How can I add the ability to search by certain features? Or catagorize by them.
For ex, we have a product, and under features we have Designer. So suppose they click a catagory, say lamps, it will show the subcatagory for lamps, but I want another button that says list by designer, so it will take it to a page where it does a search for all the lamp designers and lists them, and will then show the search results for catagory:lamp designer:xyz when the person clicks designers.
Also in the bread crumbs, it will show Lamps → By Designer → XYZ → Product.
I need to know how far CS Cart can take this idea.
Thanks,
Adam
Have you looked at product filters?
Bob
[quote name=‘jobosales’]Have you looked at product filters?
Bob[/QUOTE]
Agreed, product features and product filtering would get him where he wants to go. Product filters, IMHO, is easily in the top 3, if not in the number on spot, of CS-Cart features. One of the main reasons we went with this cart.
Chris
I’ve been playing with the blocks and found the Product Filter block. Came back here to mention that and I already have 2 replies, that was fast 
The Product Filter block seems like it gets me half-way there, but it shows all the filters, not ones specific to the category.
Then I found a site that used the “advanced_filter=Y” option. That is great. But I looked all over and couldn’t figure out where to set that as the default. Can it be set for only categories or search?
I think I’m still going to need to modify it so it has links to the specific filter. We are trying to go for something similar to this site: www.unicahome.com
If you click lighting, it shows the manufacturer, but you can also view by a different ‘filter’, designer or style. And when you click mfg, it kind of has a home page for that mfg along with the results of the mfg in the specific category.
I’m a developer, but this is my first experience with CSCart. So far I find it to be absolutely wonderful. Each thing I’ve found that I thought I needed to code for, I’ve found a way the cart can do with a bit more digging.
I think I’m going to need to modify the crumb trail and I’m going to need to add some extra details to the features. For Designer I need to add an image and url. Would I be able to do that without modifying the core code? It would require some modifications to the DB.
Could make an add-on that adds details to the features in another db table? And would that require separate page to enter the details, because my client already wants me to move lots of the configuration onto a single page, so he wouldn’t be too happy with an extra page.
Any tips on what hooks I might need or where the best place to put the modified files would be?
Thanks,
Adam
I just noticed the ‘Dynamic’ product filter block. That does fix the crumb trail. So I need to mod it so it only shows particular features (so it doesn’t also list the price). And then make it use the extra features data so it shows a specific header on the resulting page without the original category page…
[quote name=‘phazei’]
The Product Filter block seems like it gets me half-way there, but it shows all the filters, not ones specific to the category.
[/QUOTE]
When you create a product filter, you can specify which categories it is active for. You can also create as many product filter blocks as you need (e.g, Designers, Style).
Bob