[thelist] shopping carts

[Warden, Matt]

I didn't follow everything you said, but let me explain how i handle this...


A single product can have multiple SKUs. Each SKU can be related to 0 or
more product attributes. So, I have a one to many between SKU and product
attribute respectively. So, since the data relationship goes from product
attribute to SKU and not the other way around, you can have a product with
no product attributes. So, when someone selects attributes, they're really
generating criteria to find the correct SKU number to add to their basket.

Make sense? I don't think it would get out of hand at all to make each
option individual. I don't know how you can get out of showing all the
options (whether it's separate questions or one question with all
permutations displayed as options).

--
mattwarden
mattwarden.com

----- Original Message -----
From: Matthew Walker <matthew at electricsheep.co.nz>
To: <thelist at lists.evolt.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2000 6:24 PM
Subject: [thelist] shopping carts


> Hey, here's a general design question. I'm not stumped, just looking for
the
> "best" way.
>
> When you're building a shopping cart, how much facility do you allow for
> product options (size, colour....)?
>
> There could be any number of independent options but that could get out of
> hand real quick. So I was thinking just one set of options that could if
> necessary incorporate more than one dimension...e.g.
>
> option 1: red XL
> option 2: red M
> option 3: red S
> option 4: green XL
> .
> .
> .
>
> That seems sensible. But then what about products with no options? Do you
> have one option in the ProductOptions table or just not bother? I'm
> expanding a cart that doesn't have product options at all. I'm thinking
> perhaps I should rewrite the cart so that it stores the ProductOptionIDs
in
> the Cart rather than currently where I have ProductID then the
> ProductOptionID  beneath that (I'm using a CF Struct -- which, for the
> non-CF folk, is the same kind of data structure as the Windows registry).
> That makes it tricky to count up the quantities, subtotal, etc.
>
> In short, it turns out specifying options for products while simple in
> concept really changes things structurally. Wish I'd known that from the
> beginning.
>
>
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