Creating/Managing Variants

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13 years 10 months ago #4187

Hello,
I've been trying out Hikashop, and definitely see it's a great e-commerce application. I am planning on upgrading to the business edition.

But there's one thing I am stuck on: creating variants.

I've read all the documentation and searched the forum, but I cannot seem to figure out how to structure variants for my current client.

My client sells metal products. He has steel bars, alloy bars, aluminum bars, etc.

So, for example, inside "Steel Bars," he has several types:
B90 Steel Bars
A62 Steel Bars
C12 Steel bars
.
.
.

Then, inside each type he sells the following diameters:
1/16" diameter
3/32" diameter
5/8" diameter
.
.
.

Each set of steel bars of a certain diameter has its own price.

I created an article for "Steel Bars." No problems there. In that article, I need to create one listing for each type of steel bar, with a pull-down for pricing of a certain diameter.

I cannot figure out how to structure the characteristics and variants to set this up. Everything else about Hikashop is wonderful, but this is frustrating.

Maybe someone here has gone through a similar process and can lend me a hand with some instructions? I'd be forever grateful!

Thanks,
Matthew

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13 years 10 months ago #4190

You have several ways to do it.
1. You could have a category steel bar, and one product per type of steel bar. Then, create a diameter characteristic with the possible values and add that characteristic to each product. Then, go in the "manage variants" button to edit each variant which were automatically generated and set the correct price.

2. You could have only one steel bar product with two characteristics: type and diameter. Create a diameter and a type characteristic with the possible values and add these characteristics to the product. Then, go in the "manage variants" button to edit each variant which were automatically generated and set the correct price.

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13 years 10 months ago #4193

Hello,
I'm totally lost.

I set up the characteristics and variants, with prices. Before I did this, the information displayed (even though it didn't have drop-downs for different sizes). But now, nothing displays at all in the module.

So I'm still trying to figure this out.

Thanks,
Matt

Last edit: 13 years 10 months ago by MatthewSchenker.

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13 years 10 months ago #4194

In the module ? The characteristics dropdowns are displayed in the product page and not in a module. I'm not sure what you're talking about ?
We would need more details to help you. Could you do some screenshots of the result and the way you set up the products/characteristics/variants ? Maybe give us a link to your front end ?

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13 years 10 months ago #4197

nicolas,
Here's what I did...

I set the listings for the various products in the "products" area of the Hikashop control panel. I also created a "Content Display" module in the module manager that I'm calling in my article using the {loadposition} option.

For whatever reason, every time I create variants, they end up being displayed as new products instead of sub-choices for the main product. I looked at your example in the demo (the butcher knife) and set up everything to be equivalent to that. But in the demo, the variants do not end up as products.

I'm not sure how much you'll be able to tell from this, but here's the page where I'm trying to display the information:
www.schenkerstudio.com/WeldingRods/index...steel-rods&Itemid=27

Please help!

Thanks,
Matt

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13 years 10 months ago #4198

You didn't do like on our demo website at all.
Instead of having a module in a aticle, you should directly display the product page: Here is how it works: www.hikashop.com/support/documentation/6...nd.html#product_page

I see that you created your menus linked to articles which then have links to other articles with the module embedded.

You should do differently and use the listing capabilities of HikaShop instead:
Create your categories and products in them. Then, create menus of type hikashop categories listing like explained in the documentation link above.
This way, hikasop, will build automatically the listings and the product page.
You won't have to create all those articles and manually set your links in them but just set the correct options in content menus and modules in HikaShop.

Last edit: 13 years 10 months ago by nicolas.

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13 years 10 months ago #4200

nicolas,
OK, I see the logic to that. But the problem is, the structure of the products I need t list is a bit more nested.

I need to create "index" pages that shows major categories. The visitor then goes to more specific categories, and finally to specific variations for products. I don't want to go directly to specific products from a top-level menu.

I'll keep working at this and see if I can make Hikashop do what's necessary.

Thanks,
Matthew

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13 years 10 months ago #4201

You can also have that in HikaShop. There is no problem in nesting categories in HikaShop and then having the system build all the navigation automatically.

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13 years 10 months ago #4207

nicolas,
I'm working on setting things up as instructed. I definitely see the logic to what you're saying.

Obviously, it will take me a bit of time to get it all arranged properly. But I'm guessing it will be worth it!

Thanks again for your excellent assistance. You are doing a great job making this one of the most supportive extensions in the JED!

Matthew

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