Subproducts Feature

General ShopSite user discussion

Subproducts Feature

Postby Larry Bohen » Mon Mar 14, 2005 11:12 am

Our products (audiobooks) would benefit greatly from using the subproducts
feature in ShopSite however, from time to time I see issues that are
mentioned in this forum.

I am again condsidering implementing this feature but would like to hear
from, who are perhaps more brave than I, that are already using it.

Do you like it?

Is it easy to maintain?

Any usage issues for you and/or site visitors/customers?

What is your Website address? I'd like to visit and see how you are using
it?

I maintain our 9000 record Access product db on my desktop. Can the
subproducts feature be managed from within my desktop Access db for upload
to our ShopSite back office?

Thank you

--
Larry Bohen
www.audiobooksonline.com
Larry Bohen
 

Re: Subproducts Feature

Postby Larry Bohen » Thu Mar 17, 2005 7:37 am

Does the lack of feedback about the Subproducts feature mean no one is using
it?

--
Larry Bohen
www.audiobooksonline.com
"Larry Bohen" <lbohen@audiobooksonline.com> wrote in message
news:d14gm8$72v$1@eval.shopsite.com...
Our products (audiobooks) would benefit greatly from using the subproducts
feature in ShopSite however, from time to time I see issues that are
mentioned in this forum.

I am again condsidering implementing this feature but would like to hear
from, who are perhaps more brave than I, that are already using it.

Do you like it?

Is it easy to maintain?

Any usage issues for you and/or site visitors/customers?

What is your Website address? I'd like to visit and see how you are using
it?

I maintain our 9000 record Access product db on my desktop. Can the
subproducts feature be managed from within my desktop Access db for upload
to our ShopSite back office?

Thank you

--
Larry Bohen
www.audiobooksonline.com
Larry Bohen
 

Re: Subproducts Feature

Postby jim » Thu Mar 17, 2005 8:24 am

Lots of people use it but I guess they just aren't on the newsgroup.

There are 2 different ways that it can be considered. The true
subproduct (the way it was originally designed to work) would be
something like a Asprin where the main product is called Asprin and
can't really be ordered and the sub products would be bottle of 50,
bottle of 100 etc and each of those can be ordered. So on the store
page you would have them listed this way.
Aspirin (description)
bottle of 50 $2.00
bottle of 100 $3.50
etc.
It is also possible to create a template that shows the subproduct in a
dropdown list instead of listing each out individually

The second scenerio is really a cross-sell where the main product can
really be purchased and the subproduct are just items that go along
with it. For example if you are selling a printer you may also want to
list a magenta, cyan, yellow and black ink cartridge to go with it.
In this case you would want the main product to be orderable as well as
all the subproducts. The default templates won't allow the main product
to be orderable unless the it is assigned as a subproduct of itself.
Also by default in the shopping cart the product name of a sub product
is show as Main product: subproduct which may not be the way you would
want it since a subproduct may not really be related to the main one.
This can be turned off under Commerce Setup > Order System Shopping
cart. Using custom templates it is possible to make it so that the main
product can be orderable just like a subproduct.

Using either method search will return hits for the main product and
subproducts every time that the product or one of its subproducts is
found. This can be confusing to the shopper since there will be many
items listed that may not seem like they match the term they searched
for. In ShopSite 7.x the search display is done using custom templates
so it is possible to display the main product without showing its
subproducts.

Some times you will want the main product to display by itself with
subproducts (cross sell items) being displayed elsewhere on the page.
This is possible using custom templates and the custom fields available
for products (in ShopSite Pro only). You would do this by setting an IF
statement in the template and comparing the custom field value to some
specific value. If the product has the proper value you would display
it at that location ELSE you would not display it or it would be
displayed differently. You can have multiple loop sections in the
template so you could display different product indifferent locations on
the page.

I know I have worked with designers to implement this functionality but
can't think right of what url to point you to. But we have set it up so
the Main product was on the main part of the page and subproducts(cross
sell items) were in a column on the right or across the bottom of the page.

I'll see if I can find some examples and post the url to the newsgroup.

Jim
Larry Bohen wrote:
Does the lack of feedback about the Subproducts feature mean no one is using
it?
jim
 

Re: Subproducts Feature

Postby Jim » Thu Mar 17, 2005 12:15 pm

Larry,
Here are a couple of sites that are using subproducts as cross sell/
upsell. Main product is at top of page and cross sell items at bottom.
http://www.villagehatshop.com/
http://www.motoworldracing.com/

Here is one that is using it as true subproducts. Main product is not
orderable but subproducts are.
http://www.reuels.com/reuels/page21.html

Here is one using subproducts in a dropdown list.
http://www.carvaluesplus.com/store/amer ... ecars.html

Jim



Larry Bohen wrote:
Does the lack of feedback about the Subproducts feature mean no one is using
it?
Jim
 

Re: Subproducts Feature

Postby Chris » Fri Mar 18, 2005 9:15 am

While we're on the subject of subproducts, I am curious what would work best for
us were we to use Shopsite-generated pages (we currently use all custom pages with
Order Anywhere linkers).

We have large numbers of products where the general item type and profile is the
same, but there are a variety of different size/dimensions (not a single size
variation like 1", 2", 3"---there may be multiple changed dimensions in a
product.) We currently use custom pages with tables to list all the dimensions
and Order Anywhere buttons in the final column.

I'd need to have a way to get the general bit type description and graphic (shared
by all the different item/sizes) to appear once on the page but with the
dimensions for each product listed separately with Order buttons. See for
example:

http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite ... strai.html

Would subproducts be a good way to do this or is there another way?

Thanks,

Chris

mlcswoodworking.com

Jim wrote:

Larry,
Here are a couple of sites that are using subproducts as cross sell/
upsell. Main product is at top of page and cross sell items at bottom.
http://www.villagehatshop.com/
http://www.motoworldracing.com/

Here is one that is using it as true subproducts. Main product is not
orderable but subproducts are.
http://www.reuels.com/reuels/page21.html

Here is one using subproducts in a dropdown list.
http://www.carvaluesplus.com/store/amer ... ecars.html

Jim

Larry Bohen wrote:
Does the lack of feedback about the Subproducts feature mean no one is using
it?
Chris
 

Re: Subproducts Feature

Postby jim » Sat Mar 19, 2005 12:04 am

Although I haven't actually tried to create a template like this, it
should be fairly straight forward using subproducts.

On the page you give as an example all of the tables have 7 columns
1- Item # which contains an SKU, 2- Large Diam. , 3- Cutting Length, 4-
Shank size, 5- Shank Length, 6- Price, 7- Order button.
Columns 1, 6 and 7 are easy to get since they are database fields.
Columns 2,3,4,5 are a little harder to get since they are all really
part of the description of the product. You could break these up in a
couple of ways. The easiest would be to use the product description in
Column 2 and use three of the custom product fields (ShopSite Pro
version only) to contain the data for columns 3,4,5. Another way this
could be done is to code columns 2,3,4,5 in the product description
separating the various parts with the <td> ...</td> so that that part
of the table is built as one part in the description.
In the product template you would check to see if there are subproducts
assigned to the product and if there are then you would output the
Product name (e.g. Single Flute), start a table and output the first
row of the table with the column names. You would then do a loop
subproducts to output the remaining part of the table, outputting the
sku, description, field1, field2, field3, price and order button. (Or if
you include all the info in the description and use the <td>...</td>
format you would just output sku, description, price, orderbutton)
After the end_loop subproducts you would close the table. (note I
haven't included the html to create the table but you would need to do
that in the template. It looks like you have lots of formatting around
each cell of the table. You might want to consider using a style sheet
for that.)

If you have products with a differnt number of options you would
probably want to create a separate template for them so that all the
option of the product are displayed. However all 3 of the items on the
page you referred to could use the same template since they have the
same number of columns. The titles for the columns could come from the
same fields in the main product as what you are using for actual sizes
in the subproducts. This would make it easier to have the column titles
changeable and still have just 1 template for all products that use 7
columns for the data.

Jim

Chris wrote:
While we're on the subject of subproducts, I am curious what would work best for
us were we to use Shopsite-generated pages (we currently use all custom pages with
Order Anywhere linkers).

We have large numbers of products where the general item type and profile is the
same, but there are a variety of different size/dimensions (not a single size
variation like 1", 2", 3"---there may be multiple changed dimensions in a
product.) We currently use custom pages with tables to list all the dimensions
and Order Anywhere buttons in the final column.

I'd need to have a way to get the general bit type description and graphic (shared
by all the different item/sizes) to appear once on the page but with the
dimensions for each product listed separately with Order buttons. See for
example:

http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite ... strai.html

Would subproducts be a good way to do this or is there another way?

Thanks,

Chris

mlcswoodworking.com

Jim wrote:


Larry,
Here are a couple of sites that are using subproducts as cross sell/
upsell. Main product is at top of page and cross sell items at bottom.
http://www.villagehatshop.com/
http://www.motoworldracing.com/

Here is one that is using it as true subproducts. Main product is not
orderable but subproducts are.
http://www.reuels.com/reuels/page21.html

Here is one using subproducts in a dropdown list.
http://www.carvaluesplus.com/store/amer ... ecars.html

Jim

Larry Bohen wrote:

Does the lack of feedback about the Subproducts feature mean no one is using
it?


jim
 

Re: Subproducts Feature

Postby Jim » Tue Mar 22, 2005 5:52 pm

Chris,
I created a simple template that will display the subproducts in a table
like the one you pointed to. The template is between the ======== below

For setting up the products I did the following.
The main products (Single Flute, European Two Flute etc) have the custom
product fields 1 - 4 filled with the title for the columns (Large Diam.,
Cutting Length, Shank Size, Shank Length) since those values may change.
The Item# and Price values are hard coded in the template since they
don't change.
Subproducts have the data that corresponds to the 4 columns dealing with
product sizes in the custom product fields 1-4. The SKU and price are
used to fill in the Item# and Price columns. Sub products are assigned
to the main product in the normal manner and both the main product and
subproducts are assigned to use the custom template. Note that this
template is basic and doesn't include all the options that might be
possible. It would probably better if style sheets were used instead of
all the hardcoded fonts. It also doesn't allow for a moreinfo page for
the product.

Jim

=======================
[-- DEFINE MORE_INFO_PAGE --]
# This defines how the more information page for the products
# that use this template will look
[-- END_DEFINE MORE_INFO_PAGE --]

[-- DEFINE SUBPRODUCT --]
# This define is used to control how the sub-products assigned
# to the main product will be displayed
# (if no sub-products assigned, this section is ignored)
<tr height="22">
<td align="center" height="22" valign="middle" width="37"><font
color="#000000" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"
size="2">[-- product.sku --]</font></td>
<td align="center" height="22" valign="middle" width="55"><font
color="#000000" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"
size="2">[--Product.field1--]</font></td>
<td align="center" height="22" valign="middle" width="55"><font
color="#000000" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"
size="2">[--Product.field2--]</font></td>
<td align="center" height="22" valign="middle" width="55"><font
color="#000000" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"
size="2">[-- Product.field3--]</font></td>
<td align="center" height="22" valign="middle" width="55"><font
color="#000000" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"
size="2">[--Product.field4--]</font></td>
<td align="center" height="22" valign="middle" width="44"><font
color="#000000" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"
size="2">[-- product.Price--]</font></td>
<td align="center" height="22" valign="middle" width="38"><font
color="#000000" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"
size="2"><a href="[-- PRODUCT.AddToCartURL --]"><img [-- AddImage
--]></a></font></td>

</tr>
[-- END_DEFINE SUBPRODUCT --]

[-- DEFINE PRODUCT --]
# This define is used to control how the products will look
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="20"
width="355"><tr>
<td colspan="6"><font color="#336666"
face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"<strong>[--product.name
--]</strong></font></td></tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="85"
width="355">
<tbody><tr height="22">
<td align="center" height="22" valign="middle"
width="37"><font color="#336666"
face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"
size="2"><strong>Item #</strong></font></td>
<td align="center" height="22" valign="middle" width="55"><font
color="#336666" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"
size="2"><strong>[--Product.field1--]</strong></font></td>
<td align="center" height="22" valign="middle" width="55"><font
color="#336666" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"
size="2"><strong>[--Product.field2--]</strong></font></td>
<td align="center" height="22" valign="middle" width="55"><font
color="#336666" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"
size="2"><strong>[-- Product.field3--]</strong></font></td>
<td align="center" height="22" valign="middle" width="55"><font
color="#336666" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"
size="2"><strong>[--Product.field4--]</strong></font></td>
<td align="center" height="22" valign="middle" width="44"><font
color="#336666" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"
size="2"><strong>Price</strong></font></td>
<td align="center" height="22" valign="middle" width="38"><font
color="white" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"
size="2">Orderorder</font></td>
</tr>
[-- Loop subproducts --]
[-- subproducts --]
[-- end_loop subproducts --]
</tbody>
</table>

[-- END_DEFINE PRODUCT --]
=======================

Chris wrote:
While we're on the subject of subproducts, I am curious what would work best for
us were we to use Shopsite-generated pages (we currently use all custom pages with
Order Anywhere linkers).

We have large numbers of products where the general item type and profile is the
same, but there are a variety of different size/dimensions (not a single size
variation like 1", 2", 3"---there may be multiple changed dimensions in a
product.) We currently use custom pages with tables to list all the dimensions
and Order Anywhere buttons in the final column.

I'd need to have a way to get the general bit type description and graphic (shared
by all the different item/sizes) to appear once on the page but with the
dimensions for each product listed separately with Order buttons. See for
example:

http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite ... strai.html

Would subproducts be a good way to do this or is there another way?

Thanks,

Chris

mlcswoodworking.com

Jim wrote:


Larry,
Here are a couple of sites that are using subproducts as cross sell/
upsell. Main product is at top of page and cross sell items at bottom.
http://www.villagehatshop.com/
http://www.motoworldracing.com/

Here is one that is using it as true subproducts. Main product is not
orderable but subproducts are.
http://www.reuels.com/reuels/page21.html

Here is one using subproducts in a dropdown list.
http://www.carvaluesplus.com/store/amer ... ecars.html

Jim

Larry Bohen wrote:

Does the lack of feedback about the Subproducts feature mean no one is using
it?


Jim
 


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