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Selection dependent choices???
Likes # 0
Posted June 24, 2013 at 1:04PM
I need to be able to create a selection process for ordering that is dependent on the previous choices.
The site will be selling custom made pens, so first option is Style of pen, each style comes in various metal finishes (but not all styles come in all finishes), then after style & finish are chosen, wood type is avail, once again certain lighter colored woods will have a stain option (but obviously darker colors have no need of a stain).
What I would like to know is should I go with a drop-down menu theme or simply create a check-box type of selection process?
Either way it needs to be so that as soon as you make one selection, the following selection is specifically geared towards that selection & not just general.
Furthermore, as I am new to this I would also love to know how to code it into my site.
- Tags:
- e-commerce
- dropdown
- webpage
- design
Likes # 0
Posted June 26, 2013 at 1:05AM
The most common (and sensible) way to do something like this, is to create a back-end database (identifying all the types, styles and options) and then make the calls as the customer selects each component.
So for example, if your customer choose style b, they may only be able to see finishes k, m and s, Having chosen s, perhaps they can now only have colours a1, b4 and d7 and so on. It's complex, but the database is written in such a manner as to only provide the correct options. The web page would interact with the database via php.
It could possibly be done with a series of php forms, but that's a cumbersome way of doing it. For example, if you had 3 styles, with 3 finishes and 3 wood types, you straight away have 27 potential combinations. Now if you expand that to 3 stains, you've got 81 potential options! I know you said some combinations are not available, but it's still a lot on only 3 base products!
If you're bright enough, you could probably create a php or javascript script to achieve the same ends. But the problem with that is, if you change (or add to) the products, the scripts would have to be rewritten.
Either way, you need some specialist coding skills to achieve your goal.
How you present it on your page is personal choice, but probably a tick box type of presentation is preferable. One system I came across recently presented the options as images, and you simply clicked on the image - very nice and I suspect, very expensive!
Likes # 0
Posted June 26, 2013 at 2:09AM
After I wrote the above (which still stands) I got more curious about your post and came across this:
As I said, there are disadvantages, but if you've only a few products, maybe it'll work for you.
Likes # 0
Posted June 26, 2013 at 4:28AM
Thank you so very much for your advice, this will do perfectly.
Fortunately I only have 5 styles of pen to choose from.
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