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Thoughts on how best to have 100's of colors in Miva

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    Thoughts on how best to have 100's of colors in Miva

    Putting this out to the experts out there in hopes someone has a better idea than me.

    I have a client I am moving from Zen cart. They are a powder coating shop.

    For each product, the customer can choose a color. The problem is, there are over 100 colors to choose from. Also, the color names mean nothing to the customer...they need to see a swatch. The complicate it even further, colors are broken into Stock and Metallic. With metallic having an upcharge of 1/2 the base price of the product.

    How I'm doing this in Zen is: I have a plain text field for the color. With Javascript, on page load I lock the field. I then have a graphic link that launches a popup. This popup has all the colors listed in a large graphic....image mapped with the color values. A customer can click on a color.....it will take the value and populate the text field on the cart page and close the popup window.

    For the stock or metallic selection, I have a two radio buttons. The same color popup either chooses the stock radio button or the metallic radio button when the color is selected.

    I opened another thread on if it's possible to have the attribute be priced dynamically here:
    http://extranet.mivamerchant.com/for...ice-be-dynamic


    Does anyone know if this is still the best way to do this in Miva? Basically, the issue is the total number of colors is large and the customer needs to see the colors to make a choice.

    Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!!

    -Kevin
    Web Design and Development, Internet Marketing
    Lancer Media, Inc.

    #2
    Re: Thoughts on how best to have 100's of colors in Miva

    A followup to this question that I'm noticing is that Miva doesn't tag attributes in the HTML code with an ID....only a name. So a radio button group has the same name....but no unique ids. Any ideas on whether it's possible to have Miva write IDs to attribute tags?

    -Kevin
    Web Design and Development, Internet Marketing
    Lancer Media, Inc.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Thoughts on how best to have 100's of colors in Miva

      You could do the exact same thing in Merchant. Use a text attribute, then load the value with the JS script.

      If you want IDs on your attribute fields, just open the attribute template and add it. You would probably have to use "attribite:code" as the id name.
      Bruce Golub
      Phosphor Media - "Your Success is our Business"

      Improve Your Customer Service | Get MORE Customers | Edit CSS/Javascript/HTML Easily | Make Your Site Faster | Get Indexed by Google | Free Modules | Follow Us on Facebook
      phosphormedia.com

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Thoughts on how best to have 100's of colors in Miva

        Thanks. I am going this route now. I was just wondering if anyone could think of a better way to do it.

        As for the attribute IDs....I think I can get away with just the Element names since they just put all elements into the array to be able to get at them....but might look on adding the IDs if I need to.

        -Kevin
        Web Design and Development, Internet Marketing
        Lancer Media, Inc.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Thoughts on how best to have 100's of colors in Miva

          You may want to consider using radio buttons as the input type. Radio buttons are for mutually exclusive options. Text fields are for text. You can then use Miva's image machine for attribute image pop-ups and image swaps.

          Five problems you may want to consider:

          1. You may be causing a usability problem with the text field.
          2. Users can manipulate text input fields.
          3. Browser and security settings can cause issues with JS.
          4. This can cause development issues with other devices.
          5. You may have a business model problem with so many choices.

          With Miva's image machine, a user can select a color option and it swap the product image.
          http://www.alphabetsigns.com/

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Thoughts on how best to have 100's of colors in Miva

            Originally posted by alphabet View Post
            You may want to consider using radio buttons as the input type. Radio buttons are for mutually exclusive options. Text fields are for text. You can then use Miva's image machine for attribute image pop-ups and image swaps.

            Five problems you may want to consider:

            1. You may be causing a usability problem with the text field.
            2. Users can manipulate text input fields.
            3. Browser and security settings can cause issues with JS.
            4. This can cause development issues with other devices.
            5. You may have a business model problem with so many choices.

            With Miva's image machine, a user can select a color option and it swap the product image.
            This client has a unique business....they are selling a service to have your items powdercoated. So while you select a "product" in the cart....what you are really selecting is the type of product you want powder coated. The only image of a product involved is the sample image of a patio chair for example.

            As for the color choices....think of it as going to Home Depot to pick out a new paint color. That's what we are dealing with here. Customers need to see all the choices to make a decision.

            As for the text field....yes we are risking it relying so heavily on JS....but I don't see any other choice. The text field is locked before and after the selection. So any browser with JS on...will have locked field.

            It's a very unique scenario that has been challenging in the past since we are trying to fit a non-traditional shopping cart model into a traditional shopping cart.

            -Kevin
            Web Design and Development, Internet Marketing
            Lancer Media, Inc.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Thoughts on how best to have 100's of colors in Miva

              I've seen RAL color charts.

              I use radio input with no JS risks.

              Why can't you use the radio input type with a thumbnail of each color or CSS style="background-color:#HEX;"?
              http://www.alphabetsigns.com/

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Thoughts on how best to have 100's of colors in Miva

                Originally posted by alphabet View Post
                I've seen RAL color charts.

                I use radio input with no JS risks.

                Why can't you use the radio input type with a thumbnail of each color or CSS style="background-color:#HEX;"?
                alphabet,

                Maybe it would be best to show you the current site:
                http://www.sundialpowdercoating.com/...roducts_id=421

                Clicking on Choose Powder Coating Color button launches the color selector.

                -Kevin
                Web Design and Development, Internet Marketing
                Lancer Media, Inc.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Thoughts on how best to have 100's of colors in Miva

                  Don't get me wrong, it is very nice JS work. But here's my basket: Qty. Item Name Unit Total Bar/Counter Tables Color - 1/2 black, 1/2 red Color Type - Metallic $150.00 $150.00 Delete this item from the cart by clicking this icon. Sub-Total: $150.00 IMHO, you may want to consider radio input options on the product page instead of a pop-up.
                  http://www.alphabetsigns.com/

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Thoughts on how best to have 100's of colors in Miva

                    I guess I'm not understanding how you would do radio inputs? One for each color?

                    -Kevin
                    Web Design and Development, Internet Marketing
                    Lancer Media, Inc.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Thoughts on how best to have 100's of colors in Miva

                      Yes, each color would be a radio option.

                      This sometimes can be confusing because you have an attribute with options. The attribute is named 'color' and the option is named 'red'. The attribute type is 'radio'.

                      You can save it as an attribute template, then assign it to any number of products.

                      When you create each option you can assign it a name, image, price and cost. Most browsers don't display the option:cost variable so you can use that field to enter other option data like percent markup or color hex. You can then tokenize the option:cost field and use those variables elsewhere.
                      http://www.alphabetsigns.com/

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Thoughts on how best to have 100's of colors in Miva

                        Thanks for taking the time to look.

                        I guess I'm just missing it. But I can't see where you would have 100 radio buttons on a single product page....each representing a color?

                        -Kevin
                        Web Design and Development, Internet Marketing
                        Lancer Media, Inc.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Thoughts on how best to have 100's of colors in Miva

                          You're welcome.
                          http://www.alphabetsigns.com/

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