This extension allows you to add an infinite number of variants to your product without having to create individual variants in the database.
I built this after realizing that I would need about 20,000 variants PER PRODUCT for an online paint store I was building (2 sizes * 4 finishes * about 2500 colors). This was obviously unacceptable, both from a performance and UI point of view.
By using Extra Variant, I effectively removed the paint colors from the native variants, allowing me to only have 8 variants per product (2 sizes * 4 finishes).
Extra Variant adds a field called extra_variant to the Add to Cart HTML form. The value contained in this field is captured at checkout by the extension. The field can be of any type: text, radio, checkbox, hidden.
In my particular situation, I created an overlay window that allows the user to search and select a paint color. Some Javascript code then fills out the hidden extra_variant field.
You can see Extra Variant in action with the included demo. It is located in the ./demo directory). I included 2 products: a t-shirt and an iPod.
Play with the demo to see what you can do. The t-shirt example is more advanced. An overlay window opens where the user can chose a color. The iPod example is basic, a text field is displayed.
The admin user name is: admin@example.org And the password is: swordfish
For git users:
git submodule add git://github.com/cmer/spree-extra-variant.git vendor/extensions/extra-variant
for others (or git users that don't like submodules):
ruby script/extension install git://github.com/cmer/spree-extra-variant.git
Adding an extra variant field to your products is very easy. Simply follow these steps:
- Install the extension (duh!)
- Migrate the database (rake db:migrate)
- Add a special property to the product in need of an extra variant. The property should be called &extra_variant (with the leading &) and the value should be the type of extra variant you are adding. For example: tshirt_color. It is important that the value does NOT contain spaces or hyphens.
- Once you have added the special property to your product, you need to craft some HTML. If your property value is tshirt_color, you should edit the file at ./spree_app/vendor/extensions/extra_variant/app/views/products/_tshirt_color.haml. If you prefer ERB to Haml, replace the extension for .erb. A simpler example to look at is _engraved_text.haml.
- Restart your app and you should now see your new field when you visit your product page.
You can get creative with Extra Variant. All that matters to the extension is the value contained in the "extra_variant" form field. The field can be populated by manually or by Javascript, it really doesn't matter.
Created by Carl Mercier (carl carlmercier com)
Copyright (c) 2010, Carl Mercier All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
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* Neither the name of the Marcin Raczkowski nor the names of its
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