Making product versions selectable

A new question, and 4 followups to your last message -

1 - Is there a way to order product display? It's defaulting to "oldest first, newest last." I would prefer to be able to hand-select the order of products shown, or at least to have the newest products on top rather than on the bottom of the list.

In reference to your last message to me:

2) We've really gone back and forth on the "after a product is added to the cart" setting. We've tried it both ways - neither seems a perfect answer on this. As you observed, if you have the popup, then you have to hunt for the checkout / cart. But on the other hand - If you go right to the cart, then anyone wanting to select more than one item on the same product page would have to find their way there time after time. This would be worst on something like a CD with 12 songs - you'd have to find your way back to the CD page 12 times to order all the songs on the same CD.

Better, we thought, to have them hunt for the cart once, than multiple times for different variants. I haven't even put my most complex projects on yet - stage shows with 45 variants (songs in a stage production.) That's why we chose that popup option.

Even better would be some kind of control where you can checkbox all the variants you want on a given product, and then add them all to the cart at once when you're one. (I've seen this feature on some other music sites.) Any way to accomplish that? Or am I better off just doing what I'm doing?

3) We don't yet have a "main shopping page." After I input all the products, I'll create one, and take your suggestion to add a "continue shopping link" leading to that page.

4) "Guest checkout" - how does that work, and what does it accomplish? How is it different than regular registration? (I've been following OS Training's tutorial series on Hikashop to learn how to do many tasks - but they are just using the "Free" version on their tutorials, and I have the "Business" version. So their tutorials don't address "Guest Checkout," since that feature isn't included in the "Free" version.

I didn't quite understand what you meant by: "so that there is no back and forth necessary between the browser and the email client of the customer to do his checkout." Do I still get the customer's email (for subsequent newsletter contacts) and address ( to accurately charge or not charge tax, based on their location?) PS - where is that "user account validation" control, so I can disable it as you suggest, if I choose to do that.

Also - I've started getting a lot of "bogus registrations" ever since allowing registration on my sites. Would "Guest Checkout" address that problem? Or is there another course you'd suggest to avoid that?

5) My original question - are there places I am still allowed to put in explanatory comments, to help customers along the way Specifically - my customer wrote to me first saying "The shopping cart won't allow me to pay with a credit card," so I had to write back to her to tell her to do it as a "Guest" in Paypal. Second, she asked if the product would be arriving by mail or by email. (I thought this was obvious by the fact it was listed as a PDF - guess not - looks like I have to clarify that somewhere.) Finally, she wrote me that she couldn't download her product - she didn't see the little blue link containing the product title at first, since the default first displays the link to the site. I'd like to include a brief message at the top of the email so from the time it arrives, customers know where to look for and how to access their product, without having to hunt for it or email me for instructions. How and where could I add these clarifications?

Thanks for telling me how to order my products. This worked great, to Change the "Display the quantity field on the product page" setting to "global on listing" in the HikaShop configuration and it will work like that." It worked so great, in fact, that both my developer and me wondered why that's not the default in the first place, or why a control so important is not named something to do with ordering, so you know what it is by looking at it? Just a thought.

I followed your instructions, resulting in them lining up in the order I put them, both on the Products Listing on the backend, and also in an "All Products" category I displayed on the front end.

However - the ordering hasn't had any impact at all on ordering in ANY of the other categories or subcategories. I had hoped that the ordering I did in the backend would produce that same order throughout the site, in all the categories and subcategories.

Is there a setting to make that happen? If not - then how do I order the products within all the other categories and subcategories? What I mostly want is an alphabetical listing, with most popular products on top. Instead, it displays them in the order they were input - which was pretty random, and makes products hard to find, even if you know what you're looking for - even for me who created the pages. Suggestions?

It appears that I found at least one answer to my own question. Looks like ALL the categories and subcategories display their own list when selected in the backend Product list, and that this ordering has nothing to do with the ordering on the overall Product category. They can each be ordered individually, by the same process applied with the Product category - choosing "direct sub elements" in the drop-down (rather than the default "All sub elements") and then ordering them manually with the controls that pop up.

I do wish there was, at least initially, an option to order all the Products globally, across all the categories - and then adjust them if needed within the categories and subcategories. Not having that means LOTS of extra time to replicate ordering in all the categories. Also wish there was an option to just alphabetize the products within one or more categories - at least as a starting place. That would save tons of time.

Or am I missing something here? Is there a more streamlined way to get all my ordering to match what I did in the Products category, at least initially? And/or, to alphabetize a Product list?

Ah yes - that worked great to alphabetize through the menu manager "product_name." Thank you!

I caught my mistake too late on my last post - when speaking of what I wish was a default, I mistakenly copied over the "global on listing" in the "quantity field" (which I agree, not everyone wants - including me, as it turns out) - rather than what I intended to copy -

1. In your products listing in the backend, make sure that you select the "direct sub elements" choice in the top right dropdown and you'll see an "order" column on the listing which allows you to reorder your products in each category for the listings.

Seeing the ordering column activated there is what I wished was the default. In any case, as always, thanks for the wonderful advice, and the wonderful product. My sites are shaping up so nicely, with your helpful input. Thank you!!

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "order products even with the dropdown set to "all sub elements" as long as the current category doesn't have any sub categories." Please clarify?

"More intuitive" I understand, and look forward to. When will this new release likely be available? Are there other features it will add?

For my purposes, the more customizable Hikashop becomes, the better - particularly the capacity to order more than one product file from the same page. I've already created CD pages with multiple mp3's available from the same product page, and sheet music/recording pages where a customer can order both a PDF (sheet music) and an MP3 (recording) of the same song from a single product page with a description of the song. What I need to add next are pages with full programs, with PDF's and MP3's of various different songs on a similar theme available from the same page. I'm hoping to start this phase of development at the end of August. So I'm hoping the new version of Hikashop will have some new features that can help.

Including - I asked you before about an add-to-cart "button" that can be input into a standard Joomla page. That format is how I created program pages (with multiple file downloads) in my old shopping cart. Could you tell me more about how to implement "add to cart" buttons in Hikashop? Or, if there's any other thoughts you have about displaying a multiplicity of downloadable products on the same page?

Also - I asked you before about locating a developer with expertise in Hikashop, that can help me develop a plugin to make adding these multiple files easier. (right now we're having to code it all in HTML to add the additional files.) I'm really hoping by September or so to expand this site as a multi-vendor site, with HikaMarket, to allow other musicians to add their work to this site. But I'll need to simplify the process of product entry to make that feasible, as my musician friends are even more scared of HTML coding than I was. Hoping to find someone who can help develop a "Hikashop Music" plugin to facilitate this, for me and for others. For years, I've searched the internet, and seen evidence of other musicians looking for an effective way to sell their music online. I'm hoping to a pioneer a course for other musicians, as well as making a way for myself. But need a Joomla-friendly developer with Hikashop expertise to help. Suggestions?