New in v3.3.0: New product option features

[Jamie]

Hey There,

We have a lot of new features in the works. While I can't list all of them here, I'd like to use this thread to discuss some of them. These will most likely be in v3.3.0 unless we decide to go with a different version number. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts.

[Jamie]

Here is a very silly example screenshot of the pricing section for a test product which makes use of some new option features coming soon.



There is an awful lot going on there, but I'll do my best to explain what's new.

First of all, for the most part ignore the labels for the fields. They were for my reference only. As usual, you have full control over that. Here's what's new:

• Text and Textarea options now support minimum and maximum character fields
  
• When there is a maximum character limit, we count off that limit via Javascript
  
• If you have our tooltip feature enabled, you have the option (no pun intended) on every option to designate a help tooltip.
  
  
  That is triggered via a ? icon like so:
  
  
  This can be used to provide a bit more instruction for the option, or any other info.

[Jamie]

• Options now support optional quantities. This allows a customer to specify how many of a particular option they want for the product. You can set a minimum and/or maximum quantity, use either a text or select field, control the label, and specify a help tooltip like the one described above. If the option has a price, the price is multiplied by the option quantity and then the product quantity.
  
  
  
  

[Jamie]

• You can now specify a tooltip for the option detail links as well:
  

With all these details, you could make a product's page a little over the top - but they are optional. Use the features you want, ignore the ones you don't.

[Jamie]

• Checkbox options are the only options that directly represent an "ON/OFF" or "YES/NO" value. Because of this, we figured you may want to not bother showing the checkbox for checkbox options that have a quantity field enabled. For example, here is a checkbox option with a quantity field enabled:
  
  
  
  Now, if you were to check the Hide Checkbox field in the Quantity Field Settings fieldset on this option's record in the control panel, you would see this instead:
  
  
  
  While the checkbox is gone, this option still acts the same way. If you choose a quantity, the option is chosen. If you don't, it's not.

[Jamie]

• We needed an unobtrusive way to ensure customers understand that the option quantity field is specifically to designate the quantity for the option above it. To idiot proof that, we added a small black arrow that only appears on hover. Without hover:
  
  
  
  With hover:
  
  
  This is done via CSS so if you don't like it you can easily change it if you are familiar with CSS.

[Jamie]

Here is how this looks on the order detail page. Looks virtually identical on the "view cart" page as well.

[Jamie]

One thing that is missing that I am going to make every effort to add is the ability to choose multiple choices for a select option. Coding this will be tricky due to the way we handle options currently.

Here are some ideas on how this is going to be implemented:

• "Select" option records will have a checkbox to turn this on, something like Allow Multiples
• When checked, it will display a fieldset with some additional settings
• On the actual product page, we would default to displaying the choices as checkboxes. There would be an option to change that to a standard select input with the "multiple" attribute. Because many people that are not computer savvy don't know enough to hold down the CTRL field to select multiple values, we are not going to make that the default method of displaying the fields.
• We would add max and minimum choices. This would allow you for example to have a list of 10 choices, and make them choose 3, or up to 5, etc....
• This would support the new option quantity field so they could specify quantities for each choice. If the option quantity field is turned on, there would be an option to hide the checkbox fields in similar fashion to what is explained in the post above this one for regular checkbox options.

[SketchWork]

All looking really good and many of the new features will come in very usful indeed.

[Jamie]

Thanks!

[Jamie]

Support for options that allow multiple selections is about 80% complete and is coming along nicely.

This will be implemented via a "select" option type. To turn it on, you will check a Allow Multiple Selections field on the option's record in the control panel.



This will then allow the customer to choose any of the choice they want via checkboxes:



I decided to not implement this via an actual select input with the "multiple" attribute set, because a large percentage of non technical users don't know how to use them.

Here is that item added to the cart:

[Jamie]

Continuing with the last post...

If you were to check Show Quantity Field on the option record shown above, you would then see something like this on the product page:


The quantity fields can be either text fields, or select inputs (drop down fields). Adding that item to the cart looks like this:


You will be able to limit the minimum and maximum total quantity sum for all selected choices. For example, you could force them to choose 5 bars of soap for a gift basket . If they choose:
(3) Lavender
(1) Oatmeal
(2) Mint

... they would get an error indicating they chose one too many.

You could force them to choose 2 or more, between 3 and 10, etc....


You will also be able to limit the number of unique choices they make. For example, you could make them choose 10 bars of soap, and at least 3 different bars which would make this generate an error:
(3) Lavender
(7) Oatmeal

whereas this would not:
(3) Lavender
(6) Oatmeal
(1) Mint

[Jamie]

Support for options that allow multiple selections is about 80% complete and is coming along nicely.

Update - this feature is now done with the exception of writing the documentation for it. It works with the QuickTotal module, and inventory control as you would expect it to.

[pdunton]

There is a LOT to digest here.
Not sure I understand it all. Actually, even most.
Question. Will we be able to use inventory controls on options that are used in multiple products/categories?

That is: I have an option to provide mounting stands with a product. I use the same option on multiple products. Will the inventory control handle the option stock levels across the multiple uses?

[Jamie]

That is: I have an option to provide mounting stands with a product. I use the same option on multiple products. Will the inventory control handle the option stock levels across the multiple uses?

Inventory control functionality has not changed with these new option features. To track stock for options, you need to add the options to the product record and specify stock levels for each product. We do not support tracking stock levels for the same options on multiple products. They are treated separately for each product.

If you have any more questions about this, we can split them off into a new thread as it is not directly related to the new features discussed above.