eCommerce : (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta) : Comments

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 09:04:29 GMT

This is super great, finally we can make sense on inventory. Here's my feedback so far.

Mainly in regard to import and there are reasons for it.

I'm not sure how many partners fall into the same situation but when it comes to Businesses with Online Stores, 99% of the time, they already have Stocked Products and most of the time they would have hundreds if not few hundreds, in other situations, we win a Client with an existing Online Store with thousands of products already Online.

We already go through the pain of exporting their existing Database, polish it to match BC's Spreadsheet to import it.

So we already race with deadlines to produce an eCommerce site to the Client's expectation, and that become challenging when we work on multiple sites in the same period. So if we're slow, nothing gets produced on-time, or we can't bring more Clients in fear of failing to meet deadlines.

Then after producing a full site, most Online retailers stock -up weekly, bringing hundreds and hundreds of new products to be all added to the site.

In general, the faster we produce, the more we can bring, and the faster the Client can update their sites, the more love we get from them. therefore, supporting Variation Creation through import is a valuable time saver for both Partners and Clients.

In terms of the import spreadsheet, I personally think less is more, a single spreadsheet with everything in it will be definitely more than enough. Giving the client a Catalog Spreadsheet, Product Spreadsheet, Variation Spreadsheet and this feature, plus the other feature in the other side, will just become a heavy job.

Again, I think we should re-listen to that part we had in the video presentation "THIS PLATFORM IS TO HELP BUSINESS OWNERS GROW THEIR BUSINESSES NOT WRESTLING WITH TECHNOLOGY"

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 11:34:31 GMT

This is looking great, a very much needed addition to the ecom side of things (who knows we might get a featured image option on the blog next.. haha )

I agree with Creativaholic, the import is super important for my clients aswell. When I show them the admin and walk them through adding new products then explain they can do a bulk import via a spreadsheet, their eyes light up. The sooner we have the import feature the better.

I will keep playing around with this, keep up the good work, loving these solid monthly updates.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 11:40:57 GMT

Yes that's true, I forgot to mention (their eyes light up) - well said lachlanmunday.

Also, I would like to apology to the BC Team, I've been a bit rude as my first post was done so fast due to some deadlines.

Guys, YOU ROCK! This is one of the BEST releases yet and I can't wait to see the improvements you're bringing to the platform. On behalf of my team and I'm sure my clients as well, I would like to say huge thank you and very very exceptional job well done!

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:41:00 GMT

Hi Christinel,

The product import functionality is essential for our e-commerce clients and prospects, especially when they have thousands of products online. The most common set-up is that our clients use an existing ERP (stock, warehouse, accountancy management system) that holds different data from the one on the e-commerce module (the html formatted long description for exemple). Our main struggle is to selectively update the price and stock information (sometimes the product name as well, but rather rarely).

It would be absolutely great to have the 'Ignore empty Cells' option on the import screen as soon as possible. In this case we'd be able to just upload product code, name, stock, selling price all other columns being empty and just update name, stock and selling price, all other information would remain unchanged?

This is exactly what's needed.

We are currently bidding for an e-commerce project with 10k products and the only problem in our offer is the the smooth updating of the price and stock information.

Any ETA?

Thi is great news. Thnaks!

Hartmut

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:56:51 GMT

I would like to actually agree with Eworks-WSI. We were waiting for this release so badly holding a client up for it, unfortunately, with the API risk and not be able to do all this at import, we were obliged to use a different platform, I thought that finally we will be using BC for most of our projects, but so far I still think some complex projects require more than what could be handled in BC.

This client has a massive warehouse, with probably more than 10K SKUS, so you're looking at 30K to 40K individual products, and we will be really like pilling a room of potatos trying to activate variations with the current setup. And of course, product grouping again? I personally don't want my team to go down that road again.

Plus, they want to have the possibility to integrate with their own Stock Management System, and if the Soap API can't update the Stock and Attributes, we're back to square 1.

The feature release at its state now is still very usefull for small businesses with small or limited amount of stocks, but when you talk warehouses and big Online Retailers, it's a different story, we still cannot compete using BC, therefore we still turn to alternative solution away from BC.

I hope one day we use BC and BC only, but I still can't see it happening 100% right now.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 04:24:38 GMT

In all reality this is a terrific feature but without any ability to import stock levels on each attribute it is going to fall completely flat on any reasonable sized business. I am just in the process of about to load up some 700+ stock items that will have to be grouped as we need to maintain inventory levels on the different sizes / colours - this would have been perfect and I was getting so excited as I read through the description until I got to the end... alas these features are of no use.

To be taken seriously as an eCommerce solution an import facility where you can load up your attribute stock levels is absolutely critical.It is not just at initial client set up but also at end of year stock take when adjustments are put through. I can appreciate the difficulty in creating attributes at stock import but until we can this feature will only be of interest to small businesses.

Keep up wthe good work guys but if new features are released with little appeal to the general market it will become a waste of time. Hopefully you find a solution.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 05:44:16 GMT

Reading products via the API and updating stock levels would be critical for us at OneSaas.

Also having the new attributes visible in the API on the Order Lines Items would be mandatory.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 11:57:16 GMT

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your feedback.

As you all noticed, the import/export update proposals were missing at least one important workflow that would have allowed customers to create new products with variations, which seems to be critical. To include this feedback, we're updating the specs so that:

We're dropping the separate spreadsheet concept as most of the partners we've talked with don't share this idea;
We'll be updating the current import template and add some more columns to accommodate these workflows;
These columns will not force existing customers to change their import files, as they will be added at the end of the file;
While the feature will be in beta turned off, the product export will not include these additional columns

Even with this concept, we're looking at two possible implementations, that we'd like to get your feedback on:

Use product code to store the master product code

Three new columns will be added at the end of the import file:

"Variation Code" :
1. Expected values: empty for products, string with the variation code when the line is a product variation
2. Default value: empty
"Variation Options":
1. Expected values: product option names (ex: Red, Small, V-Neck); the must be entered in the same order the they are defined for product attributes
2. Default value: empty
"Use Variations":
1. Possible values: Y or N
2. Default value: N
3. Products with variations will need to have this set to Y
4. Variations will have this cell empty

Export behavior

Products without variations:

only Use Variations column has value N

Products with variations:

will output one row for the master product and one row for each associated variation
master product will have Use Variations: Y
each variation will have
- Product Code: the code of the master product
- In Stock, On Order, Variation Code - the corresponding values set on the variation
- Variation Options: the options that form the variations separated by semicolon (the order is that of the attributes as they appear in Attributes filed)

Import behavior

A variation row is one that have Variation Options not empty and Product Code not empty. The product code identifies the master product and the variation options identify the variation within that product.

The variations are processed always after the master product. A variation row only updates an existing variation (the master product must have variations enabled and the corresponding options must exist in keep stock attributes).

Create a product with variations

Add the keep stock on each attribute that keep stock: Size*|5|Y :Small|,Medium|,Large|;Color*|5|Y:Red|,Blue|,Green|
Use Variations: Y
Update each variation details by using the Variation Options as a key

Update a product with variations

keep stock on attributes cannot be changed on a product that has variations enabled (if an attempt is made there will be an error)
every variation that appear in the table will be updated using Variation Options as a key
in stock, on order will be ignored for the master product

Remove variations from a product

Use Variations: N
if there are variations in the table that point to that product they will be ignored

Use product code to store the variation code

Three new columns will be added at the end of the import file:

Update "Product Code":
1. Will store the product code OR the variation code
"Master Product Code":
1. Expected values: empty for products, string identifying master products for variations
2. Default value: empty
3. If the line is a product variation, this column must include the master product code
"Variation Options" :
1. Expected values: product option names (ex: Red, Small, V-Neck); the must be entered in the same order the they are defined for product attributes
2. Default value: empty
"Use Variations":
1. Possible values: Y or N
2. Default value: N
3. Products with variations will need to have this set to Y
4. Variations will have this cell empty

Export behavior

Products without variations:

only Use Variations column has value N

Products with variations:

will output one row for the master product and one row for each associated variation
master product will have Use Variations: Y
each variation will have
- Product Code: the code of the variation
- In Stock, On Order - the corresponding values set on the variation
- Master Product Code - the code of the master product
- Variation Options: the options that form the variations separated by semicolon (the order is that of the attributes as they appear in Attributes filed)

Import behavior

A variation row is one that have Variation Options not empty and Product Code not empty. The Product Code the product, the Master Product Code identifies the master product and the variation options identify the variation within that product. Variation codes will be updated, if different than what we pregenerate in the system.

Create, update and remove variations behavior is identical with the one described in the first option.

Looking forward to your comments,

Cristinel

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 12:23:58 GMT

Thanks for the update Cristinel,

Will go through this in detail this week but as your updating the product import export data, you able to update it with the current missing abilities such as tags? (not keywords, tags, basicaly classification for products) as this has been missing off the import export process while things like web apps, news etc have this.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 13:51:38 GMT

Hi Liam,

For the moment we'll focus on updating the current engine to support inventory per attributes. Let's have a separate discussion about what else needs to be in the import since we'll handle that on a different track.

Cristinel

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:02:08 GMT

We will look into this new update more deeply by the end of the week, just finishing up a couple projects.

However, something that came into our mind and we tested. This might happen and you'll get requests about it for sure.

Retailer or wholesaler in general, track their stock by using poduct code. The variation generating individual product code is awesome (if no Atual Warehouse product code is required), however, a Blue T-Shirt Size 10 doesn't have the same product code as the same Blue T-Shirt Size 12.

So first, in the spreadsheet, you need to consider to provide the possibility to define different product codes for different variations in consideration to the master product, the reason I'm saying this is because sometimes you find the T-Shirt Size 10 with a code of ABC123 but the same T-Shirt in Size 12 has a code of XYZ456 (no relevance whatsoever).

The question here will be, how the spreadsheet will be setup to help the system KNOW that those 2 products belong to the same Master Product when there is no similar reference in the product code. THIS IS A HUGE AND IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION. The solution might be adding an extra Column that has an Internal reference to help the system know that? Don't know but this is very crucial.

The second thing is, what if there is a Store that don't want to control invetory over attributes but still want to take advantage of the coolness of Variation to add the product once? well this is what we tested, we added a variation to a product but we didn't want to control inventory, so when we activated the variation, we removed the '0s' from the inventory fields, saved, however we came back to the product variation and the '0' was there automatically.

You will be asking me why I want to use variations if I'm not controlling inventory, well the answer is simple, again each product variation (from the warehouse perspective) have a different product code, so we want to take advantage of that instead of duplicating the product and grouping again, but we can't use it unless if we have some number in the inventory fields.

So the solution for this in my opinion might be easy. If you want to use product variation so you can have different product codes for each variation but without controlling inventory, maybe we can put "-" (Dash) instead of an actual value? I don't know this is just a suggestion.

But these 2 scenarios are to look out for specially the first 1.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:20:02 GMT

Our clients also, as mentioned by Creativaholic, have all their products with individual, unique product codes, we are generally managing similar versions (colors, sizes) of one main product by using the regrouping products function. The regrouping works OK with the current csv uploading.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:30:22 GMT

Thanks Cristinel,

In your first post you've mentioned the possibility of updating the current e-commerce import engine with a 'Ingore empty cells' option'. This option seems crucial for our e-commerce clients & prospects. Can you please update us on its implementation, ETA, etc?

Thnaks

Hartmut

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:32:53 GMT

Liam, how do import News items with their tags? Did not know you could.

Thanks Hartmut

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 19:57:24 GMT

Hi Hartmut,

Yes, I did that as that was part of the first proposal aiming to use the current excel sheet with the intention to reduce the risk of deleting product data when creating the variations. However, the first proposal did not covered the create new variation workflows, so we had to change it.

In the new proposal, we use two codes - one is the master product code and the other one is the variation code. The variations will always be identified by thier master prodct code and the options so no need for ignore empty cells, for now.

For the moment, there aren't any plans to implement this.

Cristinel

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 22:50:34 GMT

Hello creativaholic,

"The question here will be, how the spreadsheet will be setup to help the system KNOW that those 2 products belong to the same Master Product when there is no similar reference in the product code. THIS IS A HUGE AND IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION. The solution might be adding an extra Column that has an Internal reference to help the system know that? Don't know but this is very crucial."

On the first variant you'll have:

Product code - will be the master product code, even for the variation; this will help determine to which product a certain variation belongs to
Variation code - this is the "product" code of the variation; in the store, this will displayed in place of the master product code;

On the second option

Product code - represents the product or variation code; this is the unique key that identifies the product or variation
Master product code - represents the product code of the product the variation belongs to; this is used to link a variation to a product.

Cristinel

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 23:15:51 GMT

Second Option will work, like I mentioned Blue Shirt Size 1 has code ABC123 and the same Blue Shirt Size 2 has code XYZ456, so product code has no similarity in real life whatsoever.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 08:25:18 GMT

Hello Creativaholic,

On your second suggestion, to have variation running without actually having inventory, the current implemetation will allow you to do that, if you allow pre-ordering. Would that work for you?

Cristinel

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 08:41:10 GMT

Hi Cristinel,

Let’s look at this issue from our business perspective:

None of our e-commerce clients is using product variations under one single product code: In their inventory each product has a single, unique code, the trend is clearly (at least in Europe) to use more and more EAN codes i.e. 4005808338344 etc Product variations (size, color, etc) are being taken care of by using regrouping and tags (and Liam is correct saying that we are missing the tags in the import function).

On the current export, the Attributes appear in this format:

Color*|5:blue||CY/1.52,red||CY/1.52

Wouldn’t it be easier & elegant to just add the stock information in the same format (example: 25 blue and 50 red):

Color*|5:blue||CY/1.52,25,red||CY/1.52,50

All of our medium sized e-commerce clients have the same problem that they cannot update selectively price and stock information through the csv upload.

The upload functionality ‘Ignore empty cells’ would be ideal: the upload sheet would have all 52 column headers but only the product code, selling price, stock, and whatever other field that needs to be modified would be present, all empty fields would not change the exiting information on the server.

It should not be too difficult for your engineers to add a simple

If upload.cell.value=””

then keep current.value

else

update current.value with upoload.cell.value

Or are there other considerations we are not aware of?

We are currently preparing offers to 2 e-commerce prospects and in both proposals the integrated BC solution is the most attractive in comparison to our competitors and in both proposals part of the client’s basic requirements is the easy updating of price and stock through csv upload. If we are unable to answer this request they will choose another solution, it’s simple like that.

To stay in the game we need to give our clients & prospects a time frame when this functionality can be available.

Now, perhaps I am missing a solution to get the update done that I am not aware of

Thanks in advance for your consideration, it is really important

Hartmut CLASEN

WSI Internet Consultant

( (357) 22675747 | fax: (357) 22675748

<mailto:hclasen@eworkswsi.com.cy> hclasen@eworkswsi.com.cy

Visit us <http://www.eworkswsi.com.cy/> www.eworkswsi.com.cy

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 15:43:57 GMT

In Reply To Cristinel RE: "On your second suggestion, to have variation running without actually having inventory, the current implemetation will allow you to do that, if you allow pre-ordering. Would that work for you?"

Actually No, this particular site or say "client" is a manufacturer, so they don't have limitation on inventory, they can produce a new product within few minutes. Pre-ordering means we have to create limitation in terms of inventory which is risky for the my Client's business. Their customers know that they can produce anything anytime so it will be a new dimension for them having the pre-ordering setup.

Yes we can try to convince them to put a number in inventory like 10 million or something (which can be a work-around) but it will be nicer to have that full control to use attributes with different Product Codes, at least to be added to the Attributes themselves without involving the inventory control feature.

Like Eworks says, we need to look at things like this from a business perspective, not functionality.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 15:51:34 GMT

I agree with EWorks Post, the part that is the most stressful is when the client requests something and you can't deliver it in BC, they will be forced to look somewhere else, for us, we don't have that issue all the time as we use other solutions when necessary - saying that - what BC does want us to do? bringing ALL business to BC or keep our options open?

I'm not sure if I'm the only optimistic here but I would like to bring ALL business to BC at some stage.

So Cristinel, what is the ETA on the spreadsheet update so far?

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 14:41:54 GMT

Hello Creativaholic,

We agree on the fact that the varioation code is the unique code that identifies it and that (master product code) becomes a code that helps the system indetify to which master product a certain variation belongs to. However, for products with variations, we need a code that will help associate a variation to a product. The two versions explore different options on placing the product/variation code and the master product code for products with variations. Here are some comments to both questions:

Why can't we use the attributes column to enter stock?
1. For two reasons: first, because that column storess ALL the attributes and options for a product;
2. Second, because the field has already a cumbersome syntax that is difficult to read and update by a user without reading a user manual just for that
Product code column mixes real product codes (variation codes) and internal product codes (master product code, for product with variations enabled)
1. True for the first option. This is the downside of the first solution. For the product w/out attributes the product code has a real meaning, while for the ones w/ variations is doesn't have a real meaning other then being a foreign key to the master product; shortly it's just an internal code.
2. However, our second option, which is proposing the use of the product code column to store the variation code has the downside that the variation key is not a primary key for import. One can leave the master product code unchanged when copying a sample product and thus will add variations to that product instead of the product intended for update
3. In both cases, the user will still have to have a line that includes the "master product", even if it's fake because that product include the product information (name, price, etc)

For the next release (scheduled to go out in December), we'll go with the first option, which has a lower downside and we're continue to look for feedback.

Cristinel

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 14:46:24 GMT

Hi Creativaholic,

On your variations without inventory, pre-ordering doesn't actually for you to enter 10 millions in stock. Is just that you will have a certain number of items pre-ordered. However, it is true that a better support would be to have variations without inventory, but we don't support that at this point.

Cristinel

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:19:34 GMT

ok, that should be fine, however, if the workaround of putting millions in stock and allowing pre-ordering, it is also good to set the notification when stock level reaches a certain amount ... ok you can set it up under inventory, but it doesn't exist in the spreadsheet for importing.

Would it be a quick fix to add few fields in the spreadsheet to set the Notification when stock level reaches a certain amount to "Y" and another field to setup when the notification will be sent "number of low stock" and the role responsible - either "Admin" or "Users" ?

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 22:36:01 GMT

Hi Creativaholic,

If you allow preordering, you don't have to put anything in stock. You can take the orders and deliver the goods. You can also use low stock notification, but these are needed if you use inventory and don't allow preordering.

Also, the import file already includes a column named Re-order threshold which sets the level of stock that triggers the low stock notification email. What we don't have is the ability to set the role responsible from import. However, for this one, I woner whether isn't better to actually have this notification set somewhere else, at the site level, instead of being set at a product level?

Cristinel

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 22:51:21 GMT

Hi Cristinel,

ok all good, in terms of Role Responsible, my opinion would be yes and no.

Yes - great idea to have it in site level if you're defining 1 User.

No - when you have a site with more than 1 user responsible and each may be responsible for certain areas/products, then you add 1, and have to set the others manually.

Unless if you add the role responsible in site level but we can determine (if more than one user) what areas/products are going to whom - (like adding products to catalogues and vice-versa)

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 09:37:53 GMT

I actually take back what I said in terms of setting up role responsible from the site level, it is actually easier if it is done through the spreadsheet, as per an example - there is a site under development where we're using this new feature. The site has over 5000 products imported using the spreadsheet.

Lucky enough for us, there are only about 50 products with different variations, the rest has only 1 attribute. Now we have to go manually on those 50 products to enable the variations and enable the role responsible.

Now in this situation, with a single user, if it is at the site level, it will be fine. But this particular site has over 3 users, each user is responsible for certain SKUs. With 5000 products, to go at site level and select all the products for each user will be a pain. Where in the spreadsheet it's easier to just sort the rows and copy each user down. import and done deal. Which also from a client perspective updating the sites themselves with the spreadsheet will be more welcomed.

Another addition to the fields while this is happening, I can't see a way in the spreadsheet to activate the "visitors must select one option" checkbox.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 10:00:10 GMT

Also it's a pain to have to add just the difference of the price in the attributes cost, can it be edited so we can add the full price of the item instead of just the difference?

You might want to add a couple extra tags to sync with attributes: (I hate the way it shows the extra cost in the dropdown.)

{tag_saleprice, syncWithAttributes}

{tag_retailprice, syncWithAttributes}

With that, maybe the RRP and Sale Price fields can be added next to the variation fields. I know it's a big shot but that's how flexible it can be.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 17:05:37 GMT

Ok another Product Code twist issue.

This is again related to business wanting to track their inventory but each variation has a different Product Code.

so, you add the product, input the Product Code let's say code "ABC123", you add your attributes, generate variations.

You have a Size Small, Medium and Large.

You give each a code S = ABC123, M = ABC456 and L = ABC789

Click save and boom = Error, the ABC123 is already used by another product.

Yes you will tell me change the master product code or something - it is fine, but I think in my opinion, once you generate variations, the master product code should be ignored somehow. Also will be a great feature if you generate the variations, the master product code just disappears entirely.

The reason being, when the client/site user wants to edit the product or whatever ... they will most likely use the product code to search for it, yes it will appear, we tested it, but once the product opens, they will be "What The?" - this is if we set it up for them from start. If they add a product while they're not aware of it at start, there comes the phone calls with the "What The?".

We always consider the limitation of the clients' knowledge compared to ours.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 12:07:37 GMT

I am glad this is now an option. Well done.

If I understand the above section re: Import/Export - Is it true we will not be able to import a list of new products with variations?

I would very much like this to be added as I have a few hundred products to upload each with up to 8 variations.

Thanks

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 06:39:00 GMT

Hi guys,

I’ve just changed all my product groupings over to attributes however I’ve encountered one issue I thought someone might help me with. In the following article ( http://forums.adobe.com/message/4755700#4755700 ) you guys suggest using the {tag_instock} in the css to hide/show certain divs. I’ve done this with the site however with attributes ({tag_instock, true} none of it is working… For some reason the tag isn’t giving me a clean ‘0’ at the end of my class.

Any suggestions?

PS: Other than this issue, my team are loving the new attributes setup, good job!

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 19:26:56 GMT

Is there a reason why we can't have Checkboxes with variations?

Some stores will require to give the ability to choose different variations in the same product.

For example a customer with 2 kids would like to buy the same t-shirt in 2 different sizes, so she/he would like to add them to the cart at the same time.

Yes I know you will say they can just add 1 at a time, but what I said was just an example, the real dilemma example is wholesalers, when they want to buy multiple products and specially the same product in different variations, well... again it's an issue.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 16:15:28 GMT

Another thing I noticed and here's an example: This warehouse has a selection of products that have only 1 single variation, but they are planning to add other variations to these products. Also they requested to have the first variation selected by default. Since we can do that once variations are activated, we cannot do that at this stage with products that have attributes without variations.

I know I can activate attributes to have it selected, but we are talking 5000 products, it is no way to activate variations for each one of them.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 08:06:46 GMT

Cristinel, The new spreadsheet looks awesome, is this ready to use, can we run a test or do we have to wait for the full releases to deploy.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 09:39:55 GMT

Hi Creativaholic,

The release deployment is in process, you should be able to try the updates in production in a few hours from now.

Cristinel

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 09:41:17 GMT

Hi Nathan,

The support for importing products with variations will be added in our December release, which will deployed today.

Kind regards,

Cristinel

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 09:43:34 GMT

Hi Creativaholic,

For now, we are not going to include the ability to define prices at variation level, but we'll be monitoring the feature usage and requests and consider it future updates.

Kind regards,

Cristinel

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 09:46:44 GMT

GREAT!!! Well done - that will save me a ton of time

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 09:49:30 GMT

Hi Christel,

I would like to add my request to those wanting to define prices at variation level (this will be very important for quite a few of my clients)

Thanks - keep up the great updates.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 09:59:15 GMT

Hi Creativaholic,

Usually checkboxes are used for optional attributes like gift wrapping which don't really have an impact in inventory. Allowing users to set regular attributes (like colors) as checkboxes would lead to invalid options a users has to disable anyway.

An example is could be the case of a T-Shirt with Colors (Red and Blue) and Sizes (S and M). This usally has 4 varioations Red-S, Red-M, Blue-S and Blue-M. Allowing a user to define the attributes as checkboxes would generate 8 variations, 4 of them being in most cases invalid (Blue, Red, S and M).

However, your use case is valid but it can be achieved by using the JSON output of the product variations and allowing you to present them as you want.

Cristinel

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 10:03:26 GMT

Hi Creativaholic,

Product variations are built as subproducts of a master product. The (master) product code is still used to keep the link between a variation and it's master product that contains information like description, price, shippping and so one. Taking the product code out of there, would lead into the product grouping scenario, which we allready have as a separate feature.

Cristinel

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 10:09:34 GMT

Maybe it should be called Master Identifier Code or something to not confuse retailers in that matter, like I mentioned, product codes are determined in an individual product level not the SKU level if you know what I mean.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 10:15:51 GMT

This is a small change, it won't hurt and it won't take long.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 10:35:53 GMT

Checkbox theory technically is true, but logically is not, believe me, we dealt with warehouses and retailers for years and we know exactly how it all work.

JSON methods you highlighted don't allow multiple selection of variations under the same product, you have to add each one individually. But when you have a major wholesaler - this wholesaler's resellers / customers don't have time for that, they want to go through the store quickly select everything quickly and add to cart.

Without mentioning that a feature to select multiple products and click in a "Master Add to Cart" to add them all at once is highly, highly, highly ... required. These are small little things that I mentioned here, I have a full document that (if you remember) I promised to send in this regard - I will, just need time to see the new updates and how it would all blend.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 12:29:30 GMT

I think syncing the price with Attributes is very important, there is no monitoring needed, again, it's a logic, when you change images, codes depending on attributes, it doesn't make sense not having the price update with them as well.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 03:11:53 GMT

Ok first bug found:

when you create your variations, if you define your own product code in the variations, the first variation doesn't take it, it defaults to what the system creates by default

means, if you create the variations manually in the system, the variations take on automatically the product code ABC123-Blue. In the spreadsheet, when imported, it does exactly that even if you define XYZ in the first variation code

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 03:33:15 GMT

And the Stock Number defaults to 0

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 03:39:12 GMT

Ok, this is weird, but it might something to re-looked at guys, I downloaded the products, fixed the issue in the downloaded spreadsheet, re-uploaded and it has been fixed, so obviously the raw first upload has something odd, and when you look at the spreadsheets, both are exactly the same. very weird.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 05:47:11 GMT

Correction: Sorry guys my bad, my first spreadsheet had something wacky on it I guess, second attempt was successful

Just reporting that the upload works fine "so far" we just uploaded 1500 entries successfully, 10 of those to go and will be there

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 17:51:31 GMT

In the Attribute Groupings there is a place to set images for each attribute. I have done this, but the main images are not changes when they select differing attributes. I see javascript code above that is supposed to make this happen, so i put this in the Individual Product Large page, but nothing changed. Can someone shed some light on this for me? thanks.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:37:55 GMT

Just letting you know if you use special characters in the product attribute the system doesnt let it update. For example if you have 2", short for 2 inch then the system wont update.

Also if you alllow the systemt o generate the variations the product combinations come out the same

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 08:02:29 GMT

Hello 360Online,

We'll look into the special character problem and get back to you with an update.

Thank you for reporting it,

Cristinel

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 08:19:18 GMT

Cistinel, 360Online,

We found this issue and we had worked out the solution - practically not a solution but just a "how to". This doesn't happen only on the Attributes, it happens across the entire system - Product, Catalogue, WebApp naming, titles and what have you ...

If you want to use special characters, you should use it in an HTML format, even though some areas in the system will accept to render special characters as they are typed, other areas won't.

So for example for the quotes / inches you type " and it will render as - " - like the - & and &

However, this is not just the attributes issue, it is the entire system's issue as I mentioned before, some areas would render the character as they are, and some areas will need them typed in an HTML style - don't ask me about those areas because I forgot - these are all notes in my head that I clearly remember.

So I guess, this needs to be looked at from so many different areas and fixing it will be better to render the characters as they are - no HTML required as our clients don't have HTML knowledge to remember which character renders what, they should be able to just type what they type and gets rendered accordingly.

Consistency people ... Consistency!

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 23:10:33 GMT

Love where this is going, the only downside that keeps me from using it is that when you select an attribute ( like color ), it doesn't change the picture. We really need the ability to have a different product image for each attribute so that it shows that attribute. So if you select "green" the picture of the product in green shows up instead of the default color.

Thanks,

Josh

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 08:42:22 GMT

Hi,

Example 2 - Change image according to selected attribute is a little javascript snippet that allows you to implement that behavior. The sample is tailored for a dropdown attribute with images defined on its options. You should paste the code either in the small or the large product layout. The code is based on two tags introduced specifically to improve customizability via javascript. Please let me know if it works for you.

{tag_product_json} - outputs product data as a javascript object

{tag_attributes_json} - outputs attributes data as a javascript object.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 15:44:19 GMT

I am using the new variation inventory feature -- working fine. But, I need to add a long list of options (that do not effect inventory levels). I would like to use a checklist, as people will select all, none, or any combination of about 10 different options. Unfortunately, both the radio and checklist formats do not let the text description of the option display -- as they do with products without variations.Am I missing something obvious here?

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 11:53:37 GMT

Hi there,

I’m absolutely NEW in Business Catalyst so I need HELP.

I want to include “Change image according to selected attribute” into my client’s website (still under construction).

When customer select one “color-size” from the dropdown I would like the images change accordingly: http://tesonline02.businesscatalyst.com/outerwear/avatar

What I’ve done so far is:

From the Dashboard (into Attributes Tab), I’ve assigned an image to each attribute.
I’ve used the Example 2 above including this <script> into the code of Layout/OnlineShop/large_product.htm and also replacing {tag_attributes} by {tag_attributes_json}… this didn’t work at all ….

Could you give me some guidance about which templates modify and how????

Thank you so much in advance.

Eva ..

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:33:04 GMT

I have assembled a demo site for you, please have a look. http://mpvariationsdemo.businesscatalyst.com/shop/test

When you select the options Black or White the image changes. It is not perfect but it should point you in the right direction. Please note that my example works with dropdown lists, if you want it to work with checkboxes or radiobuttons you have change the selector $(divId).find("select").

You can use the the following credentials to login in the admin of this demo site and see the actual template and product definition.

username: mptestvariations@mailinator.com

password: 12345678

http://mpvariationsdemo.businesscatalyst.com/AdminConsole/#!/Customize /CatalogueTemplates.aspx?ID=4

http://mpvariationsdemo.businesscatalyst.com/AdminConsole/#!/Admin/Products_Detail.aspx?Pr oductID=5301845

Marius

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:35:07 GMT

It works!!!!!!!!! ... thank you, thank you thank you ........ I cannot thank you enough .... you're great .....

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 11:17:04 GMT

i cannot get the attibute image to change even with the code added as above, the only thing i can see different with your code is this - <div class="catProductAttributeGroup" data-productattributegroup="613822">, i do not have the extra attribute, what am i missing

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Sat, 13 Jul 2013 03:37:16 GMT

Hi all,

Is it possible for the product variations/attributes dropdown, when working in with stock levels, to make the variations with no stock disappear from the attributes dropdown? Either that, or to make them ghosted out and unavailable to select? Or maybe in the attributes dropdown to have it like:

Size:

S - 1 Left

M - Sold Out

L - 4 Left

Any of the above 3 options would work. Having an instock area is ok, but the user has to select the size before they see the stock level change, which isn't optimal.

What I'm trying to avoid is having my client have to log in and disable each attribute as it sells out.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 07:32:11 GMT

Hi benatflag,

You can achieve either of these by choosing the right option available in the Inventory tab > When out of stock drop-down. There are three available options in there:

Hide product - this will not display the option when it goes out of stock
Show product but don't accept orders - displays the option but doesn't let the potential buyer add it to cart
Enable pre-ordering - accepts pre-orders on the option

Cristinel

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 12:04:45 GMT

bcInternals.shop.addToCart Has a bug in it so it does not work

TypeError: E.value is null

http://sydcdn.worldsecuresystems.com/CatalystScripts/Java_OnlineShopping.js?vs=b2054.r4067 05

Line 1

Post response:

null; r.error = {"Message":"Object reference not set to an instance of an object.","Type":"System.NullReferenceException"};/*   Post Source:

Source

{"cartId":"4fefd42a-5709-4a60-8562-5b414e65e220","catalogueId":150948,"productId":5507775,"units":"1","relatedProductIds":"","attributeIDs":["13319265|1","13398391|1","13398393|1","1|1","4|1"],"instructions":"","vertical":false,"templateTypeID":4,"isQuote":false,"targetFrame":"","v2":true,"templateName":"","templateHash":"","cartSummaryTemplateName":"/_System/CustomLayouts/shopping-cart.tpl","cartSummaryTemplateHash":"dYt+zanpcPglBGyiDPJWZsJGbFc="}

Line of code: bcInternals.shop.addToCart(productJson, {"selectedOptions":[1,4], "skipRefreshAfter" :  true});

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 20:07:48 GMT

Hi Cristinel - thanks for the code to change large product image when the product attribute is changed. Could you also provide code to change/update the product price when the product attribute is changed? Thank you very much Cristinel. This will be a huge, huge help.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 20:08:59 GMT

Thank you for your equiry.

We will endeavour to get back to you as soon as possible.

Regards

Wishlist Solutions

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 06:58:45 GMT

It has been a while and a few of the bugs with this were and have been reported. Just wondering Crisitnel when the team would be able to fit these in?

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 06:59:16 GMT

Thank you for your equiry.

We will endeavour to get back to you as soon as possible.

Regards

Wishlist Solutions

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 16:29:14 GMT

What about shipping for different weights? If i am selling paint pots and I have a sample paint pot at 100ml then a proper paint pot at 1 litre is there anything that we can do for BC to define the right shipping charge?

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 16:29:56 GMT

Thank you for your equiry.

We will endeavour to get back to you as soon as possible.

Regards

Wishlist Solutions

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 17:04:08 GMT

You probably best to separate the samples from the current product. There isn’t a way to define different measurements/weights per attribute which I think must be there, therefore, create the samples as separate products and define their weights independently.

Then use the Upsell/Cross sell option to display the samples next to their respective products.

Yes I know mate, more work, but I think that the only simple workaround at the moment.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 17:12:28 GMT

Thanks Tarik, I thought this would be the case so have already started doing this, was hoping the system would be able to handle a one product setup with different sizes and shipping is based on weight of the attribute.

Thanks for your response though.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 17:12:33 GMT

Thank you for your equiry.

We will endeavour to get back to you as soon as possible.

Regards

Wishlist Solutions

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 17:13:09 GMT

Thank you for your equiry.

We will endeavour to get back to you as soon as possible.

Regards

Wishlist Solutions

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 00:17:08 GMT

Just a note that there's a typo in the Attributes select tag manatory="1", so it won't fire correctly.

Note: Error was our end in JS. Apologies.

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 00:17:48 GMT

Thank you for your equiry.

We will endeavour to get back to you as soon as possible.

Regards

Wishlist Solutions

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 22:43:57 GMT

Thank you for your equiry.

We will endeavour to get back to you as soon as possible.

Regards

Wishlist Solutions

RE: (Updated) Product inventory control for attributes (beta)

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 06:07:04 GMT

Hi Liam,

Did you get any response on this bug, I get the same error and can't get the add to cart without refresh script to work.

Cheers,

Stephen