variant lengths from bulk?

[BigDummy]

One of the products we offer is steel tubing cut to length. We have a product in our store that represents 1 inch of this tubing, and the customer can order as many inches as they need. Where we have run into some trouble is when they want, for example, 2x 30 inches. Miva combines the two into a single line item of 60 inches. My first thought to better handle this was that we could create variants for the tube at several different lengths, but variants in Miva appear to really be targeted to things like apparel, where there are different colors and sizes where each would constitute a different SKU. In this case, we receive the tubing in bulk lengths and cut to length per order, so they should all draw from the same base inventory. Can anyone offer any suggestions that would allow a customer to order several pieces in different lengths?

[lesliekirk]

Bill Weiland had a module called Size Pricing http://www.emporiumplus.com/v5/size_x.htm - the documentation is thin but it may be what you need. You would have to reach out to Brennan and ask him if you could obtain the module.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

I think it will work if you convert the pricing to an attribute/option (and use attribute pricing), that way you should see

Name QTY
My Custom Pipe Size 2

Size: 30 in.

[BigDummy]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will look into them and let you know if I can get either to work. As much as I would like to start with Bill Weiland's module (I do have a couple installed on my site already), I don't know if his modules are still being maintained and updated as Miva continues to evolve now that he is no longer with us, so will try to start with the attribute/option method first.

[BigDummy]

After further review, both of these methods would create a way to order the different lengths, or even multiples of the same length, but none manage the inventory aspect. The default Miva functionality, using 1" lengths, can manage the inventory, but Miva combines multiple instances of the same product into a single line item. We could, I suppose, add a text attribute that would allow a customer to provide a comment to cut the 72 inches in their basket into 1x 30 + 1x 42 inches, but this is rather cheesy. It would be better if we could turn off Miva's habit of combining multiple cart additions with the same code into the same line item - at least for the "bulk" products.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

You'd need to use attributes inventory levels. In that way, 2 pieces of 30" pipe should decrement the available inventory by 60".

[BigDummy]

I don't understand how we could use attribute inventory levels. We have about 210 feet of material, which customers order in xxx inch lengths. They vary from 6 to 60. My understanding is that Miva tracks each separate attribute as a separate item, not as a deduction from a larger whole. Or, am I missing something? I will admit I don't fully understand the difference between variants and attributes, so maybe I need to educate myself more about both.

[oliverands]

I've never used it, but Miva provides the ability to set up an attribute as a text field or text area. Can you create a single attribute for the product called "inches" and define a text field as the attribute type? You could put in the product description, "This is x type of pipe, custom cut in pieces to the number of inches you select." This should, I would think, allow the customer to input the number of inches desired and would allow you to decrement inventory from a single attribute for the product, with your initial available inventory set to be (210 x 12) for the number of inches you have. The customer could then order two items, each with a length of 30 inches. Or the customer could order once with an attribute of 24 inches and again with an attribute of 36 inches. That would create two products in the basket and would decrement your inventory correctly.

Like I said, I've never set up an attribute as a text field, so I can't guarantee this will work. But give it a try and see if it does.

[BigDummy]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm pretty certain based on my earlier testing that it wouldn't work quite the way you (or I) would hope in that situation. A text field attribute is able to be created and tracked in inventory, but no matter what is in the text field, an order would only reduce the inventory by a quantity of 1 each time. So, I could have one line for 30", and another for 20", but in the store, the inventory would only reduce by 2.

[oliverands]

Of course it would work that way. Don't know why I was thinking it would work the way I thought.

I wonder if there is a way, somehow, to force a quantity selection. You could try the route of creating a custom field and then on your PROD page, put conditional code on the add to cart button that if the custom field on a product is not null send to a separate page where a quantity value is input before completing the add to cart function. It's kind of a kluge approach, but you might be able to make it work that way.