underestimate the power of stupid people, especially in groups.

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I seem to be picking up a certain tone in your question... er.. has it trashed your site?

 

Not at all, not at all! (although I saw your comment about it in your code afterwards)

 

I would say that it is an impressive piece you have crafted here!

 

I'd like to take it online for better testing, so far it works a treat locally. In case I want to remove it, I'd like to know what it does to the database, is it three tables it creates, nothing else?

 

I changed a few cosmetic things to suit my needs, among them the one called oFrame by adding min-width. In Firefox it looked good, but IE couldn't handle it and the iframe was narrower than the product listing inside hence causing a horizontal scrollbar. I found a java - script code that fixed that, called IE8.js, attached taht and voila! it looked great in IE too! The j-s may be found here: IE8.js

 

I'd say it is well done in that it doesn't alter the core osc code that much. I appreciate that!

 

My compliments to a great effort!

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