ploughguy Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 (edited) Envisage, if you will, a CubeCart store that has a product with options. A customer opens the category, for example, Cats. A list of cat products are produced - Persian, Tom, Burmese, Mexican Hairless (yech) etc. I am in the midst of setting up a global criminal network, so naturally I select Persian and click its "Add to Cart". However, Persian cats come in colours, so there is a product option. The storekeeper angers the mighty criminal overlord by misrepresenting the function of the button. It is not going to "Add to cart" at all, well not yet. Clicking the button actually invites one to "Select product options". To pile insult upon insult, the product page opens with an angry red banner that effectively says "Hey bozo, you forgot to select the product option." To prevent all cat-monging CubeCat storekeepers from possible thermonuclear or biohazard retribution in the future, I propose that the button caption be changed, when appropriate, to Select Options, or if there is only one, which is probably the most likely case, "Select <optionname>" giving, in the kitty-case, "Select Colour" or for Western Pacific Coast types, "Select Color". Either solution will prepare the buyer for the upcoming option selection and obviate the need for the angry red banner. If the criminal overlord customer really is as dumb as a box of rocks, perhaps we could make the option selection field flash, pulsate or jump around to attract attention to itself rather than flash the red error sign. There is, of course, a language implication here, so the fancy version will require some thoughtful contemplation. "Select options then add to basket" is longish, but it creates an accurate expectation about the future. Of course, it does get one a multi-line button. I do like the idea of a custom "Select <whatever> and add to basket text though. Maybe a plug-in entrepreneur could provide this as a plug-in? Gotta say, though, the product options with option groups and stock level matrices is a damn fine thing. Edited January 28, 2018 by ploughguy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bsmither Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 There is a plugin that adds Options choosers to the View Category listings. It should be easy enough to program the skin to determine if the product has options (required or not), to say "More Info" on the button. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havenswift-hosting Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 https://www.cubecart.com/extensions/plugins/category-product-options Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ploughguy Posted January 28, 2018 Author Share Posted January 28, 2018 These are fine solutions, and the category product options is a must-have. Always wanted it, ever since 4.3.4. And as the Bearded One says, the template can be doctored. But I aver that the template should already be correct - every store that uses mandatory product options is going to tell the customer they have made an error when they Add to Cart. This is not good retail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hairydog Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 I'm looking for a slightly different approach. I want to simply not show a buy button for products that have options, other than mandatory ones with a single default value. Seems to me that the key is the line in content.category.php that says {if $product.ctrl_purchase && !$CATALOGUE_MODE} needs another && condition to indicate that this product has options. But I can't work out what that condition shuld be. Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romank Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 I am afraid the $PRODUCTS variable in content.category.php does not include the information about options for individual products. You will have to make use of the class.catalogue.productassign hook and load the information about the options for each product, using the Catalogue::getProductOptions() method. If you are not a programmer, I am available as a freelance developer if you need this done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hairydog Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 (edited) Thanks for that. At least I'm not missing something obvious. This is an out-of-hours project with no budget. I'll just get rid of the Add to Cart buttons altogether. Don't really want people ordering without seeing product details anyway. An extra impulse sale is not worth the increased risk of a product return Edited January 28, 2018 by hairydog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ploughguy Posted January 28, 2018 Author Share Posted January 28, 2018 (edited) Not a bad idea - change the "Add to Cart" button to "Tell me more" with the same functionality as the product title link, which is a bit subtle. Gotta make it obvious. The Jony Ive design philosophy of dark white links on a light white background has no place in an online store. Edited January 28, 2018 by ploughguy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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