Shipping weight adjust by option value

[OGA]

I wonder if someone could point me in the right direction on a particular question.

I'm trying to adjust our shipping calculator so that it adapts based on the options chosen from one of the option pull-down menus.

Currently, we use a weight-based table. Actually, the "weight' we enter for each product is the same as the base price. But we'd like to start offering different sizes of our products, to be chosen from the pull-downs— which should increase the "weight," and thus this shipping price, accordingly.

Is it possible to have the shipping calculator automatically add the value of the chosen size option to the weight of the product, in order to account for this in the final shipping total?

To give an example,

Let's say Product A costs $1000 and the "weight" is 1000.
It comes in 3 sizes: Small (+$0), Medium(+$500), and Large (+$1000).

Can the the shipping cost adjust so that the "weight" becomes 1500 if Medium is chosen, and 2000 if Large is chosen?

Currently, the size would have no effect, and the weight (and thus the shipping cost) would be the same for every size, which means we'd lose money on shipping the larger sizes.

Does that make sense? Is there a way to do this with Javascript or some other module? Or is there a better approach to accomplish the same thing? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[Jim]

Currently the weight is not changed based on an order option. So the best thing to do is create a separate product for each item that is similar but different weight and then assign them as subproducts to the main Item. You can use a custom template to display the subproducts in a pulldown list so it looks like you are using the order options but when the item is added to the cart the correct weight will be included so shipping charges will be correct.

[OGA]

Thanks for your response. What's the advantage of configuring the different sizes as sub-products instead of full-fledged products? Currently, we actually have distinct products for each different size... it's a lot harder to maintain, since every change to an option has to be applied to multiple, instead a single, item. I'm trying to get away from, though I'm getting that it may not be possible because of how shipping is calculated....

So let's say we keep it that way (i.e., different sizes as unique products), and assign them as sub-products to a single product, as you suggest. Would I be able, on the same custom page, to show the options related to that sub-product?

Essentially, what we're trying to approximate is a kind of product configurator that the customer goes through before going to the shopping cart. This gives us the opportunity to add help text and other illustrations for each option.

We're selling pergolas and other furniture; and some options can't really be explained or sold via the pull-downs in the shopping cart.

Here's the page I'm working with....

http://www.foreverredwood.com/pergolas/ ... olas2.html

Thanks....

[Jim]

I'm not sure how you could do it with that many options. Maybe someone else on the forum will have an idea.