Downloads with Options how to?
Printed From: ProductCart E-Commerce Solutions
Category: ProductCart
Forum Name: Using ProductCart
Forum Description: Running your store with ProductCart
URL: https://forum.productcart.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1461
Printed Date: 27-November-2024 at 8:10am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Downloads with Options how to?
Posted By: shiny
Subject: Downloads with Options how to?
Date Posted: 18-March-2008 at 9:15am
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Hi Can anyone please!! help and tell me how to assign download locations for 3 options of 1 product..... One image has 2 or 3 size options assigned and 3 corresponding S/M or Large zip files for download Think I'm having a bad day and my brain won't work ..... I'm sure there is a simple answer somewhere Many thanks |
Replies:
Posted By: Hamish
Date Posted: 18-March-2008 at 11:07am
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Hi Shiny, Which version of PC have you got? Sounds like a job for the Apparel Add-on - or perhaps the BTO will be enough. If this is for a single (or just a few) products, then you can sell each variation as a separate product - not as neat - but it will do the job. I took a look at your website - The pictures appear to be free? Is this site still under development? |
Posted By: shiny
Date Posted: 18-March-2008 at 1:49pm
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Hi Hamish I am currently on V3.1 no add ons at present but guess its looking likely that I'm not going to be able to deliver more than 1 download file per image without. I have approx 5000 images to upload so the other option you mentioned is out of the question And yes the website is still under constructions I have a number of issues to work through ....I have only priced Big Cats gallery with options as a trial and then found the problem with the downloads Many thanks for your imput |
Posted By: shiny
Date Posted: 27-March-2008 at 1:15pm
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Hi Everyone I have to add another plea!!! It seems there is no solution with Product Cart or the add ons apparrel and BTO ....Has anyone any idea how this can be achieved Appreciate any thoughts Thanks  |
Posted By: Hamish
Date Posted: 27-March-2008 at 2:31pm
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Hi Shiny, Have you investigated the BTO Add-on (not really an Add-on - just a licensing option) - what was the outcome of that? I think that would probably meet your needs. |
Posted By: Hamish
Date Posted: 27-March-2008 at 2:33pm
| I would recommend raising a support ticket (or a pre-sales question) & seeing what EA suggest. |
Posted By: shiny
Date Posted: 27-March-2008 at 3:42pm
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Hi Hamish I have already contacted support and they told me that even BTO cannot support multiple downloads from 1 product. They advised to come back to the forum ......I'm just hoping someone has had a similar need and knows how to solve the problem. Oh by the way took your advice and designed my own store buttons bit of a quick effort but at least they blend in a bit better Thanks for that |
Posted By: MarkCoyle
Date Posted: 27-March-2008 at 3:53pm
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I've run a download store for three years now using ProductCart (gosh is it three years aleaady) and I've used most of the features in various intended and unintended ways. I don't know of a way to vary a product's download item based on options as the item link is fixed. ProductCart (and all other equivalent stores I've found) do not for example support dynamic zipping or bundling of various download items (although this can be forced in various ways). I suspect you may need to do one of two things: 1. Set up multiple pre-prepared zip files associated with multiple products 2. Capture extra optional fields and then have a scipt that somewhow intercepts the download link location and modifies it in the background. I'm happy to chat about this further. My store is at http://www.wovenwheatwhispers.co.uk - http://www.wovenwheatwhispers.co.uk More generally than your specific point we found the category feature can be very powerful if implemented fully with products associated in multiple ways with discount schemes and cross selling bundles. Many thanks cheers Mark |
Posted By: Hamish
Date Posted: 27-March-2008 at 3:56pm
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Hi Shiny, I just took a look at the documentation &, sure enough, BTO is no good as there is a field in the DB which indicates whether the product is a BTO product / item or downloadable product - so it can't be both. Ah well. It looks like your left with customisation, probably quite a lot, or loading each size as a separate product - which is far from ideal. |
Posted By: shiny
Date Posted: 27-March-2008 at 6:13pm
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Hi Mark Thanks very much for your time ....Can deal with no1 ...bbbbbut no2 just a little out of my depth understand the concept though ...suppose as Hamish said I'm talking about modification .......At the moment not an option have to offset untill up and running. Maybe have to think about choosing one size as a download and the others can be delivered by FTP for larger files or even email the smallest size ( but guess that will be the most popular size to download ) Inconvenient while I'm travelling wearing too many hats ....just thought I could automate the buying process as I'm selling digital products. Ah well Rome wasn't built in a day !!!! Checked out your site Mark love it not my usual genre but quite enjoying listening to some of the tracks Taking my mind off the problem in hand Many Thanks |
Posted By: MarkCoyle
Date Posted: 27-March-2008 at 6:33pm
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Although I came up with option 2 I wouldn't know technically how to do it myself. I think what would be easiest is to set up the products as a sub-category then the products as the sizes beneath it. That would work fine. I did that for a scalable charity donation on a track we put out. So all the product description goes into the category long description. It would work and automate the delivery process for you. It just means storing multiple versions of the image at different sizes. To be fair that's also how other ecommerce packages do it. It's equivalent in my store to the artists > album structure. cheers Mark |
Posted By: shiny
Date Posted: 27-March-2008 at 7:21pm
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Hi Mark Presume you are talking about hidden category activity did have a little play with this idea .....so need to investigate it further Thanks for that appreciate your help It's a very steep learning curve for me only do it for the challenge..... sadistic woman that I am!!!  Cheers Kathy |
Posted By: ProductCart
Date Posted: 28-March-2008 at 10:04am
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FYI: we are investigating the possibility of allowing a Build To Order product to contain Downloadable products. This is something that could be used on our own software store here at Early Impact. For example, "ProductCart" could be a BTO product and you could configure your purchase by selecting the ProductCart license (Standard vs. BTO), selecting the add-on's that you might need (e.g. the http://www.earlyimpact.com/productcart/eBay/ - eBay Add-on ), and other services (e.g. installation services). When the order is processed, you would receive licenses, download links and installation instructions for all the downloadable products included in the purchased ProductCart package (the package is the BTO product). We like the idea. So we'll talk about it internally in the upcoming weeks. ------------- The ProductCart Team Home of ProductCart http://www.productcart.com" rel="nofollow - shopping cart software |
Posted By: shiny
Date Posted: 28-March-2008 at 1:08pm
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Hi Earlyimp That would be fantastic sounds like that is just what I'm looking for. So I take it if this is viable for you ( which I can only see benefits for Early Impact and PC users ) this would be an upgrade on the BTO current version. And maybe you would be able to implement in a few months? Can you please keep me informed Many Thanks Kathy |
Posted By: MarkCoyle
Date Posted: 28-March-2008 at 1:32pm
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Hi all I too would be very interested in this and see commercial value for my business in it. An absolute key requirement on the download side is product bundling. For example imagine people buying music can buy by track or buy the album. Today I set up the tracks as products and an album product which requries double storage. Whereas if the tracks could be zipped up into the album it would avoid the need to store the music twice. This would be useable in many ways and combined with the options would make PC the best solution around for downloads (I checked out dozens including pilots before choosing PC as my business is entirely download oriented). For anyone doing downloads where the products originate from others, the drop shipper function can be used to notify your suppliers of when their items have sold with some minor configuration. I use this to automatically notify music artists and labels when their music has sold in real-time which is very well received. cheers Mark |
Posted By: Greg Dinger
Date Posted: 28-March-2008 at 1:50pm
Posted By: MarkCoyle
Date Posted: 28-March-2008 at 1:58pm
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Hi I'm using standard and have been now for three years. If you think BTO will help me at all, just let me know. cheers Mark |
Posted By: shiny
Date Posted: 28-March-2008 at 2:12pm
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Hi I'm using standard too with options to price the different image file sizes Thanks Kathy |
Posted By: Greg Dinger
Date Posted: 28-March-2008 at 2:56pm
Posted By: MarkCoyle
Date Posted: 28-March-2008 at 3:11pm
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I would definitely be prepared to upgrade to BTO as part of this if needed. I place a substantial commercial value on this. I see these changes as making PC the fullest featured, most flexible ecommerce package around. I can already achieve a massive amount with it now but these changes would enable everything I need. For option 2 there are really only two zipping requirements as I see it: 1. Everything in an order. (though dangerous as what if an order is for ten albums and it creates a 750mb download which could clog up the server and fail on many connections) 2. Everything in a 'parent' product. (my preffered design as described below) The concept of 'parent' products would create a level between category and individual (or 'child') products. A parent product would be a product that can be ordered and contains the 'child' products associated with it (like a cetegory but categories can't be ordered). For example if the concept of 'album' was a 'parent' product and the 'child' products within it were the tracks, this would work. Customers can order and download individual tracks but if they buy the whole album they don't want to be clicking individual URLs for each track (when an album might have up to nearly 30 tracks). So a user could order the individual tracks ('child' products as today) or the 'parent' product which contains a zip of all the 'child' products. Conceptually this is simple but in delivery probably less so. If you want me to illustrate or detail my thoughts further I can do this on or offlist. cheers Mark |