Flagging Parts that have been superceded...

[Rick F.]

Hello all -
   
  Has anyone dealt with supercedures in any nifty way? For instance, Maytag's old belt1 is now replaced with the new and improved belt2. Is there any way to flag or at least alert a user to the change in either sales order or cart checkout?
   
  Could a product "id" type of "Substitution" be used to produce an alert?
   
  Thanks in advance.
   
  Rick

[Rick F.]

I think I stumbled upon an anwer on my own. Substitutions are big in my industry.
   
  For items that sub, we change the "require inventory" flag to yes. That way when we're out of the old inventory, these items automatically create an error(alert) when one tries to add to the cart or order. Now I just need to change the error(alert) message to include the fact that the part may have been sub'd by the manufacturer.  Can someone point me toward a way to write the long description of the part into the error message? It would then alert the user to which part it changed to.
   
  Thanks in advance!
  Rick

Richard Fleming <[hidden email]> wrote:
  Hello all -

Has anyone dealt with supercedures in any nifty way? For instance, Maytag's old belt1 is now replaced with the new and improved belt2. Is there any way to flag or at least alert a user to the change in either sales order or cart checkout?

Could a product "id" type of "Substitution" be used to produce an alert?

Thanks in advance.

Rick

[David E Jones]

Rick,

Whatever you do this will require some customization of the templates  
and/or cart code.

There is actually a data structure for modeling replacement products.  
The entity is called ProductAssoc, and in the Catalog Manager you can  
find it on the "Assocs" tab for a product.

You'd have to write custom code to show the user that it has been  
replaced by another product. There are examples of other such product  
associations in the product detail page (productdetail.ftl).

-David


On Jan 24, 2007, at 7:50 PM, Richard Fleming wrote:

> I think I stumbled upon an anwer on my own. Substitutions are big  
> in my industry.
>
>   For items that sub, we change the "require inventory" flag to  
> yes. That way when we're out of the old inventory, these items  
> automatically create an error(alert) when one tries to add to the  
> cart or order. Now I just need to change the error(alert) message  
> to include the fact that the part may have been sub'd by the  
> manufacturer.  Can someone point me toward a way to write the long  
> description of the part into the error message? It would then alert  
> the user to which part it changed to.
>
>   Thanks in advance!
>   Rick
>
> Richard Fleming <[hidden email]> wrote:
>   Hello all -
>
> Has anyone dealt with supercedures in any nifty way? For instance,  
> Maytag's old belt1 is now replaced with the new and improved belt2.  
> Is there any way to flag or at least alert a user to the change in  
> either sales order or cart checkout?
>
> Could a product "id" type of "Substitution" be used to produce an  
> alert?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Rick
>

[Rick F.]

Thanks David, I'll work in that direction.
   
  Rick

"David E. Jones" <[hidden email]> wrote:
 
Rick,

Whatever you do this will require some customization of the templates
and/or cart code.

There is actually a data structure for modeling replacement products.
The entity is called ProductAssoc, and in the Catalog Manager you can
find it on the "Assocs" tab for a product.

You'd have to write custom code to show the user that it has been
replaced by another product. There are examples of other such product
associations in the product detail page (productdetail.ftl).

-David


On Jan 24, 2007, at 7:50 PM, Richard Fleming wrote:

> I think I stumbled upon an anwer on my own. Substitutions are big
> in my industry.
>
> For items that sub, we change the "require inventory" flag to
> yes. That way when we're out of the old inventory, these items
> automatically create an error(alert) when one tries to add to the
> cart or order. Now I just need to change the error(alert) message
> to include the fact that the part may have been sub'd by the
> manufacturer. Can someone point me toward a way to write the long
> description of the part into the error message? It would then alert
> the user to which part it changed to.
>
> Thanks in advance!
> Rick
>
> Richard Fleming wrote:
> Hello all -
>
> Has anyone dealt with supercedures in any nifty way? For instance,
> Maytag's old belt1 is now replaced with the new and improved belt2.
> Is there any way to flag or at least alert a user to the change in
> either sales order or cart checkout?
>
> Could a product "id" type of "Substitution" be used to produce an
> alert?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Rick
>