I'm working on a prototype that'll eventually be an ecommerce site selling storage space. I had a look at the uCommerce tutorials to get started however since my site won't be following the standard shop/products model, I'm not sure how best to set this up.
I've created a 'Storage' product category (since this is what I'm selling) and a 'Configurable' product definition (as mentioned in the tutorial above). I've then created a 'Storage' product of type 'Configurable' within the 'Storage' product category.
I've tried to create another product category called 'Options' as per the tutorial, and I've then gone on to create three more product definitions, as the options for my 'Storage' product: 'Type', 'Size' and 'Duration' but I don't think this is how I should've done it. I'm getting incredibly confused and can't seem to work out how I should structure this.
In summary, all I want to do is be able to sell storage space using eCommerce. The space will be classed as either business or personal (type), will have a size (small, medium, large) and can be stored for a duration (probably broken down into 1wk, 2wks, 3wks etc).
Still learnng this platform myself but from what you've said it sounds like you are going about it the correct way using the apple style configuration...
Is there any specific trouble you are having with ucommerce? Sounds more like its just you are trying to get to grips with 2 things - the problem and the software istelf.
Have a go at getting the apple one working so you get to grips with the concept and have something working Then just write draw out on paper how you want the storage one to work - not even thinking about ucommerce so much at this point. Then once you have it clear, then see how that fits with the apple one and tweak! Thats what id do. You might flush out where the friction/problem is.
I don't think there's anything wrong with the software - I've no doubt I can get this working in uCommerce, I'm just not sure which approach to take :-)
So far I've opted for a different solution: I've build my 'storage space' product definition with type, size and duration as properties. Now I'm just trying to understand pipelines to see if I can somehow set the product values dynamically before adding them to the basket.
I'm not sure if this is a good approach? Maybe someone can shed some light on this?
Wish I could help you more.Perhaps a possble idea > I have managed to build a custom pipeline task (not tested it yet though) and used variants to implement a different pricing structure based on volume (units purchased). That could be another option for you with the storage space. The piplene task will select the relevant price based on quantity ordered - which is a property on the variant along with the unit price.
As i said im new to UC so this might not be the best way to do it but seems to do the job in principle! Will find out for sure when ive knocked up the shopping cart and i start adding things :)
Soren might have more input for you but hes been away at cg12 so probably not had much time on the forum recently... ive got a couple of questions on the forum thats holding me back so hoping hes drops in soon.
Yea I figured things would be a little quiet while cg was on. Hopefully Soren can offer some help when he gets back.
Regarding the pipelines though: I did see a tutorial on how to add extra fields to an order but the problem I'm having is I don't want to add extra fields, I want to be able to set the values of existing ones.
Essentially my users will be creating dynamic products so I can't hard-code the values of the product. What I was thinking was I'd have a selection of radio button lists on my front end. Then based off the values selected, I'd dynamically set the values of my 'storage' product by setting up a new pipeline task.
I'm not sure if this is possible though? Hopefuly Soren will be able to offer some pointers when he gets back.
Wouldnt it be better then to create formulas/calculations and a price per square metre based on the product/storage type? You could also then use the variants like i have to offer a discount based on the length of contract.
This way the end user would enter the space required, tyoe and contracts length and the pipeline task would calculate the total and set the orderline value.
Depending on the number of products a formula based appraoch might make sense. The formula makes sense if you prefer not to deal with a bunch of preconfigured units.
You might even consider a hybrid apparoch where the sizes of the storage units are defined as variants, e.g. 20 sqm, 30 sqm. And then let the unit price be defined as the price for a given time unit, i.e. 1 day of 20 sqm storage is 9.95, 1 day of 30 sqm is 12.95, etc..
It makes sense to do this if you're dealing with a limited number of different size storage spaces.
Thanks for this. I'm chipping my way through your tutorials at the moment but having trouble with this one here: http://www.publicvoid.dk/3StepsToManagingMultipleBasketItemsAsOne.aspx - I get the error: 'umbraco.MacroEngines.Library.RazorLibraryCore' does not contain a definition for 'ExecuteBasketPipeline'
Not sure how to handle this scenario in uCommerce
Hi guys,
I'm working on a prototype that'll eventually be an ecommerce site selling storage space. I had a look at the uCommerce tutorials to get started however since my site won't be following the standard shop/products model, I'm not sure how best to set this up.
I'm actually in the middle of reading the 'Apple-style product configurator' tutorial (http://www.publicvoid.dk/4StepsToBuildingAnApplestyleProductConfiguratorWithUCommerce.aspx) since this seems to similar to my problem but I'm getting very confused when trying to set it up.
This is where I've got to so far:
I've created a 'Storage' product category (since this is what I'm selling) and a 'Configurable' product definition (as mentioned in the tutorial above). I've then created a 'Storage' product of type 'Configurable' within the 'Storage' product category.
I've tried to create another product category called 'Options' as per the tutorial, and I've then gone on to create three more product definitions, as the options for my 'Storage' product: 'Type', 'Size' and 'Duration' but I don't think this is how I should've done it. I'm getting incredibly confused and can't seem to work out how I should structure this.
In summary, all I want to do is be able to sell storage space using eCommerce. The space will be classed as either business or personal (type), will have a size (small, medium, large) and can be stored for a duration (probably broken down into 1wk, 2wks, 3wks etc).
How can I best structure this using uCommerce?
Thanks :-)
Bump.
Anyone have a solution to this?
Still learnng this platform myself but from what you've said it sounds like you are going about it the correct way using the apple style configuration...
Is there any specific trouble you are having with ucommerce? Sounds more like its just you are trying to get to grips with 2 things - the problem and the software istelf.
Have a go at getting the apple one working so you get to grips with the concept and have something working Then just write draw out on paper how you want the storage one to work - not even thinking about ucommerce so much at this point. Then once you have it clear, then see how that fits with the apple one and tweak! Thats what id do. You might flush out where the friction/problem is.
Hi Damien,
I don't think there's anything wrong with the software - I've no doubt I can get this working in uCommerce, I'm just not sure which approach to take :-)
So far I've opted for a different solution: I've build my 'storage space' product definition with type, size and duration as properties. Now I'm just trying to understand pipelines to see if I can somehow set the product values dynamically before adding them to the basket.
I'm not sure if this is a good approach? Maybe someone can shed some light on this?
Wish I could help you more.Perhaps a possble idea > I have managed to build a custom pipeline task (not tested it yet though) and used variants to implement a different pricing structure based on volume (units purchased). That could be another option for you with the storage space. The piplene task will select the relevant price based on quantity ordered - which is a property on the variant along with the unit price.
As i said im new to UC so this might not be the best way to do it but seems to do the job in principle! Will find out for sure when ive knocked up the shopping cart and i start adding things :)
Soren might have more input for you but hes been away at cg12 so probably not had much time on the forum recently... ive got a couple of questions on the forum thats holding me back so hoping hes drops in soon.
Thanks Damien!
Yea I figured things would be a little quiet while cg was on. Hopefully Soren can offer some help when he gets back.
Regarding the pipelines though: I did see a tutorial on how to add extra fields to an order but the problem I'm having is I don't want to add extra fields, I want to be able to set the values of existing ones.
Essentially my users will be creating dynamic products so I can't hard-code the values of the product. What I was thinking was I'd have a selection of radio button lists on my front end. Then based off the values selected, I'd dynamically set the values of my 'storage' product by setting up a new pipeline task.
I'm not sure if this is possible though? Hopefuly Soren will be able to offer some pointers when he gets back.
Anyway thanks for your help!
Wouldnt it be better then to create formulas/calculations and a price per square metre based on the product/storage type? You could also then use the variants like i have to offer a discount based on the length of contract.
This way the end user would enter the space required, tyoe and contracts length and the pipeline task would calculate the total and set the orderline value.
That definitely sounds like a good approach. I'll have a look into it.. thanks again :-)
Depending on the number of products a formula based appraoch might make sense. The formula makes sense if you prefer not to deal with a bunch of preconfigured units.
You might even consider a hybrid apparoch where the sizes of the storage units are defined as variants, e.g. 20 sqm, 30 sqm. And then let the unit price be defined as the price for a given time unit, i.e. 1 day of 20 sqm storage is 9.95, 1 day of 30 sqm is 12.95, etc..
It makes sense to do this if you're dealing with a limited number of different size storage spaces.
Hi Soren,
Thanks for this. I'm chipping my way through your tutorials at the moment but having trouble with this one here: http://www.publicvoid.dk/3StepsToManagingMultipleBasketItemsAsOne.aspx - I get the error: 'umbraco.MacroEngines.Library.RazorLibraryCore' does not contain a definition for 'ExecuteBasketPipeline'
Any ideas how I can fix this? The code I've got for my template is here: http://pastebin.com/281RVJpb
FYI I'm using Umbraco 4.7.2 and uCommerce v2.6.1.0 with the demo store v1.2.0.0
Thanks
Looks like there's a clash between an Umbraco and uCommerce class.
You could go UCommerce.Xslt.Library.ExecuteBasketPipeline() or TransactionLibrary.ExecuteBasketPipeline()
BTW: Thank you for including version numbers up front. Makes things so much easier! :)
Aha! Fantastic, thank you :-)
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