Attributes & Stock Levels

[brinna_rose]

Hello,
I apologize if this has been asked and answered before. I have been searching for a solution for awhile. I like PrestaShop a lot so far, and would really like to be able to continue to use it.

I am a seamstress that does mainly custom work, and I have seen on other sites like etsy that you can choose a product and then choose attributes to add to it to build a custom product. When I try to do this, it generates 500 products instead of 5, with each attribute combo showing as instock. In reality, I may only have 5 units of a fabric in stock, and 500 ways to make the product. I'm afraid that if I leave it the way it is, a customer may order too many of a unit and I would be understocked with the particular fabric, with no way to get more.

Is there some way for attributes to be chosen in an either/or manner, to build a product from the ground up by adding options via attributes? Or to have a listed stock of a certain attribute that can be mix & match, basically?

I understand this may be confusing, I will try to answer any needed clarification questions.

Thanks!
Megan Samson

[redfordnl]

Do you mean something like this?

Attribution Wizzard Pro

[brinna_rose]

Well I was hoping there was another solution that didn't require a purchase costing over $100. That is not possible with my budget at the moment. I was hoping there was some coding or files I could use. Could I just open the source file and code in some options, and use it as a template somehow?

[tomerg3]

My module lets you assign a stock per each attribute rather than per each combination, it does a lot more than that, which is why it's prices at what it is (that's about 2+ months of development).

There is a free modification I posted here that reduces the quantity from all the attributes when you buy one, I'm not sure if that's what you looking for, but that is something that can be done with the current framework.

If you give a more specific example of how you want it to behave, I may be able to offer a soluton.

[brinna_rose]

I understand why it's priced quite high, that coding etc takes much longer than people realize. I'm not begrudging the price, I simply can't afford it at this time. I may buy it in the future, I looked at the demo, and it's a nice piece of work. I'm not trying to avoid paying the price, I just wondered if there were an option via coding for attributes to produce a customized product order.

I believe I saw your mod posted about reducing the attributes in a group, and I don't know if that's specific enough for what I need. What I need is probably what you described for the module...stock/inventory parameters for an attribute so that the customer can choose a fabric they like, and then pick other attributes to define the product I'd be making, with the system thinking I have only 4 possible combo items available if I only have 4 of the fabric units available, as opposed to hundreds of in-stock item options. I'm sure that the current system would accurately tell me exactly what the customer wanted, but it would leave me wide open to people ordering far more than what I have on hand.

I expect that I now have to either find another cart system for the meantime or save up for the module.


Thanks for replies,
Megan Samson

[netrover]

I understand why it's priced quite high, that coding etc takes much longer than people realize. I'm not begrudging the price, I simply can't afford it at this time. I may buy it in the future, I looked at the demo, and it's a nice piece of work. I'm not trying to avoid paying the price, I just wondered if there were an option via coding for attributes to produce a customized product order.

I believe I saw your mod posted about reducing the attributes in a group, and I don't know if that's specific enough for what I need. What I need is probably what you described for the module...stock/inventory parameters for an attribute so that the customer can choose a fabric they like, and then pick other attributes to define the product I'd be making, with the system thinking I have only 4 possible combo items available if I only have 4 of the fabric units available, as opposed to hundreds of in-stock item options. I'm sure that the current system would accurately tell me exactly what the customer wanted, but it would leave me wide open to people ordering far more than what I have on hand.

I expect that I now have to either find another cart system for the meantime or save up for the module.


Thanks for replies,
Megan Samson

Hi there Megan,

Did you find an easy solution to your problem because I have one that is much the same as yours.

I fully understand what you mean because I'm struggling in the same way.

We basically want attributes not to have stock levels because all they are is customisations of the main item purchased.

Mine as an example is a plain black t-shirt costing X amount.

I might only have 5 black plain tshirts for sale.

The customer can choose one line of print adding x amount to the price or 2 lines of print adding x amount.

The attributes for lines of print do not need stock levels.

If I put in 5 items of single line and 5 items of two lines for print then it thinks I have 15 t-shirts.

The same applies if I want attributes for colour of the printing on the t-shirts.

I still only might have 5 t-shirts but a choice of 20 print colours.

It's similar problem to yours as we are basically customising items.

[brinna_rose]

No, I never did find a solution. I tried different coding, and I tried different carts. I think I've tried or looked into almost every free cart over the past month and a half. It's funny that you ask this now, because yesterday I reinstalled Presta Shop and decided to try this Att. Wiz. Pro module, because there is no other way for me to get a cart to do what I need it to do. Which is, keep track of stock by an attribute, and block purchase of an attribute if there's not enough stock for the order. I could hardly believe this was such a rare thing. I hear Magneto has this feature for free, and I liked the front end of Magneto, but the back end was hell, if I could even log in at all. I was constantly refreshing either end, and no customer is going to keep refreshing the page! I have no idea yet whether this module will do what you need it to do, I still haven't had a chance to test it myself.

Megan

[netrover]

No, I never did find a solution. I tried different coding, and I tried different carts. I think I've tried or looked into almost every free cart over the past month and a half. It's funny that you ask this now, because yesterday I reinstalled Presta Shop and decided to try this Att. Wiz. Pro module, because there is no other way for me to get a cart to do what I need it to do. Which is, keep track of stock by an attribute, and block purchase of an attribute if there's not enough stock for the order. I could hardly believe this was such a rare thing. I hear Magneto has this feature for free, and I liked the front end of Magneto, but the back end was hell, if I could even log in at all. I was constantly refreshing either end, and no customer is going to keep refreshing the page! I have no idea yet whether this module will do what you need it to do, I still haven't had a chance to test it myself.

Megan

Hi Megan, like you I have tried all the other carts as well. Magento is certainly bloated and slow.

...anyway, I have been thinking about this all day.

The only workaround I have come up with which could be a good solution for you is:-

Create all your customisations as separate products and in a separate category. That way you have the stock control you need.

Then on your main items you can associate the customise products you created as accessories.

They will then appear on an accessories tab for each product.

You can just put a note in the description of the product to checkout the accessories for customising.

[brinna_rose]

I experimented last night with the system (with the wiz module installed), and it looks like it will work just fine the way it is, without whatever confusing solution you just presented. If you were suggesting a way I could do it without the module, it may have worked, but too much hassle for the customers. I think $115 was a reasonable price to pay for the benefit of having all the choices on one product page, with controlled stock. I entered all my fabric samples in as attributes, choosing the option of a color group, and uploading each picture to its attribute. I have 3 separate groups of fabric to choose from for each customized product, then a half dozen more other choices in dropdowns and checkboxes for further product customization. None of these products are physically created yet. The only thing that I wish was different, is that so far it seems to me that the quantity of an attribute is defined after it's applied to the product, instead of the attribute itself, so I don't know if I can have the same fabric be applied as an option to 2 different products and share the same stock level. Can't have it all I suppose...

Megan Samson

[tomerg3]

Each product has it's out stock level for attributes, however, just like AWP changes many things in the way attributes are handled, it's possible to change the way the stock works, so when a certain attribute is sold, it will modify the stock for all other attributes that use it.

It's not a simple task, and would probably require a couple of hours of work (including testing), but it is possible (much like anything else...)

[brinna_rose]

Each product has it’s out stock level for attributes, however, just like AWP changes many things in the way attributes are handled, it’s possible to change the way the stock works, so when a certain attribute is sold, it will modify the stock for all other attributes that use it.

It’s not a simple task, and would probably require a couple of hours of work (including testing), but it is possible (much like anything else…)

I'm not sure what you are suggesting with this -- if you are saying it's simply possible, or that you are looking into it, or if it is a custom coding job I would have to purchase your time for.

I believe if I have crossover (root?) attribute stock the system would be nearly perfect for my needs. I am currently splitting up my stock quantity between products and overstating my stock a little bit for a specific specialized fabric that is in nearly all my products.

A possible workaround would be dynamic attribute choices, so I could set it up to have accurate stock without overwhelming my customers by showing 100+ fabric choices on one product page. Certainly not optimal though.

Thanks for your response,
Megan Samson

[OnTargetPro]

Zen Cart does this for free, but considering how easy everything else is in PrestaShop, I think I might just spend the $115 rather than start over....

[brinna_rose]

I tried Zen Cart for nearly a month, and it was not enough for what I needed. The module that was common to use for attribute stock required you to make a different product for each combination and keep stock of that combination, and the other module that kept track of stock by attributes did not block purchase of out of stock attributes. PrestaShop and its attribute wizard pro were my only option. It's still not optimal, but at least it looks good!