cinda555 Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 HiI want to add fields to the matrix which I can then use to export to google base. Ideally I want to identify Parent and Child products and also supply different image paths for Colour Variations.If I do this manually UPDATE TABLE and then some hardcoded php etc - will this problems for me in the future? What is the "correct" method for creating plugin mods for CC6? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bsmither Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 Welcome cinda555! Glad to see you made to the forums."I want to identify Parent and Child products"Would this be a product's characteristic? Like "Recommended for ages 4-8" or "For Adults Only"? (Chuggy's Additional Product Fields)Or is it more like a relationship between several items in the Inventory? (Several Related Products mods in the Extensions Marketplace)"supply different image paths for Colour Variations."HavenSwift Hosting has something that may work."Will this [cause] problems for me in the future?"No and Yes. Unless you take very detailed notes on what you have done, and can apply those edits to a codebase that may have changed, an update will obliterate your work. Your work will be gone, and if there are remnants in the database, that may cause some issues with code execution (enumerated configuration data sets for code that no longer exists)."What is the "correct" method for creating plugin mods for CC6?"There are approaches that work, but there is no correct way because there is no Software Developer's Knowledgebase (SDK) for CubeCart that would detail what a plugin should look like. I copy the existing plugins' structure and hope I don't blow up anything.In the classes, most each method has a comment block that lists the inputs and outputs (a format for automated documentation systems). Too many are wrong or incomplete, and none describe what the method does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havenswift-hosting Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 "supply different image paths for Colour Variations."HavenSwift Hosting has something that may work.We have a plugin that allows you to assign different images to one set of product options so for example "Colour" is by far the most commonly used option to display a different image for each colour variation. You can see this working in several skins (but not all) on our demo site https://www.cubecart-demo.co.ukYou will need a custom export facility writing (is this to export products to Amazon by any chance as your wording seems to indicate ?) and part of this would need to export the correct image path per variation.Our plugin currently does not have the ability to hold an image against the options matrix but a client has recently requested this and we are looking at amending the plugin to be able to do thisIan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cinda555 Posted August 6, 2015 Author Share Posted August 6, 2015 HiWhat Im trying to create is a true Multi Variation product with SKU and EAN and stock level support example rowssku colour size ean stocklevelshirt001-red-s red small 55669933456 5shirt001-red-m red medium 55669933457 5 I then want to also export this to various feeds. i think at present im only going to be able to export the parent product record which wont have an ean - because it is the shell product without its paramters ( colour and size ) This can be achieved by extending the option matrixbut i think the better way would be to add a record_type field ( or similar ) to define if its a parent or child and also a parent_sku field to bind the children to the parent. i would then have to stop the children being visible at the store front as individual itemswhere record_type = parentI think if i do all this maybe im going to cause a massive headache later on updatesCan you think of a better way of achieving this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bsmither Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 From your description, I think you haven't seen the Options Matrix Table.The matrix holds every combination of option attributes that are enabled for the Options Matrix table in the top Product Options table (not pictured here). If there were sizes enabled for the Options Matrix table, then there would be Brown-Small, Brown-Large, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cinda555 Posted August 6, 2015 Author Share Posted August 6, 2015 bsmither:Hi thereI have seen the Options Matrix and I was exploring the possibility of adding fields which are not customer facing which I could then use for exporting data.Does the option matrix show up in any exports currently?Ian:HiIts not specifically for amazon but I think their parent/child flat file is a decent scheme. What kind of timeframe do you anticipate with amendment to the plugin?Also - has their ever been any thoughts to CC supporting multiple websites from one installation? I Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cinda555 Posted August 6, 2015 Author Share Posted August 6, 2015 Also IanWhat about swapping the colour dropdown for a mini image of the product? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bsmither Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 "Does the option matrix show up in any exports currently?"I made an export module called "Inventory Time" that lists each product's option combination as a separate item. This is not a "site map" that is sent to Google. It could be adapted, however. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cinda555 Posted August 7, 2015 Author Share Posted August 7, 2015 Cool. Is the "inventory time" module available publicly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havenswift-hosting Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 "Does the option matrix show up in any exports currently?"I made an export module called "Inventory Time" that lists each product's option combination as a separate item. This is not a "site map" that is sent to Google. It could be adapted, however.That is a good start although most applications that require this type of export structure actually need it not as separate products but using a parent / child structure which fits in more closely with how the options matrix is held but does mean that each export will have a different file format such as the one used by Amazon for example What kind of timeframe do you anticipate with amendment to the plugin?Also - has their ever been any thoughts to CC supporting multiple websites from one installation?In terms of timeframe it is going to depend on when / if our client decides to go ahead - of course if there were two people interested and part funding the development then it becomes a higher priority !There has been discussions over the years and we even looked into a system for a large client a couple of years ago but to be honest there is rarely a good reason for introducing a huge amount of complexity into core CubeCartWhat about swapping the colour dropdown for a mini image of the product? Not clear exactly what you mean - have you looked at our demo site ? Can you explain in more detail what you are looking for that is different Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bsmither Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 Send me a PM with your email address and I will attach the Inventory Time module to a reply.We can work together to customize it to suit your needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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