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    default parts in inventory Kits

    Trying to demonstrate Inventory Kits. Wondering if there is an oversight ( or under-sight) with assigning parts.

    One kit has NO options, but many parts. But, for each included part it appears I need to assign an attribute with a required radio button with the default set and inventory tracking set to be able to assign the part (most parts are also independently sold products in the catalog). There are other kits that will have choices but also with common parts that are not part of an option. If they were related to the option, more like the how-to docs, It makes some sense to assign the part to every option in the attribute. But, these kits have parts that are included regardless of the attribute options. Additionally, displaying many included radio buttons might be chaotic.

    I need to advise the client for the project development impact. CSS and alternate page templates or customized product-attribute templates could handle the scenario of course. Wondering if there is already a solution I haven't seen or if this is a Dream Feature scenario.

    Thank You,
    Scott
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    #2
    Hey Scott,

    I did a ton of testing on kits a couple years ago.. I created some "hacks" to get the desired results in inventory adjustment and dynamic pricing but there are still a couple shortcomings in the Miva kit features for which I've not yet found simple solutions.

    For the kit with NO options but lots of parts you should be able to set up using "Edit Default Variant" (ellipsis menu from Inventory Variants tab,) rather than using the Inventory Kit Builder tab. This should allow you to assign all the kit components without having to create any attributes or variants. I *think* that there was a somewhat recent Miva update which now allows this type of kit to be priced dynamically.. at the time I set mine up I don't think that was possible. Let me know if this works in your case.. I'm curious how the new dynamic pricing works out.

    For kits with assigned choices (variants) in addition to common parts; this is one area where I've not been able to find an easy solution. The last time I tested it was not possible for a kit-product to have components assigned by both "Default Variants" (for the common parts) and "Kit Builder" for the selectable parts. In my case I had a kit with LOTS of common parts and just one part that could selected in black or white. I had to use Inventory Kit Builder to create a black and white option and assign every part to each variant.

    It *might* be possible to create a kit-product that contains only the common parts, and then use that kit as a component for another kit where the shopper can select from options. I've been meaning to test out that scenario but have not needed any new kit products since my last round of kit experiments. I'm interested to hear how this plays out!
    Psydde Delicious
    Delicious Boutique & Corseterie
    Philadelphia, PA
    www.DeliciousBoutique.com
    www.DeliciousCorsets.com

    Comment


      #3
      Hi Psydde,

      Thanks for this. Using a default variant isn't intuitive or I'm not sure it's documented. I didn't look hard because the KIT Builder has its own variant process. It's not fully vetted yet, but I created the kit/product with all the parts and it appears inventory is properly being tracked on the parts. The 3 pricing options do work. 1) from the master 2) a custom price 3) sum of the parts. By default in the PROD template, the custom price or sum-of-parts price hadn't been rendered. But, I'm not working on the PROD template right now.

      There is a potential performance issue. The kits so far are the same except for construction. They have the same parts in each, the name is different. There are 30 parts. The first I made is all default radio button attributes. The second is all parts assigned to the default variant. Rendering the first one takes quite a while when cycling through all of the attributes. The second with the default variant is a normal product page rendering.

      Note for the first one, I even used a custom product field to flag the product-attr template. If it's a KIT, don't display the attributes. Still takes time to render even though it's less time.

      I haven't tried others yet, such as a mix of a default variant and attributes.

      Cheers,

      Scott
      Need to offer Shipping Insurance?
      Interactive Design Solutions https://www.myids.net
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      Comment


        #4
        Still haven't got to the mix of the default variant and attributes for any options in the kit. In using the default variant, I'm wondering there is a way to spit out all of the parts in the default variant in a picklist for example? Writing some custom code could do it, maybe. But, I don't see an easy way to do that. I don't have access to the control panel on this store so I cant search for the table the default variant is in. No matter the case, having 30 parts looks like it's not so fun of an issue. Any ideas?

        Scott


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        Comment


          #5
          Just out of curiosity, since you're working on something similar, I'm wondering if you're running into the same bug(?) I am with default variants.

          For a default variant with components A (1x @ $100), B (1x @ $100), and C (1x @ $100), and with the default variant set to use "Sum of Parts" pricing method [so an initial total of $300], my expectation would be that if I change the price of A to $200, Attribute Machine should be able to figure out that the price of the default variant is now $400 when viewing the product on the website. But when I actually change the price of A to $200, Attribute Machine still shows $300.

          Besides this, default variants have been pretty nice to have and don't seem to have any performance issues even with 40-50 components within a kit.

          Comment


            #6
            AFAIK, the sum of parts won't read the price from the attributes. Only from the product table. I think that's true for the Inv Kit method and the default variant.

            Are creating a mixed KIT? Where the master is made of INV KIT parts and default variant? This is something I need to find time to try out. I think there will be products will a few options and a set of defaults.
            I think the performance issue is because all 30 attributes are running the attribute loop and the product price is being looked up. I was surprised at the time it takes to render the screen.

            Scott
            Need to offer Shipping Insurance?
            Interactive Design Solutions https://www.myids.net
            MivaMerchant Business Partner | Certified MivaMerchant Web Developer
            Competitive Rates, Custom Modules and Integrations, Store Integration
            AutoBaskets|Advanced Waitlist Integration|Ask about Shipping Insurance Integration
            My T-shirt Collection is mostly MivaCon T-shirts!!

            Comment


              #7
              Default variants are for product kits with no attributes/attribute options; they contain a group of component parts, each part having a specified quantity. A kit product with a default variant, if I'm not mistaken, should have no other variants (i.e., you don't use both a default variant and also attributes/kit builder to generate variants). You do not need to set up any attributes for the default variant, just go to the master product's "Edit Product" page, visit the Inventory Variants tab, then click the "..." button at the top right to "Edit Default Variant". That will allow you to add all of the parts and part quantities that you want, and should fix your performance issues (of course, make sure you delete all of the attributes).

              I think maybe the name may be the confusion here. In this case, a "default variant" is not like a core, common group of parts that can be used for other variants, nor is it supposed to act as the first variant that's displayed when the customer navigates to the product page (although it may appear that it works that way, I'm pretty sure the "first" variant loaded is always the minimum variant_id for a given product_id [[this may not be correct, but I haven't been able to pinpoint the specific logic within the LSK that would confirm or deny this assumption]], and since default variants across the board are given a variant_id = 0, it may seem that default variants are intended for this usage when I don't believe they are). Rather, default variants are supposed to be "dumb kits", i.e., a completely static product kit.

              Comment


                #8
                Thanks. You confirmed what I discovered about the default variant where there is no performance issue using this method. I may have misunderstood when you said you didn't have this problem. I thought you were speaking of a KIT using attributes.

                Scott
                Need to offer Shipping Insurance?
                Interactive Design Solutions https://www.myids.net
                MivaMerchant Business Partner | Certified MivaMerchant Web Developer
                Competitive Rates, Custom Modules and Integrations, Store Integration
                AutoBaskets|Advanced Waitlist Integration|Ask about Shipping Insurance Integration
                My T-shirt Collection is mostly MivaCon T-shirts!!

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