New HS Implementation: Ubercart attributes
| Project: | Hierarchical Select |
| Version: | 5.x-3.x-dev |
| Component: | Code |
| Category: | feature request |
| Priority: | normal |
| Assigned: | Unassigned |
| Status: | postponed |
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The Ubercart system, unlike the Ecommerce system, manages subproducts and their attributes without creating separate nodes for each subproduct. This is highly desirable in terms of its extensibility and ease of maintenance, but it also makes it impossible to filter views based on the existence of or stock levels of subproducts with specific attributes.
I am trying to make an apparel store. Products have two attributes: Type (ex. Men's T-Shirt, Women's Tank Top, etc.) and Size (Small, Medium, etc.). My first inclination was to setup a method that links taxonomy terms to attribute options that are defined and are in stock. This is problematic because hierarchical taxonomy is not exclusive.
For example, suppose that I have a specific t-shirt that is available in Men's and Women's Small through Extra Large, but has sold out in Men's Medium. If I filter by taxonomy terms Men's and Medium, I will get that shirt even though it is not available in this specific combination because there exist separate subproducts with each of those attribute options.
An implementation of Hierarchical Select would be ideal for this type of stock chart. Type and Size would each be a drop-down box, and when submitted the view would search the list of subproducts for one that contained each of the specific attribute options selected (and that, optionally, had that specific subproduct in stock).
Ubercart is shaping up to be a powerful and popular e-commerce solution, and an implementation like this would be both a great use for hierarchical select and a substantial asset to Ubercart users. Is this something that others would be interested in?
#1
It sure sounds very interesting! :) I'll gladly review your code, whether it'll be as a patch for the Hierarchical Select module or as a separate module.
#2
I'm also interested in a similar solution. My current coffee inventory list includes the following attributes: size, roast and grind. I need a way to discontinue a combination of these attributes. For example, I need to discontinue a 5lb dark bean coffee while still being able to sell a 300g size of the same.
#3
It seems to me what you want is faceted search? See http://drupal.org/project/faceted_search
#4
The evolution of this issue will depend on the answers at http://www.ubercart.org/forum/development/5335/hierarchical_select_uberc....
#5
As per that forum topic at ubercart.org: this is postponed to the D6 port!
#6
Neither this implementation nor faceted search will work with attributes because they are not driven by taxonomy (at least in D5).
It really NEEDS to work though. The above suggestion (HS) and FS are both fantastic features for a commerce website.
#7
1) What's "FS"?
2) Taxonomy is not related to this.
The D6 version of Ubercart will have hierarchical attributes (as you can read in the aforementioned link) and will therefore be able to use HS in a meaningful way.
#8
FS = Faceted Search (1), as mentioned in previous post (should have CAPPED it). FS requires taxonomy to work (2), and therefore attributes can't be displayed via that method.
Are you saying that HS is table independent...? Probably not, I suppose.
My point was, that if UC attribs convert to using taxonomy-based storage, we can use FS and HS no problem, which would be TOTALLY SWEET.
#9
Well, that first sentence is not quite a beacon of clarity in English language… you should have written that more clearly, especially because FS is not a widely used module (yet), so it's likely that people don't know what you mean.
1) Then FS should be rewritten to support any kind of metadata, hierarchical or not. This is not a problem that Ubercart should solve.
2) What's "table independent" supposed to mean? That it can work with any kind of underlying table, as long as it's the same as Taxonomy's? Then no, it's not "table independent". It's hierarchy-independent. You could have read that in API.txt or even by just looking at which modules are supported: the Menu module for example is most definitely not similar to the Taxonomy module when it comes to the db schema, or as you say it, the "table".
3) Your point is irrelevant here. You should post this as a feature request in the Ubercart issue queue.
#10
Related Question - How do you actually set different stock levels for the different attribute options? i.e. in your apparel store, setting a stock of 10 Mediums and 15 Larges...?
#11
That's a UC question. It shouldn't be asked here.