Help with Attributes

[Jay]

I'm trying to get to grips with attributes, at least I think it's attributes that I need to use.

What I'm trying to do is make products searchable via drop down boxes, similar to how this Bluepark site does it - http://www.more-bhp.com/

I want Make, Model and then possibly Product Type

eg. - Audi, A2, iPod adapter.

When the user selects Make-Audi, the second list populates with all Audi car models. Once the Model (say A2) is selected the customer can then select the type of product that they are searching for (eg iPod adapters). All available iPod adapters suitable for the Audi A2 are then displayed.

I have set up Attributes for Make and Model. I have then attempted to create a product (iPod adapter) and added a Make attribute of Audi.

I now need Attributes for Model, but this iPod adapter could be suitable for more than one model, say Audi A2 and A4. This is where I'm bit stuck. How do I set up the attributes to work as I've described above? Or should I be using some other feature to achieve this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Sorry if I have not explained very well, any questions, please ask.

[christopher]

Hi Jay,
I always put this warning on my posts. "I am really new to BP and my shop is not up and running yet, so my answer may not be the best'

I have just been wrangling with attributes whilst setting up my shop.

This is what I think you want to do.

1) Sell an iPod adapter.
2) Enable a customer to search for an iPod adapter to suit his/her make and model of car.

I think the trick is
Your customer will be looking for an iPod adaptor, so you will have a category iPod adaptor. (I think this is a category not an attribute, but I may be misunderstanding your question)
The Customer will navigate to the category 'iPod adaptors'
If you set up attributes for make, and model these will then be available in the 'refine' box?
If you then deactivate the 'one value per item' box in the attribute manager for make and model. (And (I just asked this question) don't worry about the warning that flashes up).

This should enable you to assign multiple make and model attributes.

Your customer should be able to select your category of iPod adaptor, then refine by make and model to select the correct adaptor.

I hope this is right and helpful. If I have got things wrong or misunderstood your question, then sorry. (It helps me to try to work through things and writing them down is an old blokes way of thinking out loud)

regards.

Chris

http://www.tattypuss.co.uk

[Ashley]

The site you refer to uses he 'product finder' block. See under Blocks in your admin panel.

[Red Devil]

The site you refer to uses he 'product finder' block. See under Blocks in your admin panel.

I was about to say that too, Ashley. However, the Product Finder is very long winded to set up particularly if you have a lot of products. I prefer the new Refined Results block (which works off attributes) or the Advanced Search block. The Refined Results block is probably better suited to yoru needs.

[Jay G]

Thanks guys, so if I set up a block for 'Shop by category' the drop down would allow the customer to select 'iPod adapters', 'AUX adapters', 'USB adapters' etc.

If the customer selects 'iPod adapters' they are then displayed all iPod adapters but they can then filter by 'Make' and 'Model'. Is it possible to select 'Make' first eg. Renault and then the customer is displayed all Renault Models to choose from. The customer then selects Clio and all iPod adapters for Renault Clio are displayed. I'd like it to work similar to this site - www.caraudiodirect.co.uk

I've just looked at the product finder block and it looks like it would work how I want it to, providing I can figure out how to set it up.

[Red Devil]

I must apologise when I said it takes ages to set up. I didnt realise you could import via a CSV file.

[Jay G]

I'm just manually adding a few sample items for now, how do I set up my items to work with the Product Finder? The finder will have Category, Vehicle Make, Vehicle Model.