What about item options?

Let say I have an item for sale that comes in mutiple color choices or sizes. Do I have to make an ad for each individual color or size, or can I somehow provide the user with a way to select the option they want?

RE: What about item options?

If you need to utilize options within your product ads, for example, to allow shoppers to select colors or sizes, then you need to utilize the "Add-to-Cart Button Form Format". In this case each Add-to-Cart button would require its own individual HTML form.

Currently in XLEcom, an Add-to-Cart button is composed of a single hyperlink and button image for each product ad and utilizes the "Add-to-Cart Button Hyperlink Format" as shown in the example below. At this time, XLEcom version 2.0 does not utilize the "Add-to-Cart Button HTML Form Format". Implementing the "Add-to-Cart Button HTML Form Format" is very complex due to the number of additional option variables to support. I am currently working on a newer version that will support both Hyperlink and HTML Form type buttons.

If you want to implement user selectable options, then you will have to manually edit the Published Add-to-Cart HTML button code by replacing it with the "Add-to-Cart Button Form Format" HTML code.

The following two examples illustrate the difference between the two types of Add-to-Cart Buttons. More information about creating Add-to-Cart buttons utilizing Mal's shopping cart can be found at Mal's e-commerce web site at: Learn From Examples.

Add-to-Cart Button Hyperlink Format
Samco Oceanmaster Sailing Jacket
Price: $159.00

<a href="http://ww7.aitsafe.com/cf/add.cfm?userid=98103224&product=Samco%20Oceanmaster%20Sailing%20Jacket&price=159.00&qty=1&units=0"><img src="http://xlecom.com/assets/images/add-to-cart-01.gif" border="0" alt="Add to Cart"></a>

Result:

Samco Oceanmaster Sailing Jacket
Price: $159.00
Add to Cart

Add-to-Cart Button Form Formt
Samco Oceanmaster Sailing Jacket
Price: $159.00

<form action="http://ww7.aitsafe.com/cf/add.cfm" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="userid" value="98103224">
<input type="hidden" name="return" value="www.mals-e.com/help7.cfm">
Select your size:
<input type="hidden" name="product[]" value="Samco Oceanmaster Sailing Jacket">
<select name="product[]">
<option value="Small">Small</option>
<option value="Medium">Medium</option>
<option value="Large">Large</option>
<option value="X-Large">X-Large</option>
</select>
<input type="hidden" name="price" value="159">
<input type="submit" value="Buy Now!">
</form>

Result:

Samco Oceanmaster Sailing Jacket
Price: $159.00
Select your size:




Sam Raheb
XLEcom Program Developer

What about item options?

Is is a big job to keep, say, ten form options up to date on the web site from a central point?

For example a client selling ten sizes of pants might run-out of the middle sizes. Rather than want to re-type his own forms on several pages for ordering pants (which I am able to do but it takes a while) he might like to change one central spreadsheet to say "no middle size pants" and them wait till more stock arrives.

Is this something that anyone could do with xlecom if they learned how to write Excel Macros (which I have not done)? Is is something that a programmer could be paid to do for a few hours' fee?

I am nieve about parts of this process and clued-up about others, so I hope this makes sense!
regards
John Robertson

veganline.com vegan shoes online

RE: What about item options?

John:

I am currently in the process of incorporating "Form" type Add to Cart buttons into XLEcom. At this point in time I have successfully integrated Mal's e-commerce form buttons and now currently working on integrating Paypal form buttons. This new XLEcom program with integrated form button support should be released in the near future. Currently the new unreleased XLEcom program only supports Mal's e-commerce form buttons.

Sam Raheb
XLEcom Program Developer

wish list

Sam

I'd be interested to experiment with it as soon as a demonstration copy is available: my site uses Mals.

As a wish-list for the future I'd like to be able to describe some different availablitity levels for each style & size combination. I might set availabilities as plenty-in-stock, low-stock, back-orderable-next-month, back-orderable from September. But this is just a wish-list.

John Robertson

veganline.com vegan shoes online

RE: Wish List - Here is a Possible Solution

You can actually use the current "Stock Note" feature in conjunction with the "New" Add-to-Cart selectable form options for these concerns. Refer to the New XLEcom Beta Release Section topic for more information about the Add-to-Cart selectable form options.

Hope this helps you,

Sam Raheb
XLEcom Program Developer

XLEcom Beta - Now with Mal&#39;s e-commerce "Form" buttons

This XLEcom Ecommerce program is snowballing into something bigger than I thought. I know the requested features are nice to have, but remember this is just an Excel spreadsheet program. Your requests are pushing the limits of what Excel was meant to do in the first place. Anyways, it's all just for fun. So to satisfy you all, I just introduced a New Beta release section so you can try out the newly developed features. Read the topic New XLEcom Beta Release Section.

The newest released Beta version of the program has the "requested" integrated Mal's e-commerce "Form" buttons. You can download it now. It is available in the Download section of the web site (XLEcom 2.4.407R Beta).

Below is a sample of the new form code used for Mal's e-commerce Shopping Cart:

<form action="http://ww7.aitsafe.com/cf/add.cfm" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="userid" value="98103224">
<input type="hidden" name="price" value="295.95">
<input type="hidden" name="scode" value="ABCO-15TTFB">
<input type="hidden" name="noqty" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="units" value="25">
<input type="hidden" name="tax" value="10">
<input type="hidden" name="currency" value="3">
<input type="hidden" name="lg" value="0">
<input type="hidden" name="return" value="http://xlecom.com/">
<input type="text" name="qty" size="3" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="product[]" value="ABCO 15TTFB Black Flat Panel 15 inch LCD Display">
<select name="product[]">
<option value="Small">Small
<option value="Medium">Medium
<option value="Large">Large
<option value="X-Large">X-Large
</option>
</select>
<input type="image" name="submit" img src="add-to-cart-01.gif" border="0" alt="Add to Cart">
</form>

Sam Raheb
XLEcom Program Developer

Sam:

Let me know if you think you will have that out within the next couple of weeks, I am planning on having my first store up and running by the end of next week. I have several items that either have options that don't change price, such as color etc. and a few that the option does change price, size etc. I have so far just marked them in the Notes section to go back and write the code in html myself later. This would be a great relief. :) I am using Mal's also. Thank you for being so responsive with this software.

No need to wait - It's out now as a Beta Release

Hopefully this will satisfy you. You don't have to wait a couple of weeks. The Mal's Form options version is now available as a Beta version download.

Have fun,

Sam Raheb
XLEcom Program Developer

Sam:

I am very satisfied with the product. :) And I am sincere when I say thank you for being so responsize to the product. I think it is extremely interesting how this program uses MS Excel to accomplish so much. It does make my life coding for Mal's 100 times easier. I did go and try to download the Beta for testing, but I could not find it in the downloads section. If it has not been added yet, I will check again later this afternoon. Thanks Again. Dorian

It's under Downloads >> Beta Releases

Dorian:

It's there. You just have to look under the Downloads >> Beta Releases menu (a sub-menu of the Downloads menu) or you can click on the Software link at the top of the page.

Sam Raheb
XLEcom Program Developer

> 3 sizes or options is manual?

Just re-visiting a question asked years ago, in case things have changed.

If I sell sized goods in three options - small, medium and large - then the options feature of the cart is great. I've tried adding a fourth option column to the spread sheet and can't do it.

So as soon as I sell four options or four sizes, such as small, medium, large, and extra large, then I can hand-code a mals e-commerce button, but I can't have anything that's easily or automatically changed the moment a size sells-out? I have to know that a size has sold out, turn-on the computer, and change the hand-coding?

I've seen a great example of multiple sizes on xlecom at http://www.circlewleather.com/ who have got 17 sizes of belt in five colours and eight designs, but it's automation that I'm after.
good luck with the project
John

veganline.com vegan shoes online

RE: > 3 sizes or options is manual?

First of all, you are not suppose to insert additional columns into the database sheet. Doing so will corrupt the program.

Instead, use the Multiple Price Options utility built into the program to create additional user-selectable options.

You can create a forth option by combining two options into the first drop down / price option select box.

See the following page for more information and live examples: Multiple Price Options

By the way, this page also includes samples of the Add-to-Cart HTML form code. The code is provided in case you want to make manual modifications to suit your needs.

If you need a website to automatically respond to and then adjust the product availability to a dynamic changing inventory, then you will need to resort to an ecommerce solution that utilizes a Web Server Database such as MySQL. This type of solution has its benefits, but in most cases it will require a more expensive type of web hosting account that supports online databases.

Sam Raheb
XLEcom Program Developer