I've compiled a short list of questions and answers. This is all I can say until the official announcement, and a lot of things are subject to change.
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What is all this about?It's about
product groups, a new functionality of the Product Variations add-on. They are available at
http://dev.demo.cs-cart.com/admin.php. Currently they work as follows:
1. Create a product feature (or multiple features).
2. Specify the right purpose for it (switching between similar products).
3. Go to the product editing page and specify different values of this feature for a few products.
4. Create a product group in the corresponding tab on the product editing page.
You'll be able to switch between
different products just like between the current product variations.
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Why add product groups when variations already exist?Variations don't address some of the needs of merchants. They can't be displayed on the storefront as separate products; instead they require a parent product (a so-called configurable product). Also, variations can't be filtered, because there is no filtering by options right now.
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What are the differences between product groups and product variations?Note that I'm speaking about the current state at
http://dev.demo.cs-cart.com/admin.php. As any yet-unreleased and unannounced functionality, product groups are subject to change.
Variations: you create one product, then generate its multiple variants based on options. All these variations appear as a single product on the storefront. Also, a variation doesn't have its own URL or a unique SEO name.
Groups: you create multiple products (with unique SEO names and URLs) and add the ability to switch between them via features. Each of the products is displayed separately on the storefront, but to customers it looks just like switching between variations.
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Why are product groups based on features rather than on options?We realized that there should be a clearer distinction between features and options.
An
option is supposed to be something extra, and not necessarily required for a product or specific to it (like gift wrap, prolonged warranty, etc.)
A
feature is an inherent trait of a product (for example, color or size), inseparable from the product. Changing a value of a feature means having a different product (even if it's only slightly different).
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Does it mean that product variations should also be based on options?Yes, that's the plan right now. Naturally, if variations exist in your store, they'll continue to work as they do now, even if you upgrade to a CS-Cart version where variations are based on features.
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Can groups and variations work together?Yes, absolutely. They complement each other: use groups when you want to display separate products on the storefront (for example, different colors of the same T-shirt), and use variations when you don't want to display separate products on the storefront (for example, different sizes for every color of the T-shirt).
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Will product variations and groups be merged into a single entity, or will they work separately?Technically, groups and variations will probably remain for separate use cases (see the example with T-shirt above). But they may end up on one tab, and one of the goals is to make them easy to manage.
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How do I transform option combinations to option variations or product groups?There is
a way to turn option combinations into product variations. However, it currently needs to be done product by product. When that functionality was implemented, it didn't account for product groups. That's why we are not developing it further right now. That question can be revisited once we finish implementing product groups.
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Should I switch to product variations right now, or wait for product groups?It depends. If you'd like to use the functionality of product groups (such as unique SEO names and URLs for some "variations"), it's best to wait. There might not be a functionality for turning the existing variations into groups.
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Should I develop missing functionality as add-ons for the current state of product variations?It's best to avoid customizing the current implementation of product variations. We
will make changes to them; the extent is unclear, but can be approximated from the answers above. For example, before the release of product groups we'll be looking into simplifying product management by getting rid of parent products for variations.
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What is the release date of the new functionality?We don't have an exact date. We're hoping to finish implementing product groups within the next couple of months.