virtual product and features

[Chris Snow-3]

Can a variant product be linked to a virtual product without using features?

Many thanks in advance,


--
Chris Snow - CEng MBCS CITP MBA (Tech Mgmt) (Open) CISSP

Tel: [phone]
Mob: [phone]
Www: www.snowconsulting.co.uk

[Ruth Hoffman-2]

Hi Chris:
This is just my opinion, but yes you could do that, but be aware that
the ecommerce application makes some assumptions about virtual and
variant products. (For example, how to display HTML select boxes that
allow a site visitor to choose the variation of a virtual product.)

At a minimum, the ecommerce application may not know how to handle your
products in terms of catalog listings, shopping cart displays etc. I
haven't looked at the code lately so I'm not sure what the total impact
would be.

What are you trying to do?

Regards,
Ruth
Chris Snow wrote:
> Can a variant product be linked to a virtual product without using features?
>
> Many thanks in advance,
>
>
>  

[Scott Gray-2]

Can it? Yes.  Will it achieve anything in terms of OOTB functionality? No.

The selectable/standard features are the differentiator between the variants so without them there is no path from the virtual to a specific variation.

Regards
Scott

HotWax Media
http://www.hotwaxmedia.com

On 26/03/2010, at 10:16 AM, Chris Snow wrote:

> Can a variant product be linked to a virtual product without using features?
>
> Many thanks in advance,
>
>
> --
> Chris Snow - CEng MBCS CITP MBA (Tech Mgmt) (Open) CISSP
>
> Tel: [phone]
> Mob: [phone]
> Www: www.snowconsulting.co.uk
>

[Chris Snow-3]

Hi Ruth/Scott,

This post is related to a post I did some time ago. My client is a
vehicle breaker that scraps vehicles, and sells the individual
components. When they scrap a vehicle, they keep the main components
such as the engine and later sell those items individually. Some of the
engines may be serialized and some may not.

For example, they may have scrapped 10 "Porsche 911 3.2 Carrera series
(1984–1989)" cars and have the following engines:

Porsche 911 3.2 liter horizontally opposed flat 6 cylinder engine
- non-serialized, QOH = 8, price £1,500 each
- serialized, QOH 2 :
- serial #12345, description "excellent condition", price £2,000
- serial #23456, description "doesn't start", price £500

 From the trials that I have done with ofbiz r4.0, the stock management
aspect works great. Using the following steps:

- create a product of type virtual (e.g. POR911-3.2-FL6)
- create non-serialized stock for POR911-3.2-FL6 and add 8 units
- create a product of type variant (e.g. POR911-3.2-FL6-12345)
- select POR911-3.2-FL6 product, in variants tab, enter POR911-3.2-FL6
and click "Add variant product"
- create a product of type variant (e.g. POR911-3.2-FL6-23456)
- select POR911-3.2-FL6 product, in variants tab, enter POR911-3.2-FL6
and click "Add variant product"
- create serialized stock for POR911-3.2-FL6-12345 and POR911-3.2-FL6-12345
- create serialized stock for POR911-3.2-FL6-12345 and POR911-3.2-FL6-23456

At the moment they don't need ecommerce, they just need stock
management, but when they do need ecommerce, then I guess I will have to
write some custom pages to allow their customers to be able to see the
description and prices of individual stock items and choose the item
that best suits their requirements. Features don't seem to make sense
for this application, and I'm not sure where virtual/variant products is
the right way to go either. Perhaps I should model the association
purely as a product association of "equivalent or substitute". However,
one benefit of using virtual/variant is that in the catalog inventory
screens, it shows a nice summary of stock for each variant.

However, when trying to add variants in various ofbiz versions, I get
the following result:

TRUNK: Error calling event:
org.ofbiz.webapp.event.EventHandlerException: Service invocation error
(null)
9.04: No selectable Features found . Please create some and try again.
4.0: All ok - no error

- create a product of type virtual (e.g. CS-VIRT1)
- create a product of type variant (e.g. CS-VAR1)
- select CS-VIRT1 product, in variants tab, enter CS-VAR1 and click "Add
variant product"

Any ideas?

Many thanks,

Chris


Ruth Hoffman wrote:

> Hi Chris:
> This is just my opinion, but yes you could do that, but be aware that
> the ecommerce application makes some assumptions about virtual and
> variant products. (For example, how to display HTML select boxes that
> allow a site visitor to choose the variation of a virtual product.)
>
> At a minimum, the ecommerce application may not know how to handle
> your products in terms of catalog listings, shopping cart displays
> etc. I haven't looked at the code lately so I'm not sure what the
> total impact would be.
>
> What are you trying to do?
>
> Regards,
> Ruth
> Chris Snow wrote:
>> Can a variant product be linked to a virtual product without using
>> features?
>>
>> Many thanks in advance,
>>
>>

[BJ Freeman]

If selenium works in 4.0 then I suggest you install it.
then create data file similar to the demo data that has what you
describe here.
run selenium to establish 4.0 behavior.
then put in a patch with your results to as you stated here.
this will let anyone that is interested have a test case to work against
without having to do all the work of setup and reproducing your environment.
Not saying anyone will work on it, just saying it would give people more
incentive to look at it if inclined.
It would also shorten time if you have to get someone to consult with
you on the problem.

also note selenium has some holes in it that also need to be addressed,
you may hit one and need to work with the selenium group to resolve it.
See the jira
https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/OFBIZ-3511


=========================
BJ Freeman
http://bjfreeman.elance.com
Strategic Power Office with Supplier Automation <http://www.businessesnetwork.com/automation/viewforum.php?f=93>
Specialtymarket.com <http://www.specialtymarket.com/>

Systems Integrator-- Glad to Assist

Chat  Y! messenger: bjfr33man
Linkedin
<http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=1237480&locale=en_US&trk=tab_pro>


Christopher Snow sent the following on 3/26/2010 11:26 PM:

> Hi Ruth/Scott,
>
> This post is related to a post I did some time ago. My client is a
> vehicle breaker that scraps vehicles, and sells the individual
> components. When they scrap a vehicle, they keep the main components
> such as the engine and later sell those items individually. Some of the
> engines may be serialized and some may not.
>
> For example, they may have scrapped 10 "Porsche 911 3.2 Carrera series
> (1984–1989)" cars and have the following engines:
>
> Porsche 911 3.2 liter horizontally opposed flat 6 cylinder engine
> - non-serialized, QOH = 8, price £1,500 each
> - serialized, QOH 2 :
> - serial #12345, description "excellent condition", price £2,000
> - serial #23456, description "doesn't start", price £500
>
> From the trials that I have done with ofbiz r4.0, the stock management
> aspect works great. Using the following steps:
>
> - create a product of type virtual (e.g. POR911-3.2-FL6)
> - create non-serialized stock for POR911-3.2-FL6 and add 8 units
> - create a product of type variant (e.g. POR911-3.2-FL6-12345)
> - select POR911-3.2-FL6 product, in variants tab, enter POR911-3.2-FL6
> and click "Add variant product"
> - create a product of type variant (e.g. POR911-3.2-FL6-23456)
> - select POR911-3.2-FL6 product, in variants tab, enter POR911-3.2-FL6
> and click "Add variant product"
> - create serialized stock for POR911-3.2-FL6-12345 and POR911-3.2-FL6-12345
> - create serialized stock for POR911-3.2-FL6-12345 and POR911-3.2-FL6-23456
>
> At the moment they don't need ecommerce, they just need stock
> management, but when they do need ecommerce, then I guess I will have to
> write some custom pages to allow their customers to be able to see the
> description and prices of individual stock items and choose the item
> that best suits their requirements. Features don't seem to make sense
> for this application, and I'm not sure where virtual/variant products is
> the right way to go either. Perhaps I should model the association
> purely as a product association of "equivalent or substitute". However,
> one benefit of using virtual/variant is that in the catalog inventory
> screens, it shows a nice summary of stock for each variant.
>
> However, when trying to add variants in various ofbiz versions, I get
> the following result:
>
> TRUNK: Error calling event:
> org.ofbiz.webapp.event.EventHandlerException: Service invocation error
> (null)
> 9.04: No selectable Features found . Please create some and try again.
> 4.0: All ok - no error
>
> - create a product of type virtual (e.g. CS-VIRT1)
> - create a product of type variant (e.g. CS-VAR1)
> - select CS-VIRT1 product, in variants tab, enter CS-VAR1 and click "Add
> variant product"
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Chris
>
>
> Ruth Hoffman wrote:
>> Hi Chris:
>> This is just my opinion, but yes you could do that, but be aware that
>> the ecommerce application makes some assumptions about virtual and
>> variant products. (For example, how to display HTML select boxes that
>> allow a site visitor to choose the variation of a virtual product.)
>>
>> At a minimum, the ecommerce application may not know how to handle
>> your products in terms of catalog listings, shopping cart displays
>> etc. I haven't looked at the code lately so I'm not sure what the
>> total impact would be.
>>
>> What are you trying to do?
>>
>> Regards,
>> Ruth
>> Chris Snow wrote:
>>> Can a variant product be linked to a virtual product without using
>>> features?
>>>
>>> Many thanks in advance,
>>>
>>>
>
>

[Chris Snow-3]

On trunk, I have noticed that although there is the error message, but
there is another message above the Add Variant Products box:

"*No selectable Features found . Please create some and try again."

*So it appears that r4 allows you to add variants without selectable
features while newer versions don't.

I can still manually add the product variant through the associations
screen on trunk, so as long as this doesn't get "fixed", I will use this
method.  Is this ever likely to get fixed?

Many thanks in advance,

Chris


Christopher Snow wrote:

> Hi Ruth/Scott,
>
> This post is related to a post I did some time ago. My client is a
> vehicle breaker that scraps vehicles, and sells the individual
> components. When they scrap a vehicle, they keep the main components
> such as the engine and later sell those items individually. Some of
> the engines may be serialized and some may not.
>
> For example, they may have scrapped 10 "Porsche 911 3.2 Carrera series
> (1984–1989)" cars and have the following engines:
>
> Porsche 911 3.2 liter horizontally opposed flat 6 cylinder engine
> - non-serialized, QOH = 8, price £1,500 each
> - serialized, QOH 2 :
> - serial #12345, description "excellent condition", price £2,000
> - serial #23456, description "doesn't start", price £500
>
> From the trials that I have done with ofbiz r4.0, the stock management
> aspect works great. Using the following steps:
>
> - create a product of type virtual (e.g. POR911-3.2-FL6)
> - create non-serialized stock for POR911-3.2-FL6 and add 8 units
> - create a product of type variant (e.g. POR911-3.2-FL6-12345)
> - select POR911-3.2-FL6 product, in variants tab, enter POR911-3.2-FL6
> and click "Add variant product"
> - create a product of type variant (e.g. POR911-3.2-FL6-23456)
> - select POR911-3.2-FL6 product, in variants tab, enter POR911-3.2-FL6
> and click "Add variant product"
> - create serialized stock for POR911-3.2-FL6-12345 and
> POR911-3.2-FL6-12345
> - create serialized stock for POR911-3.2-FL6-12345 and
> POR911-3.2-FL6-23456
>
> At the moment they don't need ecommerce, they just need stock
> management, but when they do need ecommerce, then I guess I will have
> to write some custom pages to allow their customers to be able to see
> the description and prices of individual stock items and choose the
> item that best suits their requirements. Features don't seem to make
> sense for this application, and I'm not sure where virtual/variant
> products is the right way to go either. Perhaps I should model the
> association purely as a product association of "equivalent or
> substitute". However, one benefit of using virtual/variant is that in
> the catalog inventory screens, it shows a nice summary of stock for
> each variant.
>
> However, when trying to add variants in various ofbiz versions, I get
> the following result:
>
> TRUNK: Error calling event:
> org.ofbiz.webapp.event.EventHandlerException: Service invocation error
> (null)
> 9.04: No selectable Features found . Please create some and try again.
> 4.0: All ok - no error
>
> - create a product of type virtual (e.g. CS-VIRT1)
> - create a product of type variant (e.g. CS-VAR1)
> - select CS-VIRT1 product, in variants tab, enter CS-VAR1 and click
> "Add variant product"
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Chris
>
>
> Ruth Hoffman wrote:
>> Hi Chris:
>> This is just my opinion, but yes you could do that, but be aware that
>> the ecommerce application makes some assumptions about virtual and
>> variant products. (For example, how to display HTML select boxes that
>> allow a site visitor to choose the variation of a virtual product.)
>>
>> At a minimum, the ecommerce application may not know how to handle
>> your products in terms of catalog listings, shopping cart displays
>> etc. I haven't looked at the code lately so I'm not sure what the
>> total impact would be.
>>
>> What are you trying to do?
>>
>> Regards,
>> Ruth
>> Chris Snow wrote:
>>> Can a variant product be linked to a virtual product without using
>>> features?
>>>
>>> Many thanks in advance,
>>>
>>>
>

[Ruth Hoffman-2]

Hi Chris:
There have been some enhancements to the Catalog Manager (CM) that now
allow you to create your own features and then associate them with a
product dynamically. In 4.0 the UI for creating and associating features
with products wasn't as "flexible" as it is now. So, what is going on is
that the current version of the Catalog Manager UI expects that when you
want to add variant features to a virtual product, those features must
already exist. Further, those features must exists as "selectable"
features. That is why you are getting that specific message. When you
use this "variants" tab to add features, the CM assumes these will be
"selectable" features. By selectable features, it assumes that the
product detail web page will create an HTML select box.

Ok, so what to do next? You have to 1) either create a new feature type
for your parts (for example, "engine") or use an existing demo feature,
2) associate the feature(s) with your virtual product (POR911-3.2-FL6)
3) and then use the variants tab to make the features selectable.

I did a write up of something similar (adding features to products where
those features were downloadable documents - for example, data sheets)
and it walks you through the Catalog Manager steps required to create
new features. It does a much better job of explaining each step
required. It is on the myOFBiz.com library members website
(http://www.myofbiz.com/mylibrary). "How to Add New Product Features"
under the Catalog Manager section.

Hope this helps.
Regards,
Ruth
----------------------------------------------------
Find me on the web at http://www.myofbiz.com or Google keyword "myofbiz"
[hidden email]

Christopher Snow wrote:

> On trunk, I have noticed that although there is the error message, but
> there is another message above the Add Variant Products box:
>
> "*No selectable Features found . Please create some and try again."
>
> *So it appears that r4 allows you to add variants without selectable
> features while newer versions don't.
>
> I can still manually add the product variant through the associations
> screen on trunk, so as long as this doesn't get "fixed", I will use
> this method. Is this ever likely to get fixed?
>
> Many thanks in advance,
>
> Chris
>
>
> Christopher Snow wrote:
>> Hi Ruth/Scott,
>>
>> This post is related to a post I did some time ago. My client is a
>> vehicle breaker that scraps vehicles, and sells the individual
>> components. When they scrap a vehicle, they keep the main components
>> such as the engine and later sell those items individually. Some of
>> the engines may be serialized and some may not.
>>
>> For example, they may have scrapped 10 "Porsche 911 3.2 Carrera
>> series (1984–1989)" cars and have the following engines:
>>
>> Porsche 911 3.2 liter horizontally opposed flat 6 cylinder engine
>> - non-serialized, QOH = 8, price £1,500 each
>> - serialized, QOH 2 :
>> - serial #12345, description "excellent condition", price £2,000
>> - serial #23456, description "doesn't start", price £500
>>
>> From the trials that I have done with ofbiz r4.0, the stock
>> management aspect works great. Using the following steps:
>>
>> - create a product of type virtual (e.g. POR911-3.2-FL6)
>> - create non-serialized stock for POR911-3.2-FL6 and add 8 units
>> - create a product of type variant (e.g. POR911-3.2-FL6-12345)
>> - select POR911-3.2-FL6 product, in variants tab, enter
>> POR911-3.2-FL6 and click "Add variant product"
>> - create a product of type variant (e.g. POR911-3.2-FL6-23456)
>> - select POR911-3.2-FL6 product, in variants tab, enter
>> POR911-3.2-FL6 and click "Add variant product"
>> - create serialized stock for POR911-3.2-FL6-12345 and
>> POR911-3.2-FL6-12345
>> - create serialized stock for POR911-3.2-FL6-12345 and
>> POR911-3.2-FL6-23456
>>
>> At the moment they don't need ecommerce, they just need stock
>> management, but when they do need ecommerce, then I guess I will have
>> to write some custom pages to allow their customers to be able to see
>> the description and prices of individual stock items and choose the
>> item that best suits their requirements. Features don't seem to make
>> sense for this application, and I'm not sure where virtual/variant
>> products is the right way to go either. Perhaps I should model the
>> association purely as a product association of "equivalent or
>> substitute". However, one benefit of using virtual/variant is that in
>> the catalog inventory screens, it shows a nice summary of stock for
>> each variant.
>>
>> However, when trying to add variants in various ofbiz versions, I get
>> the following result:
>>
>> TRUNK: Error calling event:
>> org.ofbiz.webapp.event.EventHandlerException: Service invocation
>> error (null)
>> 9.04: No selectable Features found . Please create some and try again.
>> 4.0: All ok - no error
>>
>> - create a product of type virtual (e.g. CS-VIRT1)
>> - create a product of type variant (e.g. CS-VAR1)
>> - select CS-VIRT1 product, in variants tab, enter CS-VAR1 and click
>> "Add variant product"
>>
>> Any ideas?
>>
>> Many thanks,
>>
>> Chris
>>
>>
>> Ruth Hoffman wrote:
>>> Hi Chris:
>>> This is just my opinion, but yes you could do that, but be aware
>>> that the ecommerce application makes some assumptions about virtual
>>> and variant products. (For example, how to display HTML select boxes
>>> that allow a site visitor to choose the variation of a virtual
>>> product.)
>>>
>>> At a minimum, the ecommerce application may not know how to handle
>>> your products in terms of catalog listings, shopping cart displays
>>> etc. I haven't looked at the code lately so I'm not sure what the
>>> total impact would be.
>>>
>>> What are you trying to do?
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Ruth
>>> Chris Snow wrote:
>>>> Can a variant product be linked to a virtual product without using
>>>> features?
>>>>
>>>> Many thanks in advance,
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>
>