Need Mod/add-on/Contribution

[Twister]

In need of a mod or contribution for v2 that will allow us to:
1: Track inventory (Product quantities) by model AND attributes
2: Maintain and validate minimum order quantities by model and or catagories (with or without attributes) at checkout.

Does anyone know if either or both of these mods exist for v2? I've looked through the v2 contribs and couldn't seem to find either. Im not nearly skilled enough in PHP to write them and they seem so basic that they must exist somewhere.

Thanks

[michael_s]

1. osCMax already does this. Inventory of products is tracked, as well as inventory of attributes.

2. Minimum order quantities - you would need to add a mod for this. Check at oscommerce.com it the contributions section, I am sure that there is something that does exactly this.

[davidAMS]

How do you go about keep track of the quantity of the Model & Attributes? I've checked off Track Stock for an product option (e.g. Color) but I don't know where to enter in the quantity for Product 1 in blue, Product 1 in red, etc. I've checked the Products Attributes page, the Categories/Products Page and the Attributes Manager.

When I click keep track of quantity, I find that the quantity is sold out for each of the available options using Color - for each product using color.


..... Never mind

I found it when you click Products/Categories go to the Products Action button and click stock on the right side (Beside edit, delete, move)

Now what does the quantity within the product page used for now?

[Twister]

I did check out the osc contribs and found a contrib called "Min Product Quantity with Admin 1.5" - it's a prety intense mod - I applied it to OSC 2.2 and it works fine. However, I won't use it - here's why: if you set the minimum order quantity to 5 and a customer enters a quantity of one and clicks "Buy Now" it changes the quantity in his cart to 5 without aproval by the customer - if he fails to notice the change you've just shipped 4 items to the customer that he never intended to order, took a substantial bite out of his credit card and will most likely find yourself engaged in a spirited debate with his attorney!

If I can't find a suitable mod that redirects back to the product page with a notice I'll probably just write a javascript function to check quantities @ checkout time - not very elagent but decidely more humane!

I don't intend to take anything away from the contrib - the author did a fine job with database mods and both admin and product setup points to establish minimums and turn then on and off. It's a great, error free contrib for someone who can use it.

[michael_s]

Should be pretty easy to add bold, large red text to the shopping cart saying that it was updated to meet minimums.

On the other hand, it should be pretty easy to simply have the product page loop back to itself with an error message, saying that they did not meet the minimum.

[jpf]

There is quite a few to look at:
osCommerce: Minimum Order Quantity Per Product
osCommerce: Minimum Total Order Quantity
osCommerce: Minimum Order Amount
osCommerce: Minimum Product Quantity with Admin
And a MAX version (in case some one else is asking):
osCommerce: Maximum Product Quantity with Admin

[Twister]

In need of a mod or contribution for v2 that will allow us to:
1: Track inventory (Product quantities) by model AND attributes...

Originally Posted by michael_s

1. osCMax already does this. Inventory of products is tracked, as well as inventory of attributes.

2. Minimum order quantities - you would need to add a mod for this. Check at oscommerce.com it the contributions section, I am sure that there is something that does exactly this.

Hi Michael,

If it's possible to track inventory by product/attribute(s) in oscMax I sure can't find it.

The low stock report (stats_low_stock_attrib.php) only tracks at the product level. In other words, if you sell a certain widget <$model> that comes in 3 sizes and 5 colors (2 attributes <$size> & <$color>) all tracking takes place at the product <$model> level cause there's no other level it can possibly track at! Here's why:

First of all, there is no provision in the database to maintain any quantity data on attributes - each attribute lives in it's own world and knows nothing about other attributes (like $small and $blue) or products ($widgets). Basically everything is unaware of everything else. There's been a weak attempt to link them all together in an x-ref table to become attributes of one OR many products either individually or along with other attributes but it accomplishes nothing because it's built on a series of many to many to many relationships and cannot be defined or tracked!

While the customer can select what he specifically wants from a series of attribute dropdowns, the only solution from an inventory control perspective is messy, labor intensive and requires a huge number of distinct products - ie: seperate products for small blue widgets, small red widgets, medimum blue widgets, large green widgets, etc. In our little example, the one product <$widget> must become 15 seperate products - each with its own stock level. And what if widgets could also be square, round, rectangular, etc. Naturally, no customer would want to scroll thru all that to find the one(s) he wants and the attribute dropdowns make his job easier at the expense of the merchant who must manually scroll thru all his orders making little tick mark counts of what is actually being sold so he'll know what's moving and what he needs to restock AFTER manually counting his widgets! Whew!

Ok, given that attributes live apart from other attributes and given that models (products) live apart from attributes (hence the many to many to many relationship) and considering that no customer wants to sort through every possible combination to select what he wants, A POSSIBLE SOLUTION emerges but it takes a bit of of work. Here's A (Twisted) WAY to solve the problem

In admin, you enter a single product ($widget) thus giving it a unique key. Next you set up your two attribute classes <$color> and <$size> and fill in their properties, like sm. med, lg for <$size>, red, green blue, etc for <$color>. Now each attribute and each property has it's own unique key (and yes, this piece already exists on oscMax and works fine).

Now it's time to do the heavy lifting and link everything together in the background. Try to follow this since I'm trying to keep my typing to a minimum!!!
When it's time to assign attributes to products, the admin will need to define what attributes <$size> & <$color> for example, relate to the his specific product <$widget>. When he selects all attributes that apply to his widget he has effectively built an attribute "class" and the unique keys of the "attribute collection" <$size> & <$color> are then compounded into a single key. But that's not good enough since the compound key <$small>.<$blue> can belong to lots of different products and would not be unique. Therefore, the attribute class (compound) key must, in turn, be compounded with the product's unique key. Now we finally have a single unique key to begin working with!

With our new key in hand we also know what product and categoty it belongs to and the individual properties of each of the attributes in the class (sm, med, lg, red, yellow, blue, etc.). We can now programmatically disassemble this key and build the individual records for our inventory table and display them on a form for the merchant to fill in his actual stock levels (10 large green, 6 sm yellow, etc.).

Since our algorithm is sound we can use it at checkout time to adjust our inventory counts and write to a "product_sales" sales table which we can report on and provide the merchant with precise detail on exactly which (of our little 15 potental widgets example) are hot items and which are dogs. Now he can finally "manage" his inventory quickly and easily and maybe even do a litle fancy forecasting in the process!!! Still with me?

Finally, when a product shipment is received into inventory, the merchant enters a product identifier <$model> and the same screen he used to input his initial stock levels (above) populates and can now be used to check the newly arrived items into stock!
Oh yeah, and NOTHING has changed for the customer - he still clicks on a widget and selects his attributes applicable to his selection. All existing programming should work as is!

I didn't say it was easy, I just said it could be done and as far as I can tell, no one else has it (unless you want to spend a fortune leasing a very expensive cart).

I could do the database piece but the PHP is well beyond my ability. Still, something like this could put oscMAX over the top. Just a thought...

Richard

[jpf]

The low stock report (stats_low_stock_attrib.php) - Works fine for me. Got stock tracking turn on for each product option that you want to track stock on?

See attached PIC.

[davidAMS]

Twister,

I had the same problem, I looked around for awhile and couldnt' figure it out. But I finally did a few days ago.

When you are creating Product Options in the Product Attributes section change Track Stock to yes. Now everytime a stock has an attribute color, for example Color: Blue, you can change the quantity for that color. To do that click Categories/Products and navigate to the product that you want and click the Action button then click the Stock button on the right menu.

From here it should allow you to choose the attribute and add a quantity to it. If you don't put a quantity to it, I believe it will put Out Of Stock in your actual catalog.

Note that adding the same attribute twice does not "ADD" onto the current amount, but it will overwrite it. (At least in my installation).

[davidAMS]

Also, it will then write into the products_stock table.