Visitors need to Filter by Product Options

How come visitors cannot filter by Product Options, only by features and a few other criteria (price, in stock, free shipping)?



Please visit this Macy's category page to quickly understand what I mean. (and YES, I love shoes!)



In this “Category” page example,



[indent][list=1]

[]one of first Filters on the left side column is “Size” (a typical CS-Cart Product Option), and

[
]it is displayed conveniently as small buttons (instead of a list as CS-Cart would)

[/list][/indent]

I've been trying to get at least “1” (the filter) to work in my CS-Cart Pro 2.2.3 store, but can't!



It seems so basic that instead of showing visitors all products in a category as it happens now, you'd display only what in their sizes AND that you have in stock, so they can quickly find what to buy from you.



NOT having this capability means that a visitor now (in the common situation when the physical stockroom is not fully stocked with all products in all sizes at all times):



[indent][list=1]

[]sees all products displayed in the category page, and then

[
]has to go into a product page to find out if there is any in stock in his or her size, and if not

[]go back to category page and find another product, and then

[
]repeat 1->3 until visitor finds something that fits (or more likely give up and go elsewhere)

[/list][/indent]

What kind of illogical routine is that?? Making it hard and frustrating for visitors to find what to buy in your store is opposed to the whole concept of having an online store. They might as well go to a competitor who respects their time and doesn't try their patience.



So I want to allow visitors to Filter by Product Options (or more precisely, their Combinations). I guess the easiest path to accomplish that would be to “automagically” create and dynamically synchronize new Features based on Products Options (since Features can in turn be easily used to create Filters), but I know little about the structure and code of CS-Cart.



Please let me know if I am missing something easy here, or if you have any ideas on how to accomplish this.



Thanks!



PS - Notice I haven't even touched on Macy's feature “2” above, using buttons for filters - that is nice but not needed for “1” to work. Also notice that Macy's does the same for “Color” (down their page), another typical CS-Cart Product Option.

Check the “Multiple Select Filters” from cscartrocks. the filters block updates depending on what category are you in:

[quote name='colortone' timestamp='1318798422' post='123813']

Check the “Multiple Select Filters” from cscartrocks. the filters block updates depending on what category are you in:



CSCARTROCKS PERFECT - Third-Party Reviews - CS-Cart Community Forums

[/quote]





Hello,



where can I buy “Multiple Select Filters”, please?



I can only see “CS-Cart Advanced Search with Filters Block”: is it the same thing? From the screenshot it seems to be a different product…



Thanks

[quote name='colortone' timestamp='1318798422' post='123813']

Check the “Multiple Select Filters” from cscartrocks. the filters block updates depending on what category are you in:



CSCARTROCKS PERFECT - Third-Party Reviews - CS-Cart Community Forums

[/quote]



colortone:



Thanks for the suggestion, however this addon does not address the need stated in the title and in the OP.



It only Filters by Features (a standard CS-Cart feature) however



it does NOT Filter by Product Options (Combinations)



Again, thanks for trying.

You know better what is best for you, but I thinks this solution is really good.

Maybe you can play a little more time on the demo:



go to: demo.cscartrocks.com


  1. go to the categories bar
  2. click on “apparel”

    filters box updates to have only related filters for apparel.
  3. click “white”

    brand updates to show only brand having white products.

    price updates to show only what price range are for white products.
  4. now, click in price $0-$50

    again brand update to the new input

    product list update.



    this is “dependant selectors” or “narrow drill-down selector”.



    I'm sure you know Macy is a billion dollar company and they don't use a $285 dollar software. The opposite is also true. Don't expect a $285 software to have all the features available on more expensive carts.

[quote name='Palmtop' timestamp='1318799962' post='123818']where can I buy “Multiple Select Filters”, please?[/quote]Contact www.cscartrocks.com

colortone:



Thanks again for your time composing a detailed description of what that addon can do. It's probably great for those who can benefit from it, however, how is that related to product options at all?



Unless you are suggesting that I manually do what I described above, and create Features that parallel (mirror) my Product Options. So if I have a Product Option “Sizes”, then I would create a Feature named “Size” and finally a Filter (“Choose Your Size”) based on this new Feature “Size”. The visitors would use the Filter to select only Products whose Feature Size matches their choice.



If that's your idea, then I don't really see the need for this Addon, since CS-Cart seems to hide the filtered-out options by default. As an example, please visit the demo cart and choose Adidas. Notice that the price range $100-$150 automatically disappears, because there are no Adidas products in that price range. This “narrowing-down effect” is not due to this addon but standard cart behavior.



Beside, using only Features and not Options won't work for me because of inventory control, so I would need to keep Options and create mirrored Features.



However,I will have to synchronize them manually each time I run out of a Option (or Combination). i.e., no more Laced Spiked-Heel shoes in size 48? Then I would go edit its Product Feature and uncheck size 48 so it wouldn't show up anymore in the Filtered Results for size 48. That's easy to do if you only have a few static products, but if you have thousands and work with close-outs, then it's a nightmare to try to keep Features synchronized with your actual physical inventory.



That's why I suggested automation for this task.





WHAT I AM TRYING TO GET is the Product Option “Clothing Size:” (see this demo cart page) that you see in the product block at the center to be ALSO in the left column as a Filter - as in the Macy's example above.



I hope to have made it clear this time, if not please let me know.

I know cscartrocks can create this feature that you request and might be able to alter the one that has been suggested to fit your needs. Very quick and reasonably priced work.



Stu

Thank you Derbytown for taking the time to advise.



I will contact him about this following your suggestion.



If anyone else can help, I'd appreciate any contribution.

[quote name=‘Storekeeper’ timestamp=‘1318857709’ post=‘123883’]

Thank you Derbytown for taking the time to advise.



I will contact him about this following your suggestion.



If anyone else can help, I’d appreciate any contribution.

[/quote]



I emailed cscartrocks a couple weeks ago but got no response… :(



Would anybody else have a suggestion on how to filter by options?



It seems to me that this would be an obvious need for anyone who uses options and wants happy customers! Am I missing something here?

[quote name=‘Storekeeper’ timestamp=‘1319856543’ post=‘124807’]

I emailed cscartrocks a couple weeks ago but got no response… :(



Would anybody else have a suggestion on how to filter by options?



It seems to me that this would be an obvious need for anyone who uses options and wants happy customers! Am I missing something here?

[/quote]



I totally understand your need for this, even though I don’t use options.



Try emailing cscartrocks here in a private message. They usually respond fast here and i’m sure they could fix you an add-on fast.



P.S. Talking about shoes. Do you know this new Dutch brand? It’s awesome: http://www.unitednude.com/

I haven't see any cart under $1K handle filtering the way Macy does, so instead of banging your head against the wall of pointing shortcomings, better try to hire a high level programmer.



CSC roadmap mention planning some improvement to filters, but we don't know when this will be started.



Send your request to Alt-team, webgraphiq or shippingkit. This are teams of programmers.

If you get any quote and they agree, you could share the cost with other interested.

Storekeeper!

I'm so happy to finally have found someone whom feels the same about the NEED for filtering on global option.

I had CS cart do a custom project to adjusts my filter so it could use the global options as well.

Generally it works ok but there are some problems.

The work by cs cart was pretty expensive and they won't correct the bugs because I haven't notified them if the problems within the testing time.

I'm now working with Alt-team to find a solution to get the filter to work the way I want.

Maybe its an idea to get them to make the filter for both of us using the firts version of the filter modification cs cart has made and the splitting the cost??

Hoping to hear from you!!

This is right!

This option is required in order to get a better accessibility.



If anyone can make an add-on, I’m ready to pay for it.

Yes, would really want someone to develop this, please.

This would be a really good add-on. I could be interested too.

[color=#282828][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]Hi there[/font][/color]



[color=#282828][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]show you post on that, and I had a request wich didnt go through but I did put a price for that, wich was about 330USD.[/font][/color]



[color=#282828][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]It takes in concideration quantities so no compinations that have no quantity show up in your filters.[/font][/color]



You can share this between 2 or 3 people and lower the price!



[color=#282828][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]Let me know.[/font][/color]



[color=#282828][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]Fotis[/font][/color]

Hi Fotis,



Will this be an add-on? Will there be modifications to the core files? Will it slow down the website?



Many thanks,

JJ

Hi



This will be an Addon. No core file changes, but I will know better in the progress.



Fotis

Is this dead now or still going, I am looking for search by product options if poss.