We sell custom products that run on a production schedule. Products are assigned to a production batch and when a customer orders, we need to track which batch they ordered in and provide shipping timelines based on the next batch date from when they ordered.
For example, right now we may have a product listed for production on Jan 1. Any orders of that product before Jan 1 need to get tagged with that Jan 1 production date (and that's what we use to determine shipping timeline). On Jan 1, we will switch the next production date to Jan 15 and so on.
Our requirements:
- Provide the customer with a clear estimated ship date based on the next scheduled production date of that product at the time they ordered.
- Track product orders by production batch (what date did we promise this customer when they checked out?)
My current thinking is:
- Add a text attribute to these products with a complete/ship date with only one option available.
- Add a feature to production attributes where options can be disabled for selection.
- When a new batch is created, create a new default option for the complete/ship date; disable the old one for new orders
- Write custom code on checkout to show the correct estimated delivery date based on the production date of the purchased products and shipping method.
With this approach, the only change I need is the ability to disable product attribute options without deleting them.
Does anyone know a better way to make this work with minimal modifications to the NopCommerce system? Would the ability to disable product attributes without deleting them be a useful modification to the framework for other purposes?