Making all product options + add to cart visible by default

Will · Post by **Will** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:47 pm

Is there (or will there be) a way to have all product options showing by default?

Right now, I've defined a product with 2 separate options. When the user first comes to the screen, one option is hidden along with the add to cart button.

Is there any way we can have them all showing up initially?

Also, it is possible to have a product option value selected by default? Right now, the user is forced to select one.

Thanks.

Post by **Shopping Cart Admin** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 10:09 am

Hello,

This was changed in Beta 2, I can't remember right off hand all the changes so after you get upgraded you can let us know your thoughts and suggestions.

Will · Post by **Will** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 2:33 pm

I just finished upgrading from Beta 2 to RC1.

The behavior I described before has not changed. When you come to the product page, only the first option dropdown is visible. The second option dropdown is still hidden until the user selects the first option.

Is there any way to have:

1. All of the options visible when you first get to the product page?
2. Each option have a default initial value so the user doesn't have to select anything?

Thanks.

jmestep · Post by **jmestep** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 6:03 pm

Ditto with me. The options only show up on at at time in RC1.

DonAshby · Post by **DonAshby** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 6:49 pm

Yes - we also would like one product to show up as default - it could be the first alphabetical option - color Black for example.

But it should not require a customer to click unless they want to change it

Thanks, Don

AbleMods · Post by **AbleMods** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 7:00 pm

agreed I could use that too.

Will · Post by **Will** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:35 pm

I just finished upgrading from RC1 to RC2.

I've tried all available product display pages -- including the new "Custom Options Product". I have turned inventory tracking off.

I still can't get this to work. All of the product options stay hidden until you choose the first one.

DonAshby · Post by **DonAshby** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 3:36 pm

Hi Everyone,

I think this is important that some default option show up in the box. The reason is that is you try to use other functions of the site like Wish List or Mail a Friend and do NOT have an option selected, you get a RED Error Message at the location of the Option Box. This is confusing to say the least because why should our customers be required to select a color in order to email a friend?

This is also true with search. You get an error if you Seach while on a product page and do not first select your color. There are lots of error conditions that seem to come up as a result of this.

We do not have RC2 installed yet - maybe WED,,, but we hoped this would be addressed in this release. We see that one other site figured out how to do this and is live. I wonder if they made changes or if we are doing something wrong. They have default ring sizes come up in the box.

Don

jmestep · Post by **jmestep** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 4:05 pm

OK, who has it working and we'll lynch him if he doesn't tell us how he did it. I checked a couple of the AC7 jewelry sites I know of and it's not fixed there.

Will · Post by **Will** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 12:02 pm

Which site has it working?

AbleMods · Post by **AbleMods** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 6:46 pm

Not me.

Works fine with product templates, but that's always been the case.

When I have swatches set up, the only thing that initially displays is the swatches. The dropdown for size doesn't render until a swatch is clicked. If this were fixed, I presume the dropdown and swatches would both be rendered.

The bigger problem is there's nothing on the screen that tells people they have to click a swatch first, so the add-to-cart button isn't even rendered.

Hard to sell something if the add-to-cart button isn't even there and nothing explains that a swatch must be clicked first.

DonAshby · Post by **DonAshby** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 7:22 pm

Hi All,

Sorry - I have been away and neglected to mention the site that seems to have this working. I think they did this ( as it seems to work as I would hope ) ( just looking at it )... but I do not know for sure... http://www.justmetal.com
Look at the ring sizes - they come up automatically at the smallest size. Good for them.

Don

PS. Mike - can you tell us where this lies with you guys - on AC 7 RC 2 ?

compunerdy · Post by **compunerdy** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 7:45 pm

My site works just like that ring site does. Isnt the issue when there is supposed to be more than one option box? I only see one option box shown for those ring sizes. The issue is when you have a item like this.

http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/Blade-film-P197.aspx

You cant choose or see the "blade diameter" option until you choose a "wraps" option

jmestep · Post by **jmestep** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 8:07 am

Don, sorry to post this, but justmetal.com went back to their old site software in December. The one you see is in php- check the URLs, not Able. I think they are waiting for some of the payment issues to be fixed.

AbleMods · Post by **AbleMods** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 8:31 am

I set up a couple of test variants with a product on my site and it didn't work - still only shows one at a time instead of all of them.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong

jmestep · Post by **jmestep** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 12:59 pm

You're not doing something wrong, Joe. I've got two test AC7RC2 sites, fresh install with Able sample data and they work that way. I think this might be one place where Ajax isn't as cool as we thought it was.

But I just found out how to fix the problem of the first option not showing up- it shows blank. In the App_Code/ProductHelper.cs comment out the following line (// comments it out)
//aspOptions.Items.Add(String.Empty);

DonAshby · Post by **DonAshby** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 2:39 pm

Hi ,
When I last talked to JustMetal ( about my Google and PayPal checkout problems) , they were using the new AC 7... but I guess they changed back. I wasn't sure and hoped that they had figured it out. Anyway, I wonder if AC is going to change this or not? so that you can have a default choice if you want.

Don

Will · Post by **Will** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:50 am

I submitted the no-show options as a bug, which they said they would fix. Not sure of the time frame.

jmestep · Post by **jmestep** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 12:38 pm

There is some alternate code commented out in the producthelper.cs. If you feel courageous, you could try that instead of the active code. Or try code similar to the kits since they always show. I mean to try it, just haven't had time.

compunerdy · Post by **compunerdy** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 2:33 pm

Here is the reason I believe it was setup the way it is.

In kits all options show because they are not related to eachother. But, in variants one option can rely on the other. For example...

Tshirt
option 1 color
-red
-green
-blue

option 2 size
-small
-med
-large

You could have red-small as a available option but not red-med. So the system does not know what to display since the second option can be based off the first. It needs to be changed to display the first available combination I guess.

jmestep · Post by **jmestep** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 3:02 pm

Now that explanation makes sense and I'm glad you posted it. I knew that Able got a lot of feedback from some of us when they set up the options and kits and I just couldn't figure out how it ended up being what I thought of as lacking or not working correctly. The light has dawned and I'll quit complaining. I will keep the setting where I commented out the line that showed a blank box unless I figure out that they had a good reason for doing that.

Will · Post by **Will** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 4:22 pm

Even if the options can be related the options and their corresponding dropdowns should still show up. The relationship issue also only applies if there's inventory control enabled.

Having more options magically appear has been really confusing for the people we've tested this on.

There's no need to hide the entire thing -- you can have all of the options showing, but only use AJAX to control the contents of the dropdowns -- not the dropdown and label visibility.

I guess one way around it would be to use a product template field instead -- but then you wouldn't be able to modify the sku.

Will · Post by **Will** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 4:35 pm

Don's issue should also be able to be handled even if the dropdown content is related between options.

AbleMods · Post by **AbleMods** » Sun Jan 27, 2008 4:15 am

Technically, yes it could made to do it. You could configure a postback for each option group that updates all option groups with the currently-appropriate values.

But the user experience will be sacrificed somewhat and more active sites will see a performance hit due to the increased postback traffic.

Post by **Shopping Cart Admin** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 5:58 pm

Hello All,

This has been added as a feature for the next release, I was told it was sooo simple. Sorry we didn't get it into RC2.