I've come to a crossroads with selecting and presenting product options/features.
In some instances Features are necessary for a product (to include in product feeds, show features info on tab, etc.) and in some instances Options are necessary (variants to products, sizing, tiered pricing, etc.)
Wouldn't it be nice if we could replicate all the information created in Options/Global Options over to the Features section so you could use this information interchangably?
Some of my store's most relevant product information is included in Global Options, and there is no way to use that information as an additional product filter.
Any ideas or add-ons available that could solve this problem for me?
With a large catalog it would be very tedeious to set all the values in both Options and Features.
Thank you for your advice in advance!
Options and Features appear to be almost the same thing, but each has their limits in terms of how you can use the populated data. Seems a bit like unnecessary double-work to me.
Options and features are NOT the same. Options can have cost or weight modifiers and features do not. Options can be “selected” whereas features are an attribute of the product. I.e. a “tensile breaking point” is a feature of a particular product. But a 'heavy duty' thing might have a higher 'tensile breaking point' but might cost more. The 'heavy duty" thing could be an option to a product or it could be a separate product.
If you are wanting to publish your products with the features that would be triggered by selection of various options, then that can become a very tricky thing to do. I'm not sure if you can even assign a feature to an option combination. But if you can, then that would be how you would do it.
I agree with Tbirnseth that Options and Features are not the same, but I do understand how one could view them as similar.
We just ran into a similar issue when we created far too many options inside 1 product. Nice and tidy, we thought, all those options inside 1 product page. But…we then found out that many visitors use some of those options as filters on competitor pages…
Solution: limit the number of options per product and instead create multiple product pages where the differentiator between product 1 and newly-created product 2 is/are former options. These former options then can become Features instead.
Let me explain using a concrete example. See this product page of ours (Pull Handle) with 3 sets of options sets = dozens of options:
[url=“Products :: General :: Pull handles :: PH60 pull handle - Artitec, excellence in door hardware”]http://artitec.com/e...ull-handle.html[/url]
Option set 1 = diameter of the pull handle
Option set 2 = length of pull handle
Option set 3 = fixation choices
Our solution (pain in the ass to do but important) is to unravel the above Product into multiple new Products. So each Diameter (19mm, 25 mm, 32mm) gets its own Product Page. In Features, we can then add Diameter as a feature. So Option set 1 then becomes a feature = filter.
We will probably do the same for Option set 2 (lenght) as visitors would like to filter on length as well.
I hope this info helps you?
Regards,
Olof
Unfortunately, I don't use features so am less aware of where they can be used. But why not create option combinations for your products and then use different product codes to differentiate between them. Then you could set the feature(s) by products with option combinations.
[quote name='tbirnseth' timestamp='1425673394' post='207346']
Unfortunately, I don't use features so am less aware of where they can be used. But why not create option combinations for your products and then use different product codes to differentiate between them. Then you could set the feature(s) by products with option combinations.
[/quote]
Sorry, I should have been more clear in my earlier posts. In my example (using 3 Option sets) we do use Option Combinations. In the example, with 3 option sets, the total number of Option Combinations ends up being literally dozens.
And features (as far as I know them and use them) apply to entire Products. You can't create a feature for a specific Option Combination inside Product. This is the issue we ran into and which I suspect 'wiredvape' also is running into.