product options - how to make disappear

[spardue]

I'm still a 3DCart newbie, trying to determine whether I want to set up my products as individual products or use options where I can. Many of my items come in colors, could be set up as options, or I can make each color a unique product in 3DCart. I see pros and cons to both methods, and would like feedback from others on this question.

Items that are set up as unique products "disappear" from the screen when out of stock, so I don't have to do screen updates to keep up with inventory level changes. Really LOVE that!!

However, it appears that options still appear in the options dropdown list for the "master" product even if that particular option has stock level of zero. I would like the options to "disappear" from the dropdown list when out of stock. Does anyone know how to do this?

Because my options will be colors, not sizes, I also want to display a larger color image for every option on the product screen, not just tiny thumbnails on the dropdown list. I'm assuming this means I have to manually add the images I want to display, and then manually remove them when colors go out of stock. Does anyone have a better way of handling this?

This manual update process and the problem of out-of-stock options still appearing in the dropdown list are probably big enough problems to prevent me from using options at all. Any words of wisdom from folks using options?

Thanks - I'm learning so much by reading all the posts and suggestions from other users!

Sue

[spardue]

Anyone? Has anyone figured out how to get individual options to not display when out of stock, similar to how a product can be set to not display when out of stock?

Thanks!

[GonzaloGil]

This is not an option right now.
If you turn on the inventory option it will prevent customers from buying an option not in stock, but it will still display.

We are working on making this work the way you are requesting. When you have 1 option, its not so complicated, but when you have 2-3 options, it gets a little complicated. Ie. You may not have BLUE in small and Medium, but have it in Large. And so all options need to show in case they do want Blue Large. But as soon as they click Small then the blue option would have to disappear. Again you could have 5 options, 10 options, etc. and so when this change is made it must accommodate all possibilities and so this is why its still work in progress .

[Luxlife]

Originally Posted by GonzaloGil

This is not an option right now.
If you turn on the inventory option it will prevent customers from buying an option not in stock, but it will still display.

We are working on making this work the way you are requesting. When you have 1 option, its not so complicated, but when you have 2-3 options, it gets a little complicated. Ie. You may not have BLUE in small and Medium, but have it in Large. And so all options need to show in case they do want Blue Large. But as soon as they click Small then the blue option would have to disappear. Again you could have 5 options, 10 options, etc. and so when this change is made it must accommodate all possibilities and so this is why its still work in progress .

Gonzalo. Have you considered offering true daisy chain options where each parent option limits and determines the choices of sub options? As a programming strategy, any choice of an out of stock option could prevent the choice of the next option. Without a complete option selection, the item could not be purchased.

It would be useful if we could choose how individual options display when they are out of stock. Following your point, in addition to preventing the purchase of out of stock options, they could either show with a custom message like "not available" automatically attached or they could not show at all. What are your thoughts?

[spardue]

Gonzalo - Yes, I can see where this would be difficult with multiple options. I've continued to play around with this, and finally found a way to do this when using only one option set per product.

Under Store Settings, there is a setting to Hide Adv Options Out of Stock - I ran a quick test, and this appears to prevent out-of-stock options from appearing in the product options dropdown list - just what I was looking for! Hurray! (Maybe this was the solution you said was in the works??)

Anyway, just thought I'd share what I found, to help others who may be looking for the same thing.

Thanks!
Sue

[Shopabit]

Originally Posted by spardue

Under Store Settings, there is a setting to Hide Adv Options Out of Stock - I ran a quick test, and this appears to prevent out-of-stock options from appearing in the product options dropdown list - just what I was looking for! Hurray! (Maybe this was the solution you said was in the works??)
Sue

Sue,
I can't seem to understand how your doing this. I have a couple of products with color options, but don't see a place to add the different colors stock amounts in the first place. Which it would seem needs to be done in order to hide the option.
Would you explain where the option stock amount is entered?

Thanks
Paul

[spardue]

I'd be happy to explain (should also note... I'm still in migration mode, not a live site yet, so I'm still learning... but I think I've got this part figured out!)

Once you've created your options, go to the Options tab on the product add/edit screen. In the upper right corner, click on Advanced Options. Here is where you enter prices, quantity in stock, etc. for options. Try making one option (say, red) out of stock by entering stock of zero, then test it out.

Under Store Settings, you can turn on/off the Hide Adv Options Out of Stock setting - if it's checked, the option you set to stock level zero should not appear in your options dropdown on the product screen. If you turn the setting back on (don't hide them), that option will reappear in your options list even though it is out of stock.

I'm not sure how this would work if you have multiple options (say, color AND sizes) - my products have only one type of option - but in my case, it's doing what I needed.

Hope that helps! Sue.