Create Custom Products and Groups
Introduction
Product Builder is used to offer the end user the ability to create a custom product, selecting products from predefined product groups.
So in order to work we have to create a set of Custom Products and Groups.
Create a Custom Product
After the installation go to the "Custom Products" view and press "New" to create a new one.
In the form you have to fill in the fields of that Custom Product. Some of them will be displayed in the front-end and some regard functionality issues.
Even if a Custom Product has an image and a Description, we can set them not to be displayed in the front-end. So these fields can be used for internal use too.
If you intent to use the 'compatibility check' in your products the 'Compatibility' should be set to yes.
Use the Minimum allowed quantity and the Maximum allowed quantity if you want your kit to include a specific number of items. e.g. A wines box which can include 10-12 bottles.
A notable field here is the “Language”. Product Builder supports the joomla's multi-language feature. So if you are using more than one languages in your e-shop, you can create multiple instances of a custom product for the different languages you have.
In the right tab of the page, there are the Metadata Options. These options are used for generating meta-data tags in the front-end, that can be used by the search-engines.
Create a Group
A group can consists of multiple products or a single product if it's not editable.
To create a group go to the "Group" view and press the “New” button. Follows an explanation of the fields found in the group's form.
Basic
Name: The name of the group will be either the group's header or the 1st option in the products list.
Custom Product: is the “Custom Product” in which this group belongs.
Language: In case of multiple languages you can have groups for different languages.
Group Options
Here there are the more advanced options of the group.
Editable: An editable group consists of multiple products while the non-editable has only one product which cannot changed by the user.
If you set a group as non-editable you have to select a Default Product too.
Mandatory: In a mandatory group, the user is forced to select a product, otherwise he/she cannot proceed to the cart.
Connect With: An editable group can get its products either from one or more Virtuemart Product Categories or from a custom collection of Virtuemart products.
Default Product: A group can have a preselected product. This can be used like a suggestion to the user. In case of non-editable group every virtuemart product can become default. For editable groups only a product of that group can be set as default.
Products Display Type: How the products of the group will be displayed. If set to "Use Global" will follow the settings in the component's configuration or in the menu items.
Quantity Options
The Quantity options can be used to set a default quantity for a group or to configure how the quantity will be displayed.
Default Quantity: The quantity of the group by default.
Display Quantity Box : Display or not the quantity box. If the quantity box is not displayed, the default quantity cannot changed by the user.
Quantity Box : This regards the display type of the quantity box.
It can be a single input with the 'plus' and 'minus' buttons or it can be a drop-down list with predefined options. The drop-down list is useful for products which sold in packs. e.g. 6 items pack or a dozen.