Shared Product Option Sets (example 2)

Shared Product Simple Options:

Product options are used when you want to present the user with a pulldown list of options for a specific product. Options allow you to group like products together so it's easier for the user to find what they are looking for. For example if you offer a T-Shirt for sale, you don't want to have a separate part for every size. Instead you create a single part, with 'size' options.

There are several different types of option sets, from the very simple, to the very complex. In this tutorial we'll focus on the most Shared option sets. Shared option sets are options that can be used for several different products.

Example #2: Basic Shared Options

To Create a new Shared Option Set, select "Product Option Sets (Shared)" from the Administration Panel. Then in the top maroon bar, click on the button "New Shared Simple Option Set".

In our T-Shirt size example, we will end up with something like what's shown in the screenshot below:

Option Set Name: This is the "Share" name that we will use when assigning this option set to one or more products.

User Select Name: This is the option name, as the user will see it. In our example we would type in "Select Size" as our options are based on size.

Auto-Select First Options: Turning this option would auto select the first option in our list as the default buying option. If we leave this turned off the user will be forced to select one of the options provided.

Option Price: This defines our option price (if any change is needed). In our example, one of our shirts will be $2.00 more than the rest, so we're going to use the "Add to list price" option here. Optionally we could use the "Replaces list price" and enter a new total price for each option.

"No Change" when this is select all your options will use the list price as defined on the General/Detail tab of the product.
"Add to List Price" which will take your list price as entered on the details/General tab and "add" this amount to it. So in our example if we wanted to charge $5.00 for all our sizes but wanted to charge $7.00 for a XXXL shirt, we would select "Add to list price" and then in the XXXL option we would enter "2.00" in the price. (5 + 2 = $7.00 for a XXXL).
"Replace List Price" is your third option. In this case you would enter a total new price into the price field. In our example we would enter "5.00" in all sizes except for the XXXL option, where we would enter "7.00". Note all options need to have a price in this case, as the "List Price" from our Details/General tab will be completely ignored.

Price Preview: You can define what pricing information will be given to the end user when this items is displayed in one of the "List" views. Where a non-optioned item would show the price of the item, a part with options could have multiple prices. Here we can set what we want to show the end user. This can be either a range of prices, high/low or custom information text.

Price Preview Text: This is optional text to put before your price.

Option Part No: This defines the option part number. In our Example we will use "Suffix" which will add our option part number to the end of our product part number.

"Ignore" If the options for this item do not have a different part number, ie it will use the base part's part number. Note the 'option name' will be appended to the title of this part as it goes into shopping cart for identification of the option selected.
"Suffix" Selecting this option will add the Option Part Number to the end of the base part number. ie. if the base part number is "T-Shirt01" and the Option Part number is "XXXL" then the part number would become "T-Shirt01XXXL".
"Prefix" Selecting this option will add the Option Part Number to the beginning of the base part number. ie. if the base part number is "T-Shirt01" and the Option Part number is "XXXL" then the part number would become "XXLT-Shirt01".
"Replace" Selecting this option will replace the base part number with what ever is entered in the option part number.

Use Parent Item Shipping Rules: If you need to enter specific weights or shipping costs per option, then un-check this option and you will be able to adjust those settings per item.

The Options:

Name: This is the name of the option and the name the user will select from. In our example, the first entry here would be "Small" and then we click "Add New Option" and then enter the next 'size' in our example until we got to "XXXL".

Price: If we have selected a "Option Price" in the above settings of something other than "No Change" then we would either enter in our "additional price to the list price" or the "New List Price" depending on if we selected "Add to List" or "Replace list price" respectively. In our example, we have selected "Add to List Price" so we will be adding an 'additional' amount here for any items that are more than the list price. In this case, the XXXL size.

Sale: This would be the sale price for this option. You must also have a start/end sale date defined in the main product screen for this to take effect and the sale type set to "Flat Amount".

Part No.: This is the prefix/suffix part number to add to the base part number, or a replacement part number depending on the settings above in "Option Part No".

Shipping: When not using the parent shipping rules, this is the shipping cost of this item (optional if no weight is defined).

Weight: When not using the parent shipping rules, this is the weight of this item.

Truck: When not using the parent shipping rules, this identifies this item as needing to ship by truck.

Sep: When not using the parent shipping rules, this identifies this item as needing be shipped separately from anything else in the order.

Free: When not using the parent shipping rules, this identifies this item as having free shipping.

Ships From: When not using the parent shipping rules, this identifies what location this item ships from (if you have multiple ship-from locations defined).

Sorting Arrows: The Orange arrows allow you to change the order of the options as they are displayed to the end user.

Delete: The red "X" allows you to delete the selected option from the list.

Defining a Product to Use your Shared Option:

Edit or Quick edit any part by either navigating to the part on your website and clicking the Edit Icon, or goto the Administration panel and open the "Product List editor".

Click on the "Part Options" tab in either editor. In the "Option Set" pulldown, find and select your Shared Option that you created above. In our example it would be called "T-Shirt Sizes". When you select the option you will see a summary of the select option below. We can additionally goto any number of additional products and also asign this Product Option Set to them as well. This creates a single point to maintain our options. In the case "T-Shirt Sizes". If we needed to also chage $2.00 more for a XX-Large tee shirt, we could simple go back to the "Shared Product Option Set" and edit the Option set for our t-shirt sizes, and this would effect ALL the product using this option set.

The final result of product will look something like this: