Product Options are weak on product detail

Store Builder Questions
1

Hi,



We are designing a furniture store with cs-cart v2. We are finding the software is surprisingly powerful but there is one area we are finding very weak and aren't sure how to proceed. It has to do with Product Options. While the configuration of product options are is extremely powerful (being able to configure both global AND product specific options is great), the display or presentation of such options is weak when it comes to the product detail page.



Here's what we need. All of our furniture products have a cusom Metal Finish and Seat Covering available that is specific to the manufacturer. There can be up to 10 metal finishes and as many as 50 different seat coverings (various fabrics, leather, vinyl, etc). We have set these up as global options separated by manufacturer. We've assigned the appropriate global option to the appropriate product.



Here's where it gets ugly. We need to have a page that can show the customer a picture (with zoom capability) of each option, so they can choose one to order. If I set a picture for each global option in cs-cart admin, then it shows ALL the pictures under the option dropdown of the detail page and there is no zoom capability. Obviously we can't have this with there being so many options.



What we would like is a link that shows to the right of the dropdown box option that the customer can click on. This link will pop up a new window showing all the options, with zoom capability. The window that pops up will show options that are specific to the manufacturer of the product they are viewing.



Question is, how do I get this done? And, why isn't there better support on the product detail page for what I'm looking for? Certainly there must be others who have a lot of product options that need zoom capability.



Thanks for any help!

2

Have you tried adding secondary images under the product detail image these are zoomable but not sure if they can be linked to options dynamically. Also check out “magic zoom” from www.magictoolbox.com



John

3

Thanks for the comment John. The problem isn't that I don't have a way to zoom, the problem is more that I don't have a way to present the customer with the option to view all of the fabric/metal finishes (i.e. product options) available. If you go to other furniture sites like ours, they will list product options just like CS-Cart in dropdown boxes; but they also provide a link you can click that typically brings up a popup window with all the images for each of the product options, so people know what they are choosing. I see no way to do that in an elegant way with CS-Cart.



I “could” create my own product tab and put the link there, but that is going to be “buried” in the product tabs and not easily seen by people. My feeling is there should be a link right next to the product option dropdown boxes, or very close by.



Thanks again,

Rob

4

Use the tooltip for the said option to include HTML code it should work well for you.

5

Using the tooltip is an interesting idea…On my site though, the tooltip does not display properly; any idea what css class is used for the tooltip? I think there is a problem with the CSS because the tooltip text shows up behind other text. I think it should show up framed in a box with a contrasting color so it can be seen.



Also, when a tooltip is present for an option, it shows (?) after the name of the option - does anyone know what file(s) need to be changed in order to replace the ? with text such as “See More”?



Thanks for the idea!



Rob

6

[quote name='robk72' timestamp='1336654064' post='136183']

Using the tooltip is an interesting idea…On my site though, the tooltip does not display properly; any idea what css class is used for the tooltip? I think there is a problem with the CSS because the tooltip text shows up behind other text. I think it should show up framed in a box with a contrasting color so it can be seen.

[/quote]





Rob,



Yes cm-tooltip. BTW: If your a professional developer you would find Firebug for Firefox very useful in discovering CSS classes for elements on pages.


[quote name='robk72' timestamp='1336654064' post='136183']

Also, when a tooltip is present for an option, it shows (?) after the name of the option - does anyone know what file(s) need to be changed in order to replace the ? with text such as “See More”?

[/quote]



Edit common_templates/tooltip.tpl or create a custom hook in that file by wrapping the file in hook syntax and then create your override hook in the my_changes add on to allow for easier upgrading. I usually create something like:



{hook name=“custom_hooks:common_templates:tooltip”}

{/hook}



Then i just create my custom hook file in my_changes/hooks/custom_hooks/common_templates/tooltip.override.tpl



Good luck!

7

Thank you very much, I will give this a try!

8

solesurvivor: Do you happen to know if these tooltips are used elsewhere in cs-cart or is it only used on the product options? I worry about modifying the tpl file to replace the (?) text with something else, if the tooltip functionality is used somewhere else in cs-cart as my new text won't make any sense in any other context!



Thanks

9

Sorry not sure.

10

I have only seen the tooltips on the options.



John