Tags/topics: 
Product Attributes
Product variations
Product Bundle
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Attach the same Variations to a product.

I feel like what I want should be obvious and easy to figure out...but after days of reading the documentation, searching the web and experimenting, I've yielded nothing but frustration. I'm either an idiot...or for some ungodly reason, what I'm asking for is not included in the Commerce framework...

My needs are very simple. I sell custom t-shirts online...but they are not pre-printed. I print them on-demand:

1. Thus, I have a number of shirt STYLES (ex: Men's Beefy T, Women's Soft Cotton T, Men's Long Sleeve, Women's Camisole). The inventory of each styles consists of A) Colors and B) Sizes.

2. I have about 50 t-shirt designs that I will print onto ANY style shirt I have in stock.

So...I want my customers to view a large list of designs...then select a style and the colors and sizes available for that style (depending on available inventory). I will then print the design on their desired shirt.

Here's what I've tried to do: I created two product types:

1.) Design
2.) Style (with extra fields for Color & Size bases on corresponding taxonomies).

In the "Design" product type, I added a product reference field to the Style product type and made the selected attributes (Color & Size) selectable for the add to cart link. BUT, these attributes do not auto-populate...I must add each and every one as variations to the Design product if I want them to show up as selectable attributes to the shopper. This is untenable, especially if I decide to drop certain styles or add new ones (which I do all the time).

When I create a new "Design" product...I don't want to add every single iteration of the various styles, sizes, and colors. I just want the product display to automatically allow my customers to to select these style/color/size attributes (if they are in stock).

I don't mind setting up all the variations for the Style products...but I don't want to setup all those variations again for every single design! I just want my Designs to automatically populate with every Style that I add (and the respective colors and sizes available in that style that are in stock). And if I decide to add a new style later, I don't want to edit every single Design to include the new shirt styles (and colors and sizes).

How can I achieve this!?

Thanks in advance.

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Edited

Asked by: Doubledoh
on February 19, 2013

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I had the same problem... finally i switched to PrestaShop.

- 0xhiryuu on April 5, 2013

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Maybe these links are a good start:

http://www.drupalcommerce.org/videos/commerce-module-tuesday/commerce-cu...
http://www.drupalcommerce.org/videos/tutorials/customizable-products-piz...

Thanks

Answer by: realskorpion
Posted: Feb 19, 2013

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Thanks...but the problem with these approaches is that if I allow people to choose a design, then force them to pick a t-shirt product as a line item....then they won't get the fancy ajaxy attribute selection select lists...but instead, just one really really long select list of every product combination (style, color, size)...and without pictures.

If I make several line items for each attribute (style, color, size), then inventory can't be tracked...

And finally, if I simply make line items correspond to taxonomy terms (instead of products), then there is no inventory tracking at all.

I really want something similar to the product bundle module, but I still want the user to be able to use the fancy ajax add-to-cart attribute selector. I want the designs to be one product, and the shirts to be another (required) product linked with each design product.

The best way I can think of going about it is to make people choose a shirt first, then customize the shirt with a line item (the design they want on the shirt)...but this is not ideal because the customer would much rather choose a design first, then the shirt style/color/size. I'm sure there is a way to achieve this via views, but I'm not skilled enough to do it...

Any suggestions?

- Doubledoh on March 1, 2013

My suggestion is to work within the "each unique product has a unique SKU" paradigm. The product bundle module is only a community-supported module, not endorsed by Commerce Guys or recommended by rszrama.

If you want, you could use the "Pizza Shop" paradigm to build a "configurable" product, but if you are literally selling tshirts, the best way to do that is to make each unique shirt a unique product. The way to "group" products is by referencing them from within one "product display" using a node and a product reference field.

- Josh Miller on March 4, 2013