I'm configuring version 1.9 for a small cart that needs to work this way:
Products are meat and poultry sold by the cut for a small farm operation. Each product needs a price per pound displayed on the product list and product detail page. Also, the price displayed will be calculated based on a "typical" weight (in pounds) for that package. The customer will place an order online in the cart for delivery at specific "buying club" locations (think of them as in store pick-up) and pay COD (cash or check). The delivery / exchange will take place on pre-determined dates (e.g. once per month per buying club location).
The farmer will weigh each package and calculate the actual order price prior to delivery. Hence the cart price is just an estimate based on the typical weight entered for each package.
There are two problems I'm trying to solve and I'm trying to limit code/db customization to a minimum for two reasons. One, I'm new to .net and C# so the learning curve is a hindrance. And more importantly, I want to minimize impact when upgrades to the cart are implemented.
The first problem is storing and displaying a price/lb. I am considering using the oldPrice column, labeling it "price/lb." via localization resource strings and changing the display format via style.css. However, it appears that a minor code change is necessary to display the value when the oldPrice = Price, which it would for any 1 lb. item. The change would be for line 91 of ProductPric1.ascx.cs
FROM
if (finalPriceWithoutDiscountBase != oldPriceBase && oldPriceBase > decimal.Zero)
TO
if (oldPriceBase > decimal.Zero)
and line 88 of ProductPrice2.ascx.cs
FROM
if (finalPriceBase != oldPriceBase && oldPriceBase != decimal.Zero)
TO
if (oldPriceBase != decimal.Zero)
These changes would allow the oldPrice (price / lb., in my case) to be displayed any time the column value is greater than zero, and hidden for that case.
QUESTION: Is there any downside to these changes and the use of the oldPrice column in this way? Is there anything I've missed or is there a better way to accomplish this?
======
The 2nd issue has to do with the Buying Club locations. This would be the equivalent of multiple store locations that a customer can pick up an order from. I'd like to be able to allow the customer to pick one location. The simplest way I see to do this is to utilize the "Company" column in the customer table. Again using, localization, I can change the displayed labels for the column to "Buying Club". However, I would like to change the text box on the Customer Registration and Profile screens to a drop down list that they can select from.
The Customer column value should flow through to the orders, and then reports can be used on the orders table for the farmer to sort by "Buying Club" for order preparation.
QUESTION: Is this the least intrusive method and are there any downsides to the utilization of the Company column in this way? Or again, is there a better method?
Lastly, can anyone familiar with version 2.0 or later tell me if there are plans to include functionality that would accomplish either or both of these issues?
Thanks in advance.
Steven...