Use of Characteristics and variants

I have recently purchased a copy of Hikashop Essential, so I have the latest version.

Basically the website I am creating will sell photographic images. In total, there will be approximately 11,000 images for sale (so quite a large site). Each image has two characteristics : framed or non-framed, and 3 sizes (A2, A3, A4). So for each product (image), there are two "characteristics" which generate 6 "variants" for each product. Each variant has its own price. However the prices for the 6 variants are consistent across all images. If I set this up explicitely with variants on each product, it will result in 66,000 variants!. This is unmanageable. Imagine when a price changes!!.

Is it possible to define the 6 variants and prices in one place, then apply these variants automatically to all images?.

Two things considered but discounted :
1. Can frames be offered as an "option"?. This doesn't really solve the problem.
2. Can "custom fields" be used as they have drop-down options?. This is not an option as prices cannot be included in custom fields.

I am sure this can be done with bespoke changes to code (I am not a developer) but surely this is not an unusual requirement. So how can it be achieved through configuration?.

Hi,

The number of characteristics/variant that you can have for your products will vary regarding your server capacity.

1. Yes
2. Yes, also note that if you want your product price to change you'll be able to do it by creating a plugin, you'll probably find more information through this thread .

Thanks for the reply Mohamed. As I said, I am concerned that the number of variants will very quickly become unmanageable given my requirements.

I can see how mass actions could be used but I feel that this still does not overcome the problem. If you look at the problem from a purely data analysis perspective, the variants and prices should be defined in configuration once, and then associated with (say) all products in a particular catagory. This is a much more efficient approach which will massively reduce the load on the server. It will also make the website manageable.

I am relatively new to ecommerce but I can see two broad scenerios - where a shop has a small to medium number of products that have characteristics and variants (I can see Hikashop can manage this), but the second scenario is where there are large numbers of products (all with the same or very similar configuration). I fall into this second catagory.

I don't want to start loading my website only to hit problems re volumes some way down the road.

I will do some further analysis.

Thanks once again.

Mike

Nicolas,

I have been trying to work my requirements through. Basically I have calculated that when fully installed, there could be many thousands of products........basically each product is just a photograph. However each product exists in one of 4 shapes.......landscape, portrait, square, or panaramic. Each product can be printed in one of 3 sizes......A4, A3, or A2. Each product can optionally be framed in one of three frames (black, light oak, dark oak).

So each of my products has 3 sizes multiplied by 4 framing options...........so 12 variants per product.

If you do the mathematics, I foresee a situation where I will end up with thousands of variants and prices. This really is something I want to avoid as I believe it will be unmanageable.

I was hoping that there was a sort of "Product Profile" capability which in Hikashop terms means an ability to create and save a specific configuration of "Related Products, Options, Characteristics, Variants and Prices". This means for me that even though I have thousands of products, I would only have to set up 4 "Product Profiles". Then instead of defining all these parameters explicitely on each and every product (and all the associated variants & prices), in creating a new product it would simply require the selection and linking to one of four "Product Profiles". This would be massively more efficient. It would also mean that should prices change (as they do, or any other parameters in the Product Profile), changing the price is a very simple task as it would simply require a date delimited change to the "Product Profile".

Does this make sense?.

If you have any thoughts on best approach then let me know. I will keep experimenting with different configurations.

As ever, great advice Nicolas. Let me try it out and see where I get. Thanks. Mike

Nicolas,

Hikashop "Options" works really well and totally meet my needs. I love the flexibility in your software.

I am now trying to do two things :
1. When I select a product, the two "options" appear correctly but when I click "Add to cart" I get a "Notice" message in the cart screen saying the two "option" products are not available. I have searched the forum but I cannot determine what is causing this Notice message (see attachment) to be displayed.
2. While only a small change, on the Product Detail page, I want to change the "Add to cart" button to read "Add to basket". Where do I make this change?. I have searched the CSS files but this text string is not here.

Any pointers?.

Absolute right. Thank you.

Nicolas,

Everything seems to be working. Thank you for your help. I am really impressed with your software. Very flexible.

Some points which may be of interest to you :
1. I have made some necessary changes to the en-GB language file. Only small changes but important if your software is to be perceived as UK friendly. Key changes are that we do not tend to use the word "cart". Instead we use "basket". Similarly the main word used is "voucher" as opposed to "coupon". Also some smaller individual word changes to change spelling to UK from US.
2. The main postal/shipping operator in the UK is "Royal Mail Post Office", although UPS and FedEx are also used. What would be the process to develop a UK Post Office plug-in for Hikashop?. I am not a developer so are you able to recommend any develops in this area?.
3. The UK is actually 4 seperate countries.....England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. I live in Wales where the welsh language has to be supported (legal requirement). If a welsh language translation for Hikashop was to be developed, do you have any recomendations?.

Mike

Hi,

1. You can submit the changes by clicking on the "Share" button at the top of the language edition popup in Configuration > Languages.

2. To develop a plugin, here is the documentation: www.hikashop.com/support/support/documen...mentation.html#howto
You can post a request on the commercial jobs section of this forum to find a developer for this plugin. The Polishgeek team is often present in this part.

3. You can duplicate the en-GB language, edit all the translation keys and rename the file then sent it to us thanks to the contact form, and we will certainly integrate it as new language in HikaShop.

This is exactly what I have been trying to do, with photographs, as per the original posting. However, I note Options aren't possible with the free version of Hikashop. Is there any way I can do this without upgrading to Essential ?