Adding a text custom field using the item table to a product with variants

-- HikaShop version -- : 5.1.1
-- Joomla version -- : 4.4.8
-- PHP version -- : 8.3.12
-- Browser(s) name and version -- : Brave Version 1.67.123 Chromium: 126.0.6478.126 (Official Build) (arm64)
-- Error-message(debug-mod must be tuned on) -- : no error messages

I have a product with variants. I want to add a custom field to the item table that will allow customers to provide a text message on the product.

PRODUCT A

We have pretty much the same thing setup on a different product...

PRODUCT B

The only major difference between these two products is that PRODUCT B has two characteristics (Division and Choose Size) that create a total of 11 variants. The PRODUCT A only has one characteristic (size) for a total of three variants.

I carefully matched all the settings for my new custom text field (in the items table) with the existing text field that serves PRODUCT B. I am even able to successfully add the new field to PRODUCT B without any issue.

When I add the new field to PRODUCT A it will not appear. I restricted it as an individual product and then tried restricting it to the category. I have checked all the of the display options for the two different fields and the two different products over and over. They appear to match in terms of display options, etc.

The only two other observations that I have is that if I make the field required on the PRODUCT A page, I will get the error message when trying to add it to the cart even though the field is not showing. I also notice that the default variant does not immediately show for PRODUCT B when the page first loads. I am given the chance to choose characteristics first. Whereas with PRODUCT A the default variant shows right away. I am not sure if that is relevant or why one product behaves differently in this regard.

Hi Nicholas,

I am attaching screenshots with sensitive info blocked out. Again if I "require" the field, I get the appropriate error message that prevents me from adding the product to the cart. So I know it is not an issue of correctly assigning the field to the correct product or category.

HI Nicholas,

I am not sure if this is a change in how we started setting up our products or if the code that I am about to share was part of a recent update.


In /templates/g5_helium/html/com_hikashop/product/show_default.php, we have...

Value of '$this->itemFields' is NULL

$display_item_fields = true;
				if(!$this->config->get('display_add_to_cart_for_free_products') || ($this->config->get('display_add_to_wishlist_for_free_products', 1) && $this->params->get('add_to_wishlist') && $this->config->get('enable_wishlist', 1))) {
					if(empty($element->variants)) {
						if(empty($element->prices))
							$display_item_fields = false;
					} else {
						$variants_are_all_free = true;
						foreach($element->variants as $variant) {
							if(!empty($variant->prices)) {
								$variants_are_all_free = false;
							}
						}

						if($variants_are_all_free)
							$display_item_fields = false;
					}

				}

Actually after further testing we still have some products that have no variants that are not displaying the custom fields.

We have temporarily added

$display_item_fields = true;

Great .. Thank you very much, when we can expect the next version ?