[ic] Shopping Cart Question...

[Rick Bragg]

On Thu, 2010-05-20 at 09:11 -0400, Brian Shea wrote:
> We’re currently running Interchange 5.0.1 & wanted to know if the
> program has a function which we haven’t been able to figure out.
> 
>  
> 
> I’ll tell you what I’d like to do & you can then tell me if this is
> possible….
> 
>  
> 
> I would like to be able to have a single ‘item’ w/ the ability to have
> multiple pricing options. For example, for this consulting package:
> 
>  
> 
> http://www.personalbestnutrition.com/cgi-bin/pbn/346.html
> 
>  
> 
> I would like to have a drop-down w/ the option of ‘Coach A’ being $300
> & ‘Coach B’ being $400 (no different than if the same XYZ product in
> Fruit Punch cost $10 & Grape was $12). I know I can set-up multiple
> items w/ the same description, but I’d prefer to be able to simply
> have the same item for this purchase & then have the customer select
> which ‘Coach’ & then when it’s added to the shopping cart, the
> appropriate $ amount would be reflected.
> 
>  
> 
> This would be similar to this: 
> 
>  
> 
> http://www.hammernutrition.com/products/sustained-energy.se.html?navcat=fuels-energy-drinks
> 
>  
> 
> Can you let me know if this can be done & how I would go about doing
> so? Thank you!
> 
> Brian Shea 
> President/Head Coach 
> Phone: 732.580.5746 
> www.PersonalBestNutrition.com 
> Follow us on Twitter for Specials, Giveaways & Endurance Sports News:
> http://twitter.com/PBNutrition 
> 


Before you dive into coding, one thing to think about here is if you
want these to be trackable in some way (i.e. inventory) or not.  If so,
you should think about using variants table, if not then simple options
would do the trick.  For example, I have a site "www.freeridesports.com"
and the items in the complete bikes category i.e.
"http://www.freeridesports.com/department/FXBICO.html" are variants.
(matrix items) where the matrix base item (product) is not directly
ordered.  This way each variant can be tracked via inventory etc.  I
think this is the way you want to go.  An example of using simple
"options" would be if something is totally not tracked.   i.e. order
item XYZ coffee bean and for an additional $# we can grind it super
fine. 

That said, I would take a look at using variants for the item and make
the "package" into a matrix base and the only thing they can order
should be the variants.  This way each variant could be tracked to a
particular coach or whatever.

HTH
Rick