Fields

[endrioam373602]

I wanted to know if is possible add to the product one fields where I can select color and size.
Site Example: http://www.rasouliniastore.com

Thanks

[Ray Borduin]

Yes it is possible. But you would have to build it because there isn't a wizard to do it for you. You would have to create the database associations or static lists for the options depending on your store and then show them with the add to cart buttons after adding a size and color column to the cart in order to store those options.

[endrioam373602]

Unfortunately I'm not very good at creating what you say, is possible to know how to do it?

[Ray Borduin]

There is not a way to do it without trying. Have you added the columns to your cart? Where do you get stuck?

[David Stringer]

There is not a way to do it without trying. Have you added the columns to your cart? Where do you get stuck?

I find myself in this same position also. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to get started at resolving the situation either. My problem is as follows and any helpful pointers would be gratefully received.

My client is going to be selling clothing, which for every size has a unique reference. The sizes generally are the usual of small, medium, large and XLarge. This is further exacerbated by including colour combinations.

Because PowerStore keeps a tally of stock levels, how would I integrate the sizes and colours into the database and page? What I'm trying to say, is what information do I need and on which pages of the site would I include the necessary code.

All help welcome!

[Ray Borduin]

You could handle this quite a few different ways still.

You could probably have each size, color, and product combination as a separate product so that you wouldn't need to update the current inventory control system.

Trying to do inventory control for multiple options will get very hairy very fast if you don't insert them as separate items.

[mick106153]

You could handle this quite a few different ways still.

You could probably have each size, color, and product combination as a separate product so that you wouldn't need to update the current inventory control system.

Trying to do inventory control for multiple options will get very hairy very fast if you don't insert them as separate items.

OK I can see how that might be the better solution for us mere mortals but when the customer comes to the item in question – a shirt let's say – in one particular style and design that is available in 6 sizes and 4 colors each size thus necessitating 24 separate entries into the db how do we logically represent that to him or her as a single item available in a myriad of sizes and colors?
I know I'm not the only one confused by this.
Wouldn't it be easier to have a color and a size table and incorporate them as foreign keys.
I've mimicked your "productcategories" table in PowerStore to create a productsizes and productcolors table and have attempted to emulate what you did but so far, no luck.

Either method of getting the job done would be OK with me but am I wrong to assume the latter method to be the preferred one?

Mick

[Ray Borduin]

I'd say you would still have an easier time creating the interface to edit the multiple products as if they were one than to try to get it actually working with variable options in a relational table.

If you did options and variable options then you would have to come up with a database structure that would allow you to store the inventory according to multiple options. A single option I could try to explain, but variable options like size and color, where each size/color combination has it's own inventory gets very complex from a database perspective.

You either need to add the complexity in the database or add it in the administrative interface. I'm just saying it would be easier to do with the admin interface if you aren't very skilled at this type of thing, and in that case you probably wouldn't have asked the question.

How would you create the admin for it? One page at a time... and each would have their challenges and would likely require at least some hand code.

Can you even imagine the interface you would like someone to use? I guess I would start with doing the design of what I would want to make functional and defining the admin experience. Then I would work on getting the forms to look right and function correctly before the form post.

Then I would get Webassist tools involved to do the database manipulation and form validation. But you are going to have to do a lot of work outside of the WebAssist tools to get it done either way.

[David Stringer]

I'd say you would still have an easier time creating the interface to edit the multiple products as if they were one than to try to get it actually working with variable options in a relational table.

If you did options and variable options then you would have to come up with a database structure that would allow you to store the inventory according to multiple options. A single option I could try to explain, but variable options like size and color, where each size/color combination has it's own inventory gets very complex from a database perspective.

You either need to add the complexity in the database or add it in the administrative interface. I'm just saying it would be easier to do with the admin interface if you aren't very skilled at this type of thing, and in that case you probably wouldn't have asked the question.

How would you create the admin for it? One page at a time... and each would have their challenges and would likely require at least some hand code.

Can you even imagine the interface you would like someone to use? I guess I would start with doing the design of what I would want to make functional and defining the admin experience. Then I would work on getting the forms to look right and function correctly before the form post.

Then I would get Webassist tools involved to do the database manipulation and form validation. But you are going to have to do a lot of work outside of the WebAssist tools to get it done either way.

I certainly agree with what you are saying here.

My client would like to have stock control, but if it means that he has to enter every size in very colour and show the appropriate pages to contain the items, it all becomes very unwieldy for the buyer to find what he wants in my opinion!

The easy option at the moment is to provide the buyer with a choice of size and colour, where appropriate, and leave it to the site owner to decide if he has the appropriate item for delivery!

If anyone else can come up with a better way, please let us know!

[mrs]

You would need to create a couple of separate tables; 'Colours' with your colours in, and 'ProductColour' with the joining information of both product and colour.

The 'Colours' table would have colour_id and colour columns.

The 'ProductColour' table would have to consist of an id, colour_id and product_id.

At that point you take your product_id and join it with the colour_id by using the joining table which basically allows you to have one single instance of 'red' in your database that applies to many products.

Basically, you need to create an inner join between the product_id and the colour_id and it's at this point my knowledge gets shaky I'm afraid.

When a user browses a product with multiple colours, you ask the page to take the product_id e.g. 99, look in the ProductColours table (not the colours table) for any instance of product_id 99 and then print to a dropdown menu (or similar) the colour_id's where the records product_id matches 99...

Colours table: colour_id; colour
ProductColours table: ProductColour_id; colour_id; product_id

so the SQL will look like this (I think):

SELECT FROM ProductColours.colour_id, ProductColour.product_id, Colours.colour FROM ProductColours INNER JOIN Colours ON ProductColours.colour_id = Colours.colour_id
WHERE product_id = VALUE
ORDER BY colour ASC

The parameter 'VALUE' then needs the following info:
Name: VALUE
Type: Numeric
Value: Request("product_id")
Default: %

You then do the same for sizes, and I guess you could also apply the same for stock levels. This is only a sample, and I don't expect it to work... it might do, and that will be nice for you, wont it? If it doesn't, then there is a good ground for somebody else to offer up a bit of advice on how it might be able to work. I am sure that this is fairly rudimentary SQL, but I struggled with it a bit, lost my rag, struggled some more, really spat the dummy, struggled on further, and hey presto, it worked. How, I don't know, but it did :D

The above needs to be applied in the advanced recordset panel in dreamweaver.

[mrs]

Forgot to say, the website address at the start of this post has basically created separate entries for different coloured shoes. There doesn't seem to be any stock control that I can see though.

Also, there is only nine products there and that would be easy to manage product info/colours/sizes individually.

[David Stringer]

I am sure that this is fairly rudimentary SQL, but I struggled with it a bit, lost my rag, struggled some more, really spat the dummy, struggled on further, and hey presto, it worked. How, I don't know, but it did :D

The above needs to be applied in the advanced recordset panel in dreamweaver.

Wow,

Hope the dummy isn't too dirty! lol

Your code looks pretty good to me, so much so, I'm going to start playing with it, thank you.

I would have thought that WA would have included this facility in the product. I believe that it's a vital component for selling online. There arn't many things being sold that don't have choices of one thing or another. Maybe now you've done the code, they might include it in the next update of Power Store!!

David

[David Stringer]

Well, I've struggled all day with this code and for whatever reason I cannot seem to get it to work or for that matter do anything. That's not a criticism of your code, it's all down to my ability to translate it into the database. That's my downfall! If you could elucidate a few more details of how to connect the tables, it would be much appreciated.

I presume from your spelling of colour that you are in the UK!

[mrs]

What I failed to mention is the fact that I have taken this from a completely unrelated website and database, so the naming of fields and tables is more than likely going to be different to that of the PowerStore.

As I have absolutely no experience of the powerstore, I can't really advise any more than I have already, but I bet the likes of WebAssist's Ray could do so as he has knowledge of the store's database and pages.

One other thing that might make it a bit clearer is about the tables... the structure of the two tables you need to create is what I have already suggested, but you also need to link to the products table as well for the query to work. You may have already realised this but I thought I'd say just in case. So, just to repeat myself you should have something like...

Colours table structure: colour_id; colour
ProductColours table structure: ProductColour_id; colour_id; product_id
Products table structure: product_id; product_name; product_description and so on...

It's the unique product_id number (in table Products) that will be joined to the unique colour_id number (in table Colours) via the 'joining' table of ProductColours.

Basically, you have three tables creating one sql result.

If that doesn't clear things up, and you're not getting joy here, then I suggest you post an email to the MySQL users group where there is a massive community of very experienced people who have often either answered or at least pointed me in the right direction. WebAssist seem to be good on the whole though.

[David Stringer]

What I failed to mention is the fact that I have taken this from a completely unrelated website and database, so the naming of fields and tables is more than likely going to be different to that of the PowerStore.

As I have absolutely no experience of the powerstore, I can't really advise any more than I have already, but I bet the likes of WebAssist's Ray could do so as he has knowledge of the store's database and pages.

One other thing that might make it a bit clearer is about the tables... the structure of the two tables you need to create is what I have already suggested, but you also need to link to the products table as well for the query to work. You may have already realised this but I thought I'd say just in case. So, just to repeat myself you should have something like...

Colours table structure: colour_id; colour
ProductColours table structure: ProductColour_id; colour_id; product_id
Products table structure: product_id; product_name; product_description and so on...

It's the unique product_id number (in table Products) that will be joined to the unique colour_id number (in table Colours) via the 'joining' table of ProductColours.

Basically, you have three tables creating one sql result.

If that doesn't clear things up, and you're not getting joy here, then I suggest you post an email to the MySQL users group where there is a massive community of very experienced people who have often either answered or at least pointed me in the right direction. WebAssist seem to be good on the whole though.


Thank you very much for the information you have given above and previously, it is much appreciated. I'll certainly look at the MySQL users group.

I just need to try and get this to work in Power Store.
I'm still very much of the opinion that to be a real contender in the database shopping cart scenario, that it should offer these facilities out of the box.

Hey ho, onward and upward! Never a dull moment in computing is there?

[Ray Borduin]

This is the first version of Powerstore and it was released less than a month ago. It is very likely we will add the most commonly requested features in an update in the future.

[David Stringer]

This is the first version of Powerstore and it was released less than a month ago. It is very likely we will add the most commonly requested features in an update in the future.
Hi Ray,

My comments are not a dig at Web Assist, I really like the tools I have purchased from you, including the Super Suite.

As I explained in another thread, I usually use another shopping basket for commercial applications. On this occasion I was asked to produce a site with an easily updated database and one which could keep up to the minute inventory. Your Power Store seemed to be the answer and I'm sure it will be in the long term. Unfortunately, I'm on a short delivery schedule, so I may be looking at some help via the Support channel shortly!
David