Assigning images, description, etc to a Product Collection
Hello again Rusty!
In v2.1.0, is it possible to add custom fields to a Product Collection by using a doc type or similar method?
The goal is to use the Merchello tree structure as the category navigation, however there doesn't seem to be any way to give the collection a description, image, etc.
How would you recommend we do this? As of right now, the only way I can think to do this would be to have a structure within the Umbraco Content tree that matches the product collection tree in Merchello, and it doesn't seem very DRY, as we will need to maintain two separate category trees and make sure they are in sync.
At the moment the way you describe is the way I have had to do it. There is a Product Collection doctype and on that doctype is a Merchello Product List View property. It actually worked out for this site as the public category names are different to those used in the actual catalog but I'd be interested to hear other approaches.
I'd be interested in other concepts as well. It is a difficult balance. We need to keep things abstract enough to work in the majority of scenarios and at the same time have come to learn that creating redundancies in Umbraco specific functionality Umbraco is at best a step sideways as they are moving forward and making changes so quickly with refinements.
With respect to collections having to be "synced" - in your situation it sounds like they just might have to be. However, if you consider you can have more than one collection on a page and add collections to non-category pages (like a featured products collection) the argument for synchronizing the collections to starts to have issues.
Now I know there is no way to get an image for a collection out of the box.
I'm thinking to try and do it like this.
Create a doc type called something like...
"Product Collection Extension" with the properties
Media Picker - For an Image.
Text Area - For a description.
Merchello collection picker.
Put these in my content tree...
Then when I need to get an image for the collection in my view, I can look for the Product Collection Extension doctype which has the value for Merchello collection that matches the one I'm looking for.
It's not perfect, but I think that would work.
Would love to know what you guys think about this approach?
Assigning images, description, etc to a Product Collection
Hello again Rusty!
In v2.1.0, is it possible to add custom fields to a Product Collection by using a doc type or similar method?
The goal is to use the Merchello tree structure as the category navigation, however there doesn't seem to be any way to give the collection a description, image, etc.
How would you recommend we do this? As of right now, the only way I can think to do this would be to have a structure within the Umbraco Content tree that matches the product collection tree in Merchello, and it doesn't seem very DRY, as we will need to maintain two separate category trees and make sure they are in sync.
Any ideas?
At the moment the way you describe is the way I have had to do it. There is a
Product Collectiondoctype and on that doctype is aMerchello Product List Viewproperty. It actually worked out for this site as the public category names are different to those used in the actual catalog but I'd be interested to hear other approaches.Cheers, Simon
Hey Keith,
I'd be interested in other concepts as well. It is a difficult balance. We need to keep things abstract enough to work in the majority of scenarios and at the same time have come to learn that creating redundancies in Umbraco specific functionality Umbraco is at best a step sideways as they are moving forward and making changes so quickly with refinements.
With respect to collections having to be "synced" - in your situation it sounds like they just might have to be. However, if you consider you can have more than one collection on a page and add collections to non-category pages (like a featured products collection) the argument for synchronizing the collections to starts to have issues.
Would love to hear you ideas here.
It would be great if we could associate a doctype with a product collection - perhaps it could show on the manage collection dialogue?
The way we are currently getting round it is to have the product collection as part of an Archetype
So for each collection I can have a
Cheers J
I need to do this as well.....
Now I know there is no way to get an image for a collection out of the box.
I'm thinking to try and do it like this.
Create a doc type called something like...
"Product Collection Extension" with the properties
Media Picker - For an Image. Text Area - For a description. Merchello collection picker.
Put these in my content tree...
Then when I need to get an image for the collection in my view, I can look for the Product Collection Extension doctype which has the value for Merchello collection that matches the one I'm looking for.
It's not perfect, but I think that would work.
Would love to know what you guys think about this approach?
is working on a reply...