Attributes, no impact on stock - How?

[Holspeed]

Unless I'm blind the combinations/attribute system is flawed, and for us is a complete showstopper in moving our stores to PrestaShop. Let me explain..

 

I'll use a simple example posted on these forums some time ago (with no resolution): An artist does a painting and wishes to sell it offering the customer a choice of frames. Using the attributes system he would have to as many paintings as he has frames - clearly not possible as there is only one painting.

 

In our case we have 3 attributes for our custom product, for a total of 30 variants. 2 attributes have an impact on price and none have an impact on stock. At any one time we have about 30 of the base product available.

If we were to use the PS attributes system we would theoretically need to keep 900 of our base product in stock to cover what we currently offer.

Sorry but that is ridiculous.

 

Please tell me I'm wrong and that PrestaShop has the option to turn off/on stock tracking for individual attributes - every other cart I've looked at recently appears to have it.

[Mr.Bean_S]

Let's hope they can come with a solution for this problem since I have a very similar problem.
 

It seems the only solution for us is to create a separate product for the main item (in your case the painting) and then create a separate item (in your case a frame) suggested as an accessory to the first item and give the second item all the attributes and variations needed.

 

This will make it more complicated for the customer and won't let him see the total price before he visits his cart.

 

For me it's even more complicated (see my post about correct stock values) by clicking my profile.

[viger]

Unless I'm blind the combinations/attribute system is flawed, and for us is a complete showstopper in moving our stores to PrestaShop. Let me explain..

 

I'll use a simple example posted on these forums some time ago (with no resolution): An artist does a painting and wishes to sell it offering the customer a choice of frames. Using the attributes system he would have to as many paintings as he has frames - clearly not possible as there is only one painting.

 

In our case we have 3 attributes for our custom product, for a total of 30 variants. 2 attributes have an impact on price and none have an impact on stock. At any one time we have about 30 of the base product available.

If we were to use the PS attributes system we would theoretically need to keep 900 of our base product in stock to cover what we currently offer.

Sorry but that is ridiculous.

 

Please tell me I'm wrong and that PrestaShop has the option to turn off/on stock tracking for individual attributes - every other cart I've looked at recently appears to have it.

 

I had the same, exactly the same problem!

I solved it with a modification of stock management, but now it affects all products with attributes of the shop, of course. For me it's OK, but may be it's not the best fore someone.

 

So, if a product has attributes, all attributes in the stock will go down of the quantity purchased.

If I have 1 paint with 2 frames, PS understand I have 3 items in stock. If a customer buy 1 of them, after the purchase the entire stock of the paint will be 0.

It works better in conjunction with the module "Maximum Quantity": setting it to 1, you can avoid the possibility that a customer buy the same product two or more times in the same chart with different attributes.

 

The best should be integrate this feature in PS, I really loose so much time (and money) to solve this problem!

Or just create a module with this feature, nothing complicate, I suggested this to some developer but no way... Incredible.

 

In attachment the file to modify the attributes-stock-quantity.

attributes-stock.zip

Edited September 22, 2013 by viger (see edit history)

[Mr.Bean_S]

I solved my problem by purchasing Attribute Wizzard Pro here: http://www.presto-changeo.com/en/9-attribute-modules

If I had a product in 10 different colours (they don't affect price) and three other attributes (all three added cost) I had to create and price 40 different combinations.

With this module I can create one combination for every colour (not four) and set NO price change. Then I create one combination for each of the three alternatives which means a total of 13 combinations where I only need to set price for three of them.

On the three alternatives I set a stock amount to 10 000 (or any number you feel neccessary to prevent it to be lower than the stock values I set for the different colours). 

The only stock values customers will see are the ones for the colours (because they always are the lowest in a combination) and that's how I want it to be.
 

In the first example in this thread the customers would only see stock value 1 (for the painting) and once the painting is sold there will be no combinations to buy anymore since one neccessary item (the painting) has gone below 1 in stock. You can also set so they can still chose it but shop now shows the message for estimated delivery time instead. The stock values set for the frames will never show and are irrelevant (but need to be high so they never run out).

 

The only problem I have now is that although the chosen attributes show nicely in the default Prestashop order and invoices they don't show on my paid third party "CheckOut" module from a company called Klarna.  There I only see the product name and correcct prices (for the attributes they selected) but it doesn't show those attributes on their acknowledgement nor invoice to customers.  They do the invoices and card payments for me like PayPal.

 

I still know what to ship however since the order mail sent to me is from Prestashop and not from Klarna. In other words, their module don't seem to collect all neccessary information that still is visible for me in my back office.

[viger]

AWP is a great piece of software!    As all modules of Presto-Changeo...

 

I tried it in the demo, very nice, quite complicated to understand and install but really good. But the demo, due to a "dirty" backoffice, doesn't work well, I couldn't try everything, so I decided for a different way, 150$ are quite a lot and if I'm not sure of the final result I don't pay...

So I bought AW normal, very nice front office, not so complicated to configure and I use the posted solution, it works fine for me.

 

Anyway, I wasn't able, in the demo of AWP, to set that if the "main product" is out of stock, it can't be purchased in any configuration. The default configuration was out of stock, but setting the product with other attributes it was ready for purchase. Also if the setting for out of stock is "deny orders".

[Mr.Bean_S]

Anyway, I wasn't able, in the demo of AWP, to set that if the "main product" is out of stock, it can't be purchased in any configuration. The default configuration was out of stock, but setting the product with other attributes it was ready for purchase. Also if the setting for out of stock is "deny orders".

There are three different setting to choose from when "Out of stock" in AWP.

1.  Hide  - When the amount of one of the contained attribute go below 1 it simply hides that choise so ppl can't see and order it.

2.  Disable - They can see the combination but can't place it in cart since combination is disabled. I think this will make ppl mad. 

3.  None - This means that ppl can still order the product but get the message it's out of stock and delivery is X weeks.

 

There really is no "main product" just combinations that either are, or are not, possible to ship.

 

I sell bean bags of different colors and I also sell a lot of filling for bean bags.

If I have 5 red bags and 5 blue I naturally want the system to keep track of how many I have of each color.

I create the product "Bean Bag" and make all my different colors as attributes.

For the attributes I set the stock quantities and and start selling them with no problem.

Now suddenly a customer want to buy a bean bag without the filling. Easy I think. I just create the attribute "No filling" and make a price deduction. Nope, I soon noticed that I also needed to create an attribute for "With filling" so there was something to chose between.

Now the total of your combinations doubled.  There was 5 red bag with filling and 5 bag without filling. That makes a total of 10 red bags although I still just had 5 in reality. Same problem with amount of blue bags.

Then, if I wanted to give the customer an option to buy a liner (inner bag) for the bean bag to make it easier to wash I naturally added these attribute "with" or "without" liner.  This created even more combinations.

1 - Red bag with filling and liner

2 - Red bag with filling and without liner

3 - Red bag without filling but with liner

4 - Red bag without filling and no liner

Now total amount of red bags seemed to be 20, but I still just had 5.

 

Anyway, after installing AWP I just need one attribute for a color and set the stock amount for that.

The color attribute is in a separate group so customer have to chose a color.

The other attributes I have in a different group and since I don't think I'll run out of "Without filling" in a near future I thought I could just set the amount to 0.  That was not so good since a combination where one of the parts has zero in stock would be hidden, not possible to chose or show a stock amount below zero if they chose it.

In other words, if the attribute is "without filling", "without liner" you will NEVER run out but since you disable the attribute with 0 you instead give them the amount of 1000000 in stock. Doesn't really matter to you as long as the customer can't see this.

If you have 5 red bags and 10 liners the shop will show there are 5 pcs available for the combination red bag with liner.

If you only have 3 liners it will show 3 pcs available even if you have 5 red bags. If you then switch to WITHOUT liner it will change to 5 in stock.  The reason is shop thinks that you have one million "without liner" in stock and only care about how many red bags there are.

 

If you look at this demo link for AWP you see a watch.  http://demo.presto-changeo.com/151awp/index.php?id_product=8&controller=product

 

All we know is that they have 100 watches in stock. It does not change nomatter what color of the strap or ring we chose.

This tells us that all combinations of straps and rings are higher than 100 because if there was only 5 blue rings the available amount would change to 5 when I click the blue color for rings.

Edited September 23, 2013 by Mr.Bean_S (see edit history)

[viger]

Thanks Mr. Bean, it quite more clear now.

AWP is really versatile module, a great improvement to PS. I solved in another way, more "customized" for my shop and products, but if I read your explanation a few days ago, probably I bought AWP instead AW and attributes-stock modification. Anyway, if I change something in my work and I'll need a different way to manage attributes, I'll install it. And if I'll don't understand something... I'll contact you for sure! 

[Mr.Bean_S]

Actually afterwards I realize that I wasn't totally clear.

I wrote "All we know is that they have 100 watches in stock" and that's not correct.

What we know is that they have 100 or MORE of them in stock.

For all we know they could have 1000 watches in stock but not more than 100 straps or rings.

What the customer will see is always what is possible to buy in that specific combination.

 

If we say that they have only 100 watches in stock and you place an order for 50 with a green strap and ring.

In that case it would show they have 50 available for delivery nomatter what color somebody select after that.

 

If they had 1000 watches in stock it would only show as 50 available if the customer select the green colors and it might only do that if they chose the green ring and not if they chose a green strap with an orange ring.

This is because every attribute has it's own stock value and the amount available the customer will see is what actually is possible to deliver.

 

For this reason you have to set a fake high stock value for attributes like "With gift wrapping" or "Packed by a busty blonde" because you probably don't have a limitation there.

 

For an attribute like that you would need to use a checkbox because if you use a radio button I think you will need an alternative (like "Packed by an old bald fart") to alter with. Have not tested but would guess it works like that. For colors it would be the opposit. What to do if customer check both yellow and blue?  Send a green one? 

 

I quite like that you next to the attribute can show (before they click it) what change to the price the selection will do.

If the default product cost $375 and the extra option another $120 you can decide if you want the text to show "Increase $120" or "Total $495".

I prefer the first alternative since then customer don't need to use their brain to figure out the cost for the extra option. They will know the total anyway as soon as they click the attribute.

 

Perhaps it's a little complicated to install (but you probably can get them to help you with that) and when it comes to "complicated to understand" I think it's mostly because the lack of good documentation (at least I didn't see any) for beginners.

I'm quite sure they would save a lot of their own time (and the customers) if they did focus on that a little. Now they probably get similar questions from many customers but my experiance with ppl is that they hate to read and therefore many of the questions I get are replied with a link to the page on my site where the answer to their question is.  Some might even get the point? 

Edited September 24, 2013 by Mr.Bean_S (see edit history)

[viger]

For sure a good documentation help a lot... If I had some, for sure I bought AWP. I tried to work on BO demo, but I can't do everything due to some limitation to avoid damages to the demo itself, and due to a soooo slow server (at least from my side). So I couldn't test if AWP was exactly what I need. Now I understand that it does what I need, but I already solved my problem.

Your explanation should be put in evidence in the AWP thread!

[Holspeed]

Well I'm back, once again looking at Prestashop as our ecommerce platform.

 

Disappointingly it appears nothing has changed on the attributes front. I still cant fathom why this hasn't been addressed - a simple switch marking an attribute as having no impact on stock really cant be that hard to implement.

 

Before we chose a different solution last year I contacted Thomo from Presto as to whether one of their products would be suitable and if it would work with multi-store and single warehouse. I really didn't know what to reply after he advised to look for a custom solution. 

 

So the question is, can anyone now offer a solution to this seemingly basic problem?

Edited July 31, 2014 by Holspeed (see edit history)

[mk00]

Well I'm back, once again looking at Prestashop as our ecommerce platform.

 

Disappointingly it appears nothing has changed on the attributes front. I still cant fathom why this hasn't been addressed - a simple switch marking an attribute as having no impact on stock really cant be that hard to implement.

 

Before we chose a different solution last year I contacted Thomo from Presto as to whether one of their products would be suitable and if it would work with multi-store and single warehouse. I really didn't know what to reply after he advised to look for a custom solution. 

 

So the question is, can anyone now offer a solution to this seemingly basic problem?

 

I am also interested in this issue...in Attribute Wizard Pro I do not like the choice of attributes bulky, I like standard

[emostoyanov]

I am looking for such a simple change as well! Subscribing

[neonsuns]

Does anyone know how to do this without buying a $150 module? I just want to have one of my two product attributes affect stock.

[thespew77]

any news on this subject?

[trimark]

Any update ?

[it-gration]

I would also highly appreciate a solution for this issue e.g. a code snippet for stockmvt.php like descibed in the following post:

 

[1] https://www.prestashop.com/forums/topic/43828-combination-quantity/page-3?do=findComment&comment=746326

 

From my perspective it does not at all speak for PS, that such basic and urgently required functionality (since many years) is only offered in commecial solutions... Or is it usual that for every problem mentioned in a PS thread, smb comes up with a commercial solution? My understanding for open source is slighlty different...

 

[2] http://www.presto-changeo.com/en/attribute-modules/98-single-stock-attributes.html or even worse here

 

[3] http://www.presto-changeo.com/en/attribute-modules/34-attribute-wizard-pro.html

 

 

Did anybody proof the code from Eggbert [1] in Prestashop 1.6.1.6

<?php
class StockMvt extends StockMvtCore {
    public function add($autodate = true, $nullValues = false, $update_quantity = true) {
	    if (!$update_quantity)
		    return true;
	    if ($this->id_product_attribute) {
		    $product = new Product((int) $this->id_product, false, Configuration::get('PS_LANG_DEFAULT'));
		    return (Db::getInstance()->Execute(
			    'UPDATE `' . _DB_PREFIX_ . 'product_attribute`
			    SET `quantity` = quantity+' . $this->quantity . ' WHERE `id_product` = ' . (int) $this->id_product) &&
		    $product->updateQuantityProductWithAttributeQuantity());
	    }
	    else
		    return Db::getInstance()->Execute('
    UPDATE `' . _DB_PREFIX_ . 'product`
    SET `quantity` = quantity+' . (int) $this->quantity . '
    WHERE `id_product` = ' . (int) $this->id_product);
    }
}
?>

I tried so with negative impact... I copied the above mentioned code to the end of this file <prestashop root>/overrides/classes/StockMvt.php

 

Hope smb could help

 

Stefan

[drzraf]

http://forge.prestashop.com/browse/PSCFV-4391