CE Phoenix Cart Forum

I'm going to be working on a webshop soon that will have some premade products but also the option to build your own using components, think build-a-bear style.

I know there was an add-on for osCommerce way back in 2.2 but I'm wondering if anyone is doing anything similar with their Phoenix shop? I know @burt created the bundles add-on but I don't believe it will do what I'm looking for.

So who has any ideas on how to do this? Are there any add-on I could use?

Like you say, there were addons on really old version of osc but they never got updated as far as I am aware. I used one a long time ago now that was a computer builder which allowed all components to selected from stock items depending on previous selections, but it was a nightmare to set up.

The only way that I can think of is to create a starting product and then have lots of attribute to select from. It may be possible to adjust the bundles addon to work with attributed so that stocks are reduced as items are used, but thats a bit beyond my skill set.

May be one of the developers have other ideas.

As per Steves idea - the simplest way would be to use the options/attributes system. HOwever, we all know that the system is needing an update to make it easier to (a) add in options/attributes in the admin area and (b) to better choose options/attributes in the shop side.

The bundles code basically adds the ability to to have master and slave products where the slaves are not choosable, typical example might be;

Beginners Surfing Bundle (master product for £300 [say]), consisting of;
wetsuit [usual cost 100]
gloves [usual cost 30]
board [usual cost 200]
wax [usual cost 10]

In effect bundling up products as some sort of a special deal.

It might actually be easier now than it used to be. Because originally, attributes were a required part of the product page. You might not use them, but they would always be there. Now, you can turn off the attributes and not display them on the page. So presumably you could turn on replacements while leaving attributes off.

Options/attributes may work for what the shop needs.

Let me explain what it is and hopefully someone has done similar.

So the shop sells hand made paracord bracelets, there are various options for style, colour, fastening, whether you want an accent colour etc.

The problem is they all technically use the same stock, I know there was a pc builder add-on that allowed this and deducted stock.

It could work using QT Pro and the current options system but with maybe a way to have dynamic options, for example you only see the option for an accent colour if the style you choose is able to have one.

At present the only way I see to do this is to have a product for each option, single colour/dual colour/single with accent/double with accent etc. Unfortunately that would then stop the ability to track stock.

Happy to hear any ideas anyone may have on how to solve this.

LeeFoster wrote: ↑Mon May 16, 2022 8:41 am It could work using QT Pro and the current options system but with maybe a way to have dynamic options, for example you only see the option for an accent colour if the style you choose is able to have one.

I think that QT Pro does essentially the opposite of what you want. Yes, it allows you to track stock. But it tracks the stock of the bundle. What you want is to track the stock of the parts (if I'm understanding correctly).

To use a concrete example, let's say you were selling charm bracelets. They might be composed of a bracelet itself, plus various charms. As I understand it, you want to track stock of the bracelet and charms separately from each other. So someone could buy one solid bracelet, with two blue charms and three green charms. Or one chain bracelet, with four red charms and one purple charm. Except there's only three red charms in stock, so you'd have to order more to fulfill the latter order. If they switch the red charm to a purple or blue charm, you'd be fine. An assembly is more like a cart than a product. So a purchase would be like filling out multiple carts at once (each assembly getting its own cart). I thought that Club osC had something like that at one time (Saved Carts?), but perhaps I'm remembering incorrectly.

QT Pro is for when you want to sell (for example) t-shirts. T-shirts come in a size and color. But your stock is determined for each. A small red t-shirt comes from different stock than an XL blue t-shirt, or an XL red or small blue for that matter. But that's entirely different from the charm bracelet problem. That's one product with multiple characteristics. A charm bracelet is multiple products bundled together into one assembly.

So the question is if your paracord bracelets are more like a t-shirt or a charm bracelet. The PC builder add-on was more like a charm bracelet vs QT Pro for t-shirts.

ecartz wrote: ↑Mon May 16, 2022 9:15 am So the question is if your paracord bracelets are more like a t-shirt or a charm bracelet. The PC builder add-on was more like a charm bracelet vs QT Pro for t-shirts.

Thank you for the detailed response. To answer your question simply, the paracord bracelets are more like a charm bracelet.