Ah - now I see the ordering lists. Thanks for the screenshots! I now understand that you can change the order of variants by editing the characteristic; and that you can have multiple characteristics, and by editing the product, can change the order of how these characteristics appear on the product. Great customizability - thank you!! What a great product!
Now, having understood what you are saying about creating characteristics and variants for shoes (physical products), I'm hoping to expand your understanding of what I'm trying to do with downloadable music. Not only to help me - but hopefully, to help forge the way for other musicians looking for a way to effectively share their recorded and printed music (MP3's and PDF's). This is a great unmet need in the Joomlaverse, and on the internet in general. I've been hunting for a solution to this for years, as have many of my musician friends and many others I've run into on forums etc. In a changing music industry, the need for a DIY store to make one's own music available is expanding every year. I think Hikashop has powerful potential to meet that expanding unmet need.
So, moving from selling shoes to selling downloadable music, here's what I need to do, that I need your guidance on.
Question 1- Five Music Product Types - How best to create and display them in Hikashop:
On my site, I need to sell 5 different product types, each requiring characteristics and variants, as follows:
Product Type One: Music CD (MP3 files available for purchase and download, as on iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby. EG:
www.amazon.com/Speak-Now-Taylor-Swift/dp...ords=cd+taylor+swift
. Or
www.cdbaby.com/cd/lsullivan
, or any iTunes Album page.) For example:
CD Title: Carrie's First CD:
1. Title-Song One (MP3) 3:50 > Preview .99 Add to Cart
2. Title-Song Two (MP3) 2:57 > Preview .99 Add to Cart
3. Title - Song Three (MP3 5:13 > Preview .99 Add to Cart
4. Title - Song Four (MP3) 3:30 > Preview .99 Add to Cart (and so on, usually around 12 tracks per CD)
5. ALL TRACKS (MP3) 45:00 10.00 Add to Cart
(and so on. "Preview" is the code you told me before to input into HTML to display a music player with a preview of the song. "Add to Cart" of course serves up the MP file that had been uploaded into the variant. "ALL TRACKS" delivers all 12 or so MP3's as part of that single download purchase (I'm guessing for that one, you upload all 12 files into the "ALL TRACKS" variant?)
CD's of course vary in how many songs are on them, from 1 to 24. The question is - for a "CD Characteristic" - since I have multiple CD's, each with distinct content, each with a different number of tracks (i.e. songs, which are mp3 files) - do I need to develop a different "Characteristic" for each CD? Or can I use the same Characteristic for all of them? If the same one, do I have to put the maximum number of variants (for the songs/tracks / mp3's) into the characteristic (say, 24?) Or, in each CD product, can I just hit "Duplicate" to add another track, then another, till I have enough for all the tracks on that particular CD?
Product Type Two: Songbook - Sheet Music (PDF)
(PDF files available for purchase and download.) For example:
CD Title: Carrie's First Songbook:
1. Title-Song One (PDF) PDF Preview 2.95 Add to Cart
2. Title-Song Two (PDF) PDF Preview 2.95 Add to Cart
3. Title - Song Three (PDF) PDF Preview 2.95 Add to Cart
4. Title - Song Four (PDF) PDF Preview 2.95 Add to Cart (and so on, #'s of songs variable in each songbook)
5. ALL SONGS (PDF) 19.95 Add to Cart
In this instance, the products being sold are various PDF's of printed sheet music, with each individual song a "variant" of a "Songbook" characteristic. Here, the "PDF Preview" is a JCE lightbox display of Page 1 of the song; and the product is a PDF of the written music for the song. Same question - with a variety of songbooks over time, do I need a different characteristic for each songbook, customized to how many songs are in each songbook? Or, can I use a single "Songbook" characteristic, duplicating within each product to get the number of songs I need in each?
3 - Product Type Three - Combo MP3 and PDF of the same song - Simple (one of each file type)
CD Title: Carrie's First Song:
1. Vocal Recording (MP3) < Preview .99 Add to Cart
2. Sheet Music, Vocal-Piano (PDF) PDF Preview 2.95 Add to Cart
This type of product blends file types, to make both versions of a single song available to a customer on a single product page (with lyrics and descriptive info about that particular song) So, from the same page, a customer can order the MP3 recording of "My Song" to play on their iPhone; and also a PDF copy of sheet music to play and sing from their piano.
4 - Product Type Four - Combo MP3/PDF of the same song - Multiple versions of each file type
CD Title: Carrie's First Song:
1. Vocal Recording (MP3) < Preview .99 Add to Cart
2. Piano Accompaniment (MP3) < Preview .99 Add to Cart
3. Sheet Music, Vocal-Piano (PDF) PDF Preview 2.95 Add to Cart
4. Sheet Music, Vocal Duet (PDF) PDF Preview 2.95 Add to Cart
5. Sheet Music, Women's Choir (PDF) PDF Preview 3.50 Add to Cart
6. Sheet Music, Men's Choir (PDF) PDF Preview 3.50 Add to Cart
7. Sheet Music, Full Choir (PDF) PDF Preview 3.95 Add to Cart
8. Flute / Piano version (PDF) PDF Preview 2.95 Add to Cart
This, again, is to display and sell multiple versions of the same song - but now there's different, multiple versions of MP3's and of PDF's. For reference and a model, a Christian music store did this kind of thing here, for each of their songs, including this one:
www.praisecharts.com/songs/details/26279...ou-sheet-music/video
. I really like on that site that they separate the "Sheet Music" from the "Audio Tracks." If I were to do the same, would I create a different "Characteristic" for Sheet Music and Audio Tracks, and then add however many variants I need to each characteristic?
5 - Product Five - Musical Production (different file versions of different songs - most complex product type):
CD Title: Carrie's First Musical Production :
1. Song 1- Vocal Recording (MP3) < Preview .99 Add to Cart
2. Song 1, Sheet Music, Vocal-Piano (PDF) PDF Preview 2.95 Add to Cart
3. Song 1, Sheet Music Choral (PDF) PDF Preview 3.50 Add to Cart
4. Song 2- Vocal Recording (MP3) < Preview .99 Add to Cart
5. Song 2, Sheet MusicVocal-Piano (PDF) PDF Preview 2.95 Add to Cart
6. Song 2, Sheet Music Choral (PDF) PDF Preview 3.50 Add to Cart (and so on, for all the songs in a production)
7. FULL MUSIC CD (All Songs) (MP3) 16.95 Add to Cart
8. FULL PRODUCTION SONGBOOK (PDF) 24.95 Add to Cart
9. FULL CHOIR SONGBOOK (PDF) 34.95 Add to Cart-
Ultimately, I have multiple products to input, in each of these product types - each of which contains multiple variants. So I'm hoping from the getgo to plan my product input process in the cleanest, most effective way possible.
The core question, cutting across all 5 of these product types, is - For each unique product, consisting of different combinations of PDF and/or MP3 files, do I have to create a unique Characteristic for each product (such as, each separate CD or Songbook?) Or, can I "Duplicate" within each product to create the various tracks or songs? If I do the latter, is there still some way to reorder the variants for just that product? Or, can you just reorder the variants across the board for all the products using that Characteristic?
Question 2: Expandability of Product:
Here's the next question. Let's say I start with a "Type 3" (1 PDF, 1 MP3) product of a song - but later I write a Choral arrangement (a 2nd PDF) or a Flute-Piano recording (MP3) I want to add later. What would be the best way to add additional variants to each product over time?
Previously I used a button-based shopping cart extension (Quicksell.) This had a very simplistic cart and checkout process, which is why I am upgrading to Hikashop. The one good thing about a button format, though, was - as I created new versions, I'd just type in a new line on my Joomla document or table, plug the MP3 or PDF files for the preview and product into Quicksell, and voila - suddenly had a new file became available for sale, on my prior page. What's the best way in Hikashop to handle such product expansion over time (adding new versions / variants of each song)
Question 3 - Button functionality in Hikashop?
Because of the freedom the "buttons" in the old shopping cart gave me (I just plugged those buttons freely into Joomla articles or Tabulizer tables) I wondered if you have developed, or (for pay of course) you would consider developing a button plugin for Hikashop, that would work in a similar way - plugging in preview and product files that would be accessible from anywhere on the site, and dumping those "buttoned" products into Hikashop's shopping cart for checkout and email delivery?
Question 4 - Brainstorm - New Hikashop Add-on Idea : Hikashop Music Store
I noticed you've developed special add-ons for Hikashop Auction, Subscription, Multi-Vendor, etc. I assume that these were developed to meet the expressed needs of Hikashop users. I wonder if it would be possible / desirable to develop essentially a "Hikashop Music Store" Add-on, plugging in the functionalities (like music players and previews) and layouts I've described here?
The whole music business is moving more and more to online outlets rather than physical CD/sheet music sales. Many musicians I know are trying to find ways of sharing their music online, in ways that allow them to control their own content and payment. Also there are few if any places online that make sheet music and recorded music available under the same cyber-roof. (Even for major mainstream artists like Taylor Swift. You can find their recorded music on iTunes, their sheet music on MusicNotes - but never in the same place, and never under artist control.)
With the vast customizability already built into Hikashop, I bet it wouldn't be a far stretch to build an add-on like this, for artists like me to use in building their own store to present and get compensated for their own work. I'm working with a local developer to develop custom html code to serve these described functions for my site - but it's vastly outside normal WYSIWYG format, and is time-consuming and cumbersome. I'd love for example to see a way to easily plug in a "preview" file (1 page PDF sample, or 30-second MP3 sample played in a music player.) Right now, we're plugging these codes in via html, in the HTML editor, in "Description." It would be so much easier to do it the way you've provided for product files and images, by simple selection and upload.
I have many musician friends who like me have been looking for years for a way to effectively input and sell their music online. I'd be happy to help pay for development costs, if you think this is something you'd like to pursue - in the spirit of continued Joomla and HIkashop development, like those other add-ons you've created previously. Just a thought.
If not, of course, I'll just keep working on my own site and customization, with my local developer. But if possible, I'd prefer to spend some of this development budget and time in something that would benefit more than just my individual little site. Not just musicians, but anyone selling downloadable products (videos, ebooks, articles, games, etc) could benefit from such an add-on. Benefit for them - a whole new untapped market for you. Just thought I'd throw that question out there. Your thoughts?