Fixed quantity products

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Some products like business cards can only be sold in bundles.
E.g 50, 100, 500, 1000
The pricing for them is usually non-linear. 

We need to find a way and explain it to our customers how to configure products 
so that they show as a choice with fixed pricing, not a free-text Qty box.

Also, we should be able to add additional options on top of it. E.g. express 
delivery, packaging, whatever.

An advanced scenario would include stock management attached to the quantities. 
So if someone orders 50 the stock should go down by 50.

If this is not possible we need to look for a free extension.
If none exists we need to create it.
There should be a way. We can't be the only ones who needs this.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by zetapri...@gmail.com on 17 Nov 2010 at 9:21

• Blocked on: #403, #407

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Configuring tire prices per product: 
http://www.magentocommerce.com/knowledge-base/entry/how-do-i-use-tier-pricing/

Original comment by Anatoly....@gmail.com on 17 Nov 2010 at 7:20

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Tier pricing is not exactly what our customers need.

Looks like we have to write another extension.

How about modifying behavior of tier pricing to stick with the exact volumes?

This image 
http://www.magentocommerce.com/images/uploads/tier_price_front.jpg
gives a list of options, but then shows a free-text Qty box.

All we need to do is kill the Qty box and put radio buttons against the price 
options.
An alternative would be a dropdown Qty.
Ideally, a choice of both. Not sure.

Shall this be done through a theme instead of an extension?

Original comment by zetapri...@gmail.com on 18 Nov 2010 at 1:49

• Changed state: Discuss

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There's a setting for forced increments in the Inventory settings... 
Configuration->Enable Qty Increments

This would let them force increments of 50, but it looks like a default for 
every item - I'm not sure.

Original comment by sjgo...@gmail.com on 18 Nov 2010 at 1:52

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There is also bundled products. I have created one example here.
http://ec2-174-129-95-130.compute-1.amazonaws.com/managed-web-to-print/index.php
/magento-support/24-7-dedicated-support-bundle-product.html

As you can see Customer is presented with option group (that is configurable 
from product) to choose type of bundle. Also product configuration gives option 
to set quantities for each bundle and to disallow change of these quantities 
from customer.
This is how this product is configured, you can see exact configuration here: 
http://ec2-174-129-95-130.compute-1.amazonaws.com/managed-web-to-print/index.php
/admin/catalog_product/edit/store/0/id/24/

So this might almost fit the requirement. The biggest problem I see is that 
quantity box at the bottom is still present. I don't think there is an option 
to disable it (currently) so that is good candidate for small extension.
Add a non required attribute to products 'Display QTY box' with dropdown list 
of Yes and No options.

Original comment by jamb...@gmail.com on 18 Nov 2010 at 9:00

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The way the pricing is displayed in the sample above is too confusing.
What does +$600 mean?
Is it the base $600 + $600 for 1 month?
Go figure.
Then there is this "Price as configured: $600.00", whatever it means.

Yes, it's close to what we need, but not 100%. Can't compromise on this one.
Let's think of something.

Original comment by zetapri...@gmail.com on 18 Nov 2010 at 10:05

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You did a mess, issues are different.

One problem is to sell bundles of products (50, 300, 500, 1000), where number 
is real qty and total will be price * qty.

Other is to sell weeks/days/years instead qty. In this case no need to sell 2 
months (month + month). Different options have different price. There's no base 
price or price of one unit. More simple and clear solution is separate virtual 
products for 1 month, half a year and year in my opinion.

Original comment by Anatoly....@gmail.com on 18 Nov 2010 at 12:27

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Products are separate. I have made every complex product that magento offers to 
present what default options are. And although you are correct about time 
periods in general, here they are used as an example for stacked product.

Original comment by jamb...@gmail.com on 18 Nov 2010 at 8:33

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We can try modifying tier price feature to get what we need.

The changes will be to the admin and UI. The code will need to be an extension.

== Changes to the tier price form ==
1. Add a check box (one per form/product) called "Fixed quantities".
2. Add a text box per price line for UNIT. It will be like QTY | UNIT | PRICE 
(3 | months | 100)

== Changes to the user interface ==
This part is not very clear at this stage. 
We know that prices should show as QTY UNIT PRICE with the price being the full 
price.
A category view should show some sensible pricing. E.g. priced from $xxx. 
Whatever is the closest to the native mage functionality.
There should be no free-text QTY box. Maybe there should be no QTY box at all 
if the prices come with their own radio buttons.

There should be minimal changes required to themes, if any.

We also know that tier prices do not show if a product has additional options. 
They are calculated in the end, but do not show on the page. Our fixed 
price/quantity combos should show all the time. 

This task is for a proof of concept and design of the solution. We need to have 
all questions answered first. The actual implementation will come under 
separate issues.

Original comment by zetapri...@gmail.com on 8 Dec 2010 at 7:04

• Changed state: Accepted

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Original comment by zetapri...@gmail.com on 8 Dec 2010 at 7:05

• Added labels: Stream-FixedQty
• Removed labels: Stream-Customer

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So latest discussions have led to the following:

1. Alter how tier prices work.
a. add switch/flag in price tag to use tier prices as price options with fixed 
quantities.
b. when switch is on - add option for custom description text of the price 
options

2. Change product page.

a. Hide any qty boxes (make text input into hidden input and set qty there 
using js)
b. Change tier price output, adding radio boxes which upon select change the 
qty that will be added to cart
c. hide default price display - or replace it with default option chosen

3. Try to do as much of p.2 using javascript.

this is brief summary - if there are any other ideas - chip in.

Original comment by jamb...@gmail.com on 17 Dec 2010 at 3:19

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Sounds about right. Let's get it cracking.

Original comment by zetapri...@gmail.com on 17 Dec 2010 at 5:40

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will deploy test module on magedev

Original comment by jamb...@gmail.com on 23 Dec 2010 at 7:41

• Changed state: Started

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Initial example:
http://ec2-174-129-95-130.compute-1.amazonaws.com/magedev/index.php/test/dvd-lab
el-06.html

All changes are achieved on front end using JS. 
Default price is hidden.
Radio button is added to each option and first option is selected.
qty box is made hidden and plain text is displayed for informative purposes.

In admin a configuration option is added to System > Configuration > Catalog > 
Price 'Use tier prices as fixed product quantities',
if 'Yes' is selected then we have our behavior, if 'No' then default Magento 
display is used.
Setting this here is easier and more elegant then overwriting product editing 
page in admin.

New template file is added to default theme, it is located in 
catalog/product/view/pricing.phtml, the template basically copies 
tierprices.phtml and adds some classes and javascript. Using this approach 
instead of overwriting tierprices.phtml allows for easy switching of templates 
when feature is turned on/off.
We can also easily change default text that is displayed around prices.

Original comment by jamb...@gmail.com on 23 Dec 2010 at 8:09

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I see qty box

Original comment by Anatoly....@gmail.com on 23 Dec 2010 at 9:11

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Hm. I don't think the solution proposed in comment 13 is what we are after.

Original comment by zetapri...@gmail.com on 24 Dec 2010 at 9:33

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Use tier prices as fixed product quantities option should be per product, but 
not for entire store. Am I right?

Original comment by Anatoly....@gmail.com on 24 Dec 2010 at 1:27

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@14 "qty box is made hidden and plain text is displayed for informative 
purposes"
@15 this is not very informative - I have made what you requested - do simplest 
possible thing. 
I have gone the general way - the odds are that if you want to use this feature 
most of your products will need it, implementing it on per product bases will 
be possible too, but will require entirely different approach. Now I can just 
switch templates with only configuration, doing it per product means use the 
same template in all cases and check for flag in template.
Max requested this to be with as little theme modifications as possible.

Original comment by jamb...@gmail.com on 24 Dec 2010 at 5:10

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You can change templates on layout level for per product option. It'll be 
described in .xml file.

Original comment by Anatoly....@gmail.com on 24 Dec 2010 at 7:00

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Comment 8 has a proposed solution that meets the requirements.
Implement it using a separate product template if there is a clear advantage 
for it.

Original comment by zetapri...@gmail.com on 24 Dec 2010 at 10:03

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Original comment by zetapri...@gmail.com on 27 Dec 2010 at 11:10

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Original comment by zetapri...@gmail.com on 30 Dec 2010 at 9:46

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Original comment by zetapri...@gmail.com on 12 Jan 2011 at 2:07

• Added labels: Closed-2010-12

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Original comment by zetapri...@gmail.com on 13 Jan 2011 at 4:39

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Why this is this not closed?

Original comment by jamb...@gmail.com on 8 Feb 2011 at 11:35

• Changed state: ToTest

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Original comment by zetapri...@gmail.com on 9 Feb 2011 at 3:17

• Changed state: Done