[ic] multi-tiered item db?

Doug Alcorn doug@lathi.net
19 Aug 2000 16:12:23 -0400


I am setting up a site that has a somewhat complex item catalog
(although I think it is fairly common).  Basically, the item
categories have three tiers and the lowest level is common for all
combinations of the upper two tears.  Specifically, we sell
accessories for other products.  So product X from manufacturer Y will
have an accessory of type Z.  In addition product A from manufacturer
will have an accessory of type Z.  These two accessories are
individual products and not compatible with the products from other
manufacturers.

So, what I really want to do is query the customer for what
manufacturer and product they have and then limit their shopping to
products that are compatible with that product.  I have already
written the JavaScript to dynamically update a drop down list of
products based on the selection in a drop down list of manufacturers.
I need to have the html <body> tag call onload="initialize()".

I figure if I add a table for manufacturers and another table for
products where the products have a unique id then I just need some
place on the item table to list which product it is compatible with.

Would all of this require the modification of the interchange perl
modules themselves, or can it be done within my catalog?  It seems
like the admin UI would have to change to support these new fields on
the new item page.  I would appreciate you experiences with similar
type catalogs.  BTW, I grok perl/SQL fairly well.
-- 
 (__)  Doug Alcorn (mailto:doug@lathi.net http://www.lathi.net)
 oo /  Unix Hacker
 |_/   "It's too late for paradise"