Characteristics as a table, not a drop down

I am designing a site for a friend who wishes to have no drop downs, but instead have a product with multiple sizes as a list; preferably where quantities of each size could be added from the item page.

As an example, say it is a shirt, and the customer wishes to order 2 Small, 2 Medium, 3 Large, and 5 eXtra Large shirts. He wishes to have a single item (so that the image and description remains the same), but allow the customer to enter quantities for each size and then add all to the cart at once.

Is this possible? How much editing/hacking would be needed?

Hi,

In your case, I think that the solution could be to use a global add to cart button on a product listing.
Create the main product, then copy it from the product listing (backend) and manage the copy to change the sizes, etc. It will keep the description and image.
Don't forget to create a category by product, and assign this category for the products.
Ex:
ProductA S > Category ProductA
ProductA M > Category ProductA (copy of ProductA)
ProductA L > Category ProductA (copy of ProductA)
...

And in Config > Main > Products change the value of the option "Display the quantity field on the product page" to "Global on Listings".
Then when you display the content of the category "ProductA" you will have all the products of this category so ProductA in all sizes, with a quantity field and a "Add to cart" button at the end of the listing.
As I remember you have to use the view "table" for the product listing.

That is pretty much the solution he is currently using with another shop, and precisely what he does NOT want to do; copy/pasting the products, having to change the images/description of every variant each time there is a change, etc. He specifically wants a single item, with a single image (or set of images) and a single description; but with multiple sizes available...

I think just the display aspect, without being able to add them all, would be passable for now; how would that be done?

I am unable to find out how to change it from a drop down menu to a table/list where all characteristics are displayed... the linked documentation does not mention this at all (or I cannot find where it does). Please clarify.

Okay, I am running into all kinds of issues here.

If I try what I had done first, create one characteristic for 'size' and add the 2 or 3 size values to the one characteristic, I can price each individually, and it works fine - except even with the display set to table, it shows a drop down listing of the variants.

I then deleted the characteristics (and products) and started fresh. This time I created a separate characteristic for each size, and added them to the product. Nothing showed up.

I then added a single value to each characteristic. This showed up fine, as a table, but each item had a single drop-down menu to the right of the characteristic with that single value. As I hadn't set individual prices, it didn't work in that way yet. So this was close, but I want to get rid of the drop down with a single value in it, and add prices. I can't do the first, but I thought I could do the latter.

When I went to set the prices (via Manage variants), even though I had 3 different characteristics added (each with one value), there was only one line item/link to edit and I could only set one price. The single variant showed all three drop downs each with their single value on the left column (under 'code'), but only a single price field (and adding more price fields only adjusts based on quantity ordered, not which variant is chosen). This also had the side effect of skewing the display, it now shows each characteristic and value of each characteristic, but not in a neat table, nor with any drop downs, all 6 are just floating in random haphazard order beneath the product description, as raw text, there is a single selected radio button (no other buttons to select) beneath them.

I am about to scrap it all and try to start with a fresh install and make sure I didn't inadvertently mess something up, but for now this is not working at all.

To reiterate what I am hoping to accomplish;

A single product, with one or more images and description, which has 2 to 4 variants listed on it, as a table (no drop down fields visible at all), and each variant has a different price. I would prefer a quantity field next to each variant, allowing multiple numbers of multiple variants added to the cart at once. As this is already been confirmed as requiring massive modification, the alternative would be a radio selector beside each variant, and a single quantity field to the side, below, etc.

So, once I have uninstalled everything and am starting from fresh new install, what is the best way to go about doing this? What did I do wrong in the steps listed above?

That was the way I first tried, and how I thought it should work. However, even after uninstalling and reinstalling hikashop, resetting everything to default, it is not working that way. Here is exactly what I did;

Created a new sub-category of 'Product Category' named 'Handles'
Created a new product, 'Small diameter handle (collet)' in the category, 'Handles'
Created a new characteristic, 'Length' with 4 variants, '11"', '15"', '18", and '22"'
Edited the product, added the characteristic 'Length', then managed variants to only add the '11"' and '18"' to this product, priced at $70.00 and $80.00
Went to configuration, the only option I altered from the install defaults was to change 'Characteristics selection method' to 'Table'
Went to menus, added new menu item to main menu, 'HikaShop » Categories listing' item named 'Shop', the only changed option was 'Show sub categories' changed to 'All direct subcategories'.

I then previewed the site. On clicking the menu item, I see the single subcategory listed, clicking that image takes me to the sub category listing, where I see the single product and a button labeled 'Choose Options'. Clicking that takes me to the product page, in which I have the price shown as $70.00 (the price of the 11" variant), and a drop down below the price showing 11", and changeable to 18". Now I double check to make sure I saved the change to 'Characteristics selection method' to 'Table', and I had. Yet it is still showing a drop down.

This was what happened before, which is why I tried to move from one characteristic with multiple variants to multiple characteristics with a single variant each, thinking I needed multiple characteristics to show the table (per your earlier post). I will try those alternates next, see if it will somehow work.

Also, a second issue; if I change the drop down from 11" to 18", the price remains at $70.00, not showing the $80.00 price it should.

So, did I do anything wrong? Is it just not going to work, necessitating another shop component? I know this is not a typical request, but this friend is an older man, who prefers the online shop appear like a paper catalog, and his customers/target audience apparently feel the same way - they dislike all drop down menus (aside from the main menu itself)...but it has to be possible to accommodate them, even if it isn't 'normal'.