Not all variant combinations are available

As you see from the attached Word doc, not all variant combinations are available in this product line.

How do I handle this set of 24 products as variants of a single line? I only get the colour variants showing up?

Many thanks

Jim

You can have several characteristics for one product. I don't see the problem ?

The doc is an extract from the csv.

But on the product page, js-ca.net/potluckcms
there are no options for Lid and Size? And only the Colour variants show up in manage variants.

Lid has values Lid and Pot and all the sizes are all listed as characteristic values! I assumed that variants can have text values?

Jim

PS You are working really late tonight!! )

Update 4am UTC
The problem seems to be that the ONLY characteristic that is showing up in the Torrent category import is Colour characteristic in the Parent-CAR group of variants. I am attaching the entire csv file in the hope that you can spot the error that has eluded me all day. I was hoping to have all their catalogue uploaded before for a company meeting tomorrow afternoon PST. This is the last group of products.

I can see that you didn't set a value for the characteristics for the main products. That's what will become the default values of the dropdowns on the products page and without them, the system won't be able to properly link the variants and the characteristics of the product.

Thanks very much Nicolas. I was still thinking that main products are not actual products for sale, just titles really! There are lots of things to learn about variants. It's such a powerful tool.

A few issues still remain, two (1 and 2 below) with this import process:-)

1. The Lid characteristic was not added as a characteristic to the CAR line (the only line with that characteristic) I was able to enter the Lid characteristic manually, but is there a reason why it wasn't added during import.

2. Only 16 of the 24 CAR variants showed up in the Product Table. The products that did not show are the B and G Lids for the 20 and 25 sizes and the Y and N pots for the same sizes?

3. The title changes to match the selection of characteristics. But while there are 32 possible combinations of variants, only 24 of them are actually available. How do I show a customer that lids are not available for the 15 and 28 cm pots.

4. The values of the size characteristics were added as I found new sizes in the inventory. So the are not in order. How do I change the order of the Size values?

Thanks so much for all your help getting started with all this. There's no way I could have got this running without you, Nicolas.

Jim

Jims wrote:

1. The Lid characteristic was not added as a characteristic to the CAR line (the only line with that characteristic) I was able to enter the Lid characteristic manually, but is there a reason why it wasn't added during import?

2. Only 16 of the 24 CAR variants showed up in the Product Table. The products that did not show are the B and G Lids for the 20 and 25 sizes and the Y and N pots for the same sizes?

Update to questions 1 and 2 4:45 UTC
I think?? that the reason for the problem with the LId characteristic was that the name of the Characteristic was the same name as one of the values. When I changed the Characteristic name to Lids and re-imported the items in the Torrent category, all items were imported and problesm 1 and 2 are now solved, leaving just problems 3 and 4.

So all items are now in the database :woohoo:

Jim

3. If the variant is not there for a combination of characteristics, you should not be able to buy it and it should display a "No stock" message on the product page.

4. By default the characteristics values are ordered by id but you can change it and order them by alphabetical order via the corresponding option in the Display tab of the config.

nicolas wrote:

3. If the variant is not there for a combination of characteristics, you should not be able to buy it and it should display a "No stock" message on the product page.

Thank you Nicolas.

Does the "no stock" message show if HikaShop is in Display mode? I am not getting that message for 15cm Lids in the Torrent/Bombada line, a product that is not in the data base.

Also, I have discovered a number of variant error in earlier imports. Can I move a variant from one parent to another on the back end or should I correct the errors in the csv file and reimport?

Thanks

Jim

Do you have the latest version ? If not, that might explain why you don't see the no stock message.

You can't move a variant however you should be able to correct your CSV and reimport it yes.

nicolas wrote:

Do you have the latest version ? If not, that might explain why you don't see the no stock message.

You can move a variant however you should be able to correct your CSV and reimport it yes.

Yes I have the latest version 1.5.2.

Please could you tell me how to change the parent of a varient to another parent?

Thanks

Jim

You can't. But you could delete the variant of the first product, and create a new variant on the other product via the "manage variants" button of each product.

Thanks, Nicolas. I think it would be easier to correct the import csv rather than manually add the 20 changes manually.

Any suggestions on the absence of the No Stock message for characteristic combinations that are not in the catalogue.

Jim

Could you give a link to the product page where you have the problem with the missing variant characteristics value so that we can see the problem ?

js-ca.net/potluckcms/index.php/catalogue.../category_pathway-12

There are no 15 cm or 28 cm products with lids in the Bombada line, Nicolas

Jim

I don't see the add to cart button on that product page. The "no stock" message is displayed instead of the add to cart button so if the add to cart button is not displaying the message won't be displayed as well. Is there a reason why you removed the add to cart button ?

I asked in an earlier message
"Does the "no stock" message show if HikaShop is in Display mode? "

There is no "cart" button, because the clients want just a Product Display at this time.

But if the viewer clicks on a combination of characteristics that is not available, they would like that information to be shown somehow?

Thanks

Jim

I didn't understand what you meant by display mode. You're talking about the catalogue mode.
That's indeed a case we didn't think of.

But you can easily add that.
Just edit the file quantity of the view product via the menu Display->Views and add the code below after the first <?php tag:
if($this->row->product_quantity==0){
echo JText::_('NO_STOCK');
}

Thanks, Nicolas. Sorry for use of the wrong term.

I'm not sure that that code change would solve the issue, because there are no product codes for the non existing characteristic combinations, for example 15cm lids in any colour. I suppose I could create varients for the non-existing combinations and display a "not available" image. But I would prefer not to have codes for products that did not exist!

Thanks again

Jim

Creating dummy variants would indeed be a solution but I believe that the solution I propose will solve the problem. Please try.

I added that code to the show.php file in the product view in the rt_modulus template that I am currently using. But I do not see the message.

Jim