Searching Apparel Products?

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   I asked about this a year or two ago with no luck, but thought I'd ask again in case someone came up with a good approach.

Is it possible to create a search function allowing a shopper to search on specific sub-product options?  I have a clothing store using PC with Apparel Add-on.  A garment is shown at the parent level, and the sub-products represent the various size and color options.  A shopper must open each parent product to check on whether I have their particular size in stock.  It would be great to allow them to do a search on a particular category (or categories) and also stipulate their size.  If PC finds sub-products in stock that match that size option, it returns the parent product in the search.

Another approach might be to show the product in a sub-category based on size, but only if there is a sub-product with a stock level > 0.  I think this one is less-likely to be possible but would actually be preferrable from a shopper's perspective.

Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Paul

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paul Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 25-February-2008 Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote paul Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Searching Apparel Products? Posted: 04-January-2010 at 8:52am
	I asked about this a year or two ago with no luck, but thought I'd ask again in case someone came up with a good approach. Is it possible to create a search function allowing a shopper to search on specific sub-product options? I have a clothing store using PC with Apparel Add-on. A garment is shown at the parent level, and the sub-products represent the various size and color options. A shopper must open each parent product to check on whether I have their particular size in stock. It would be great to allow them to do a search on a particular category (or categories) and also stipulate their size. If PC finds sub-products in stock that match that size option, it returns the parent product in the search. Another approach might be to show the product in a sub-category based on size, but only if there is a sub-product with a stock level > 0. I think this one is less-likely to be possible but would actually be preferrable from a shopper's perspective. Any thoughts? Thanks, Paul

Matt Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 20-July-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 73	Post Options Post Reply Quote Matt Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 05-January-2010 at 12:03am
	Sure, it is possible, but not without custom coding. You may be able to do it with a work around. If the size was in the description or sku then it would be returned in a keyword search. Therefore, you could add some links to the header or footer with pre-defined searches containing the size parameters. ex. /showsearchresults.asp?keyword=lg&withstock=-1 I hope the helps.

paul Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 25-February-2008 Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote paul Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 06-January-2010 at 11:12am
	Thanks for the feedback. I imagine custom code will have to be the way to go. I like to avoid that as much as possible just to keep updates and conversions clean. Your idea of description is intriguing. Is there a way to use the description field for apparel products? From what I can tell, the PC interface only interacts with the description at the parent level. I could go into the database and update the child products with size info in the description field. Is that field searched and returned? If that's possible, it could be a good work-around solution. Thanks again, Paul