Stock by Attribute v4.0 addon for v1.3.5-1.3.9

jnabird333:

Hello, I am running into a small issue with trying to install this on my 1.5.4 Zen cart...I have already backed up my website and made an exact copy of my existing database. I uploaded the files and chose replace existing. I went to the install.php address and logged in to my Zen cart admin area. I selected check files and verified no errors. I selected the Full/Upgrade option and ran the script. Nothing happened...my screen didn't change in display and it never said the database was successfully changed as the directions state would happen. Please advise as I still don't see the SBA option under Catalodg.

I am new to this and REALLY need this add-on to track my inventory.

Alana

Adding: The screen shows SBA Version 1.5.3 for Zen Cart Version 1.5.1. I chose the most recent download which showed that it works with 1.5.4.

Ohh.. So the source of your download was the plugins section of this website, then?

Umm.. So there are those individuals that have been able to use that provided version to install onto a more recent version of ZC, which in a way was how it was first adapted to ZC 1.5.3+, but... There is work that has to be done in order to merge the files appropriately. That work has been done in a version that is available from github. The most recent version being kept at https://www.github.com/mc12345678/Stock_By_Attributes_Combined with the other storage locations to potentially be phased out as it is getting to be more difficult than necessary to independently maintain two-three different storage locations for a single plugin.

Anyways, I'm about to post an update to that location when I saw your message... You may need to repair some files on your system if you simply copied over the files that were provided in that download and did not merge only the SBA differences into your 1.5.4 system.

Okay, just pushed changes to the combined location... (Haven't updated the ZC 1.5.5 version with the latest provided on github, more to come on that)

Functionality difference(s) include:
Text attributes can be tracked by SBA; however, currently if a product is added to the cart with the text field in one condition a second "version" of the product can be added to the cart with just as many quantity. Each quantity is limited to the maximum that is assigned to the product. Also, the text option name ought to be added to the SBA variant of the product. I am waiting/open to more testing on this. I have found where I need to apply a condition to prevent the text field from being treated as something that makes the product unique to the cart, but it will require a bit more coding and I wanted to get this out there even with this "issue". (Not everyone uses text/upload file fields that uses SBA.

Forced the sorted order of attributes in includes/modules/YOUR_TEMPLATE/attributes.php by enforcing the sort order of the option names if the selection to sort by sort order/option name was chosen in the admin. Previously the code only forced the sort order, and there was some "randomness" to the option name sorting. Also forced the sort order of the option values. The settings for these sort orders is found in the configuration->Product Info section regarding option names and option values.

Similar sorting applied to admin's products SBA menu display, though the sort order of those is still a little less than fully desired at least it is possible to make head's or tails of it. :)

Moved some code out of main files (more to be moved) into an observer to minimize the amount of code modifications necessary. Come ZC 1.5.5, this is starting to look like it will not need to modify very much at all of the core/standard code.

Used some of the functions built for SBA to simplify/shorten some of the code.

Corrected another found statement that read something like ...this is to force hiding READ ONLY attributes... Well the operation of the code actually was to force hiding DISPLAY ONLY attributes which is a different animal. Read Only is an option name that can have multiple option values. Display only is a designation to an option value made through the attributes controller. The intention of a display only attribute is to not allow the selection to be added to the cart, but to provide some form of information to the customer while they look at the list of items... It is also handy to use as a default option for an attribute so that the customer must select something other than the default display option to add the "correct" product to the cart. Dynamic Dropdowns as modified for this plugin generally accomplishes this by forcing the selection of one attribute before being allowed to select the next and then resetting those that follow if one above is modified... Unfortunately DD remains limited at the moment on the attribute(s) to which it can be applied... More coding needed.

Okay, hopefully enough to chew on for everyone. Thinking may be able to submit this again soon if can overcome the above text/upload filename issue.

mc12345678:

Ohh.. So the source of your download was the plugins section of this website, then?

Umm.. So there are those individuals that have been able to use that provided version to install onto a more recent version of ZC, which in a way was how it was first adapted to ZC 1.5.3+, but... There is work that has to be done in order to merge the files appropriately. That work has been done in a version that is available from github. The most recent version being kept at https://www.github.com/mc12345678/Stock_By_Attributes_Combined with the other storage locations to potentially be phased out as it is getting to be more difficult than necessary to independently maintain two-three different storage locations for a single plugin.

Anyways, I'm about to post an update to that location when I saw your message... You may need to repair some files on your system if you simply copied over the files that were provided in that download and did not merge only the SBA differences into your 1.5.4 system.

I can start over...I am so new to this that it isn't funny!! I will replace my admin and includes folders with my archived ones to put me back to where I was before I started. Now, how to get the correct file at the github site?

Thanks - Alana

I was able to download the zip file from github...The Readme file is empty. Where can get explicit directions on how to install?

The Wiki install directions say that I need to create a database. The plugin directions says that I needed to upload the folders. I just need to know how to install this and I should be good to go.

Alana

jnabird333:

I was able to download the zip file from github...The Readme file is empty. Where can get explicit directions on how to install?

The Wiki install directions say that I need to create a database. The plugin directions says that I needed to upload the folders. I just need to know how to install this and I should be good to go.

Alana

Not to bounce you around too much, and well to maybe get some feedback on it, but potteryhouse/jeking had created some instructions (I have not modified them yet/recently) that may help? Otherwise would be sending you down the "figure it out" path. :)

https://github.com/potteryhouse/stock_by_attribute_1.5.X_Instructions

The files in the download are arranged a little differently than described in the instructions.

General installation (also discussed within the last three pages),

1. Place/merge the files in the admin/includes folders (there are folders in the includes/modules and includes/templates that should be "manually" lined up with your template folder)
2. Go into the folder for your version of ZC and repeat,
3. Using your admin filepath (ie. while logged into the admin) goto: stores_admin_site_with_folder_path/stock_by_attr_install.php

Well, I got the github version installed and it is working.... for the most part. I have my cart set to be able to add an item to the cart even if it is out of stock (I want to be able to do pre-orders and not sure how else to do that), but I want the warning to show. Unfortunately, the latter part is not happening. I have tried to find the answer but there are sooooooo many different forum threads for sooooooo many different versions that I cannot keep fixes straight.

For example: I have grey hoodies but only in Med, large, and XL in stock. When I add a small one to the cart, it does NOT display the out of stock notification.

Alana

jnabird333:

Well, I got the github version installed and it is working.... for the most part. I have my cart set to be able to add an item to the cart even if it is out of stock (I want to be able to do pre-orders and not sure how else to do that), but I want the warning to show. Unfortunately, the latter part is not happening. I have tried to find the answer but there are sooooooo many different forum threads for sooooooo many different versions that I cannot keep fixes straight.

For example: I have grey hoodies but only in Med, large, and XL in stock. When I add a small one to the cart, it does NOT display the out of stock notification.

Alana

Well, can only help so much... Be nice to know settings, variant configuration, associated quantities, etc... Otherwise operating pretty blindly...

mc12345678:

Well, can only help so much... Be nice to know settings, variant configuration, associated quantities, etc... Otherwise operating pretty blindly...

Settings: Configuration/Stock - Check Stock level, Subtract stock, and allow checkout are all True and mark product out of stock is set with ***. SBA settings are all defaults with only Display Search Box only and Display Attributes Images are set to False.

Variant Configuration: one color as a radio box and multiple sizes in a drop down menu.

Associated quantities: small (0), medium (1), large (1), XL (2), 2XL (0), 3XL (0).

Is this what you are needing? If you need something else specific, let me know.

I also have T-shirts that come in 3 different colors and the same 6 different sizes. Each one is set up with 0 quantity. These DO show up as out of stock.

You can check it out at https://www.sevenslotsyndicate.com/cart...by the way, this is not a live site.

jnabird333:

Settings: Configuration/Stock - Check Stock level, Subtract stock, and allow checkout are all True and mark product out of stock is set with ***. SBA settings are all defaults with only Display Search Box only and Display Attributes Images are set to False.

Variant Configuration: one color as a radio box and multiple sizes in a drop down menu.

Associated quantities: small (0), medium (1), large (1), XL (2), 2XL (0), 3XL (0).

Is this what you are needing? If you need something else specific, let me know.

I also have T-shirts that come in 3 different colors and the same 6 different sizes. Each one is set up with 0 quantity. These DO show up as out of stock.

You can check it out at www.sevenslotsyndicate.com/cart...by the way, this is not a live site.

Regarding the problem product... Is the single radio box by design (choice) or is it a result of having only one color active on a dropdown box?

Is the option name id for the first product the same as the second?

What is the quantity of grey entered for the first product? Really though, if you are offering grey medium, grey large and grey XL (plus all the others that are to have zero quantity), then it makes more sense for each variant to be described that way if the color is going to be described as an attribute... Ie. Grey small (0), Grey Medium (1), Grey Large (1), Grey XL (2), etc...

Did figure out that if tried to obtain 5 (one more than the total available) that then the product showed as out-of-stock...

Is there a reason you're not using the dynamic dropdowns aspect? It cares for/displays the out-of-stock on page (in the list) rather than waiting for the product to be added to the cart to discover that. And the terminology can be changed in the file definitions to show back-order instead of out-of-stock or something like that...

Also from the post at the top of the previous page:

Under Configuration->Dynamic Dropdowns->Use ZC default HTML Attribute Tags

set it to false if it is not

Had figured out that the color option name was assigned the same to both product, the difference being that on one product there is but one choice (now a radio button by default) while on the other there are sufficient product listed to give two dropdowns.

Okay, so I haven't gone through to verify/test if there is still an issue with the code or with the way things were setup, because I didn't fully understand the setup for the product that is the problem and the product that is reportedly not a problem (I didn't try all combinations or extents), but there is an update that has been pushed which primarily revolves around having data entry fields such as a text box or an upload file box. Now, still don't have dynamic dropdowns setup to take advantage of their presence, but at least when adding a product to the cart it now does some handling of its own...

Product that are to have a text/upload file field (from hereon out in this post as text field) must have the text field added to the variant in order to add the product to the cart if it is tracked by SBA. It can be a combined variant or all of them split out, but at the moment the text of such a text field is not stock changing (meaning, if the text field is empty the product is treated the same as if the text field had something in it). While it is/can be visioned that such a text field could be considered a stockable item, (ie. badges) at the moment such a plan is not incorporated.

It's not pretty, and there is a bit of code cleanup to be done, but for the time being I need to work on some other things unless there is a blatant error/issue that needs to be resolved with this...

So, badarac, please test, jnabird333, please test and post the status on the above reported issue(s). Would like to be able to reproduce the issue so that it can be addressed, michael_rebreathe well it should simply add some more functionality :).

Anyone willing to test is welcome to do so, please report issues here or at github, as always, please consider the posting tips when posting (almost anywhere) so that the issue can be reproduced and resolved quickly, otherwise we're all just waiting around on someone to give enough info to figure out what's going on... :)

mc12345678--

I see that the repo on GitHub was updated less than an hour ago. Is it safe to assume that you're only updating the repo with released changes?

I can't say it enough - You've been a great help, so thank you.

--Our Custom IDs are ridiculously long, so would prefer they not show up in the dropdowns. They appeared as soon as the quantities reappeared in the dropdowns. Do you know if there's a way to turn that off, or at least where (what page) the customid is added to the dropdown? We really want them to show up on pick lists, which is why we're using that field, but don't want to have superfluous info in the dropdowns.

We're still having difficulty with one product with two attributes (post 2387, Page 239 this thread), but have been bouncing between this and two other issues so haven't updated with your updates in a couple of days...If the repo that was most recently updated is ready, I'll give it a shot, and hopefully this resolves it.

Haven't done anything to affect the generation of the "unique_id" described in that post. Not sure what action(s) have been taken to cause it to be unpopulated. Perhaps if you can reproduce the issue/describe the actions taken to cause those to go blank, it would help.

Yes it is an updated version that worked for adding product with attributes tracked and those not tracked by SBA as well as adding product without attributes. This testing was done wiith product that did have text field(s) mixed with another attribute and product without text fields.

As to the customid, that is controlled en masse in. The configuration->stock section. To specifically remove from just the dropdown display would require looking into the code that generates the attributes list which has predominantly been moved to the includes/classes/observers file when addressing the model number. I can't recall if it got incorporated into the dynamic dropdown file yet or not...

What are the two other issues (assuming related to use of this plugin)?

mc12345678:

Product that are to have a text/upload file field (from hereon out in this post as text field) must have the text field added to the variant in order to add the product to the cart if it is tracked by SBA. It can be a combined variant or all of them split out, but at the moment the text of such a text field is not stock changing (meaning, if the text field is empty the product is treated the same as if the text field had something in it). While it is/can be visioned that such a text field could be considered a stockable item, (ie. badges) at the moment such a plan is not incorporated.
So just to make sure I understand you correctly. In my case there is a product that has a color attribute and a text attribute.

Option Name:Cover color
Option values: White, Black, or Select (display only, default)

Option name: Personalized text (text input field)

What you are saying is that I must create SBA combos for all orderable combinations:

Cover color - white, text
Cover color - black, text

No combo would be required for the select option value since it is display only and could not be added to the cart anyway. This would need to be done for ALL products that have multiple option names, where at least one has option names/values with stock tracked, and where at least one option name is text.

Does this sound right?

Lines 163, 180 and 187 of
Includes/classes/observers/class.products_with_attributes_stock.php

Contain the "inquiries" to display the customid on items processed through the attributes file. Other places it is used are presented "as necessary". Still working out some ways to present that "better"/consistently, but hasn't been as high of a priority.

badarac:

So just to make sure I understand you correctly. In my case there is a product that has a color attribute and a text attribute.

Option Name:Cover color
Option values: White, Black, or Select (display only, default)

Option name: Personalized text (text input field)

What you are saying is that I must create SBA combos for all orderable combinations:

Cover color - white, text
Cover color - black, text

No combo would be required for the select option value since it is display only and could not be added to the cart anyway. This would need to be done for ALL products that have multiple option names, where at least one has option names/values with stock tracked, and where at least one option name is text.

Does this sound right?

Yes, this is relatively correct... I didn't try adding the text attribute as a separate "stocked" quantity, but the process used to manage this should allow for it.

I also get the "lots of work" perspective... I will say this, Easypopulate V4 has a feature to manage stock of existing variants... So if you go through the process of creating the variants (whether you keep/remove the previous at this time or not), then the entered stock from the existing variants can be copied/moved to the variants just created... That also I believe is one reason that potteryhouse/jeking created an option to add all attributes as variants in the install code... I haven't looked at how that is resolved, but it could prove to be useful to a store just starting to use this.

mc12345678:

Haven't done anything to affect the generation of the "unique_id" described in that post. Not sure what action(s) have been taken to cause it to be unpopulated. Perhaps if you can reproduce the issue/describe the actions taken to cause those to go blank, it would help.

Yes it is an updated version that worked for adding product with attributes tracked and those not tracked by SBA as well as adding product without attributes. This testing was done wiith product that did have text field(s) mixed with another attribute and product without text fields.

As to the customid, that is controlled en masse in. The configuration->stock section. To specifically remove from just the dropdown display would require looking into the code that generates the attributes list which has predominantly been moved to the includes/classes/observers file when addressing the model number. I can't recall if it got incorporated into the dynamic dropdown file yet or not...

What are the two other issues (assuming related to use of this plugin)?

Sorry, we already determined that the unique_combo issue isn't really an issue.

The outstanding issue is the product with Color and Capacity, where Color dropdown shows up twice on the page, and no manner of selection order makes it possible to add to the cart. We are using the Color option on a whole lot of products, and even with lots of browsing the site, we haven't found another item with the Color option displaying the Color select field twice. This is the only product that uses the Capacity Option, but the Option and it's values (aside from values names) seem to be identical to our "Bottle Size" option. We use each of the Color values present in this product with other products, just different combinations of the 31 colors we offer.

In the weeds (the database itself), I see that products_options.products_options_track_stock is different between the two options (1 for Capacity, and 10 for Bottle Size), but it's also different for other options which are playing well. After a LOT of digging, this is genuinely the only difference I'm seeing for this problem child product.

mc12345678:

Lines 163, 180 and 187 of
Includes/classes/observers/class.products_with_attributes_stock.php

Contain the "inquiries" to display the customid on items processed through the attributes file. Other places it is used are presented "as necessary". Still working out some ways to present that "better"/consistently, but hasn't been as high of a priority.

Thanks for the direction. The class file uses STOCK_SBA_DISPLAY_CUSTOMID, which is in Configuration => Stock => SBA Display Custom ID.
The description for this setting is "Display the Custom ID value in history, checkout, and order forms"...I've followed to see that the customid doesn't display in the dropdowns and in the shopping cart. What is meant by display in history and order forms? Is the order form the form on the product page or packing slip and/or invoice? Also, what history is it referring to?

mc12345678:

Did figure out that if tried to obtain 5 (one more than the total available) that then the product showed as out-of-stock...

Is there a reason you're not using the dynamic dropdowns aspect? It cares for/displays the out-of-stock on page (in the list) rather than waiting for the product to be added to the cart to discover that. And the terminology can be changed in the file definitions to show back-order instead of out-of-stock or something like that...

Also from the post at the top of the previous page:

Under Configuration->Dynamic Dropdowns->Use ZC default HTML Attribute Tags

set it to false if it is not

I apologize for the delayed response...day job. :)

I am using a radio button for the one color because there is only one color. I did add in a display only "Please select..." so that a drop down would show and it did't change anything.

I had not even looked at the dynamic dropdowns menu until you said something about it. I set the ZC default HTML Attribute Tags to false as instructed. I noticed that the drop down menus have not changed. Below are the settings I have for that screen.

Dynamic Drop Downs
Title Value
Enable Dynamic Dropdowns 1
Product Info Single Attribute Display Plugin sba_sequenced_dropdowns
Product Info Multiple Attribute Display Plugin sba_sequenced_dropdowns
Use ZC default HTML Attribute Tags false
Show Out of Stock Attributes True
Mark Out of Stock Attributes Right
SBA Number of Records to Displayed 25
Display Out of Stock Message Line True
Prevent Adding Out of Stock to Cart True
Display Javascript Popup for Out-of-Stock Selection True

If the entire group is out of stock, then it will show out of stock when you look at your cart. For example, if you choose a small JK T-shirt in pink, it will show out of stock. But, if you choose a small zip hoodie in grey, it will NOT and I have that item as a quantity of 0.

I am completely new to Zen Cart and running a website as a whole. I am learning as I go. So, if there is something else that I need to look at, then please let me know. If I missed any info, it was not done intentionally...I just don't know what else you would need to see.

Alana

michael_rebreathe:

Sorry, we already determined that the unique_combo issue isn't really an issue.

The outstanding issue is the product with Color and Capacity, where Color dropdown shows up twice on the page, and no manner of selection order makes it possible to add to the cart. We are using the Color option on a whole lot of products, and even with lots of browsing the site, we haven't found another item with the Color option displaying the Color select field twice. This is the only product that uses the Capacity Option, but the Option and it's values (aside from values names) seem to be identical to our "Bottle Size" option. We use each of the Color values present in this product with other products, just different combinations of the 31 colors we offer.

In the weeds (the database itself), I see that products_options.products_options_track_stock is different between the two options (1 for Capacity, and 10 for Bottle Size), but it's also different for other options which are playing well. After a LOT of digging, this is genuinely the only difference I'm seeing for this problem child product.

Are you saying that if you goto the option Names Manager and look at the ID for the Color option that it has the same ID as the Bottle Size option? Are you able to provide a link to look at where this is an issue? Have you tried creating another product with those option names and values to see if the same issue carries over or if it is something that just got "created" with this product? Possibly tried to recreate the option name(s) and assign to the product, etc... ?

As to how the variant(s) are populated for that product, are you doing:
Stock ID:
X having color and capacity assigned with a quantity of availability for that combination and associated customid, or are you doing:

Stock ID:
X color quantity of "color" and customid (if one assigned).
Y capacity quantity of "capacity" and customid (if one assigned).

such that there is a color availability of quantity W and capacity of Z and the availability is the lesser of the two?

Doesn't exactly seem to be an issue specifically with the plugin, but something that has been discovered through its use...

Regarding the field(s), I don't see that products_options_track_stock is currently a part of this plugin. I believe that the original Dynamic Dropdowns plugin (earlier version of this plugin included it as was) included that field, but I think I removed it for the time being so that it wouldn't negatively affect databases until fully/properly incorporated.. So an earlier installation of some type may have used that data, though I can't say that I have seen (though haven't dug deep into all) a publicly available set of code that made that additional field directly accessible (ie not requiring database manipulation through external sql or phpmyadmin modification). Otherwise, only having the one "table" as the restraining location seems to me to be a little limiting, but development does have to start/go somewhere. :) At the moment though, this code does not "respect" the setting in that table field. At the same time, installation does not remove it if it is there just doesn't add it nor read it, directly.. Sure if pulls all fields from the table then it would be included, but isn't currently a part of the operation.