Displaying Prod Variant Attribute Values Dependant on Previously Selected Attribute Value...

Hello Everyone...

This one is driving me crazy, but I do have an easy way to explain the problem. Thanks in advance for your assistance with this. It may even be something worth building into one of the next releases...

Lets say you were selling Computers for example and offer two types of processors...
1. Intel
2. AMD

You've got two different motherboard optiions that you offer for each type of processor...
1. MB-NTEL1 -> for Intel
2. MB-INTEL2 -> for Intel
3. MB-AMD1 -> for AMD
4. MB-AMD2 -> for AMD

So we creeate a product and get into the product variant attributes and create the following attributes and values...
1. Processor (dropdown list)
    a. Intel
    b. AMD
2. Motherboard (dropdown list)
    a. MB-NTEL1 -> for Intel
    b. MB-INTEL2 -> for Intel
    c. MB-AMD1 -> for AMD
    d. MB-AMD2 -> for AMD

Here is my problem. Is there any way to populate the motherbaord selection dependant on what processor was selected. So when the page loads, the following is made available on the dropdown lists because Intel is the default value loaded by the dropdown list:

1. Processor (dropdown list)
    a. Intel < - Pre-selected on page load.
    b. AMD
2. Motherboard (dropdown list)
    a. MB-NTEL1 < - Pre-selected on page load.
    b. MB-INTEL2

And when the user selects AMD from the Processor dropdown list, motherboard dropdown list re-populates and shows only the motherboards for AMD...

1. Processor (dropdown list)
    a. Intel
    b. AMD  < - Selected by the user...
2. Motherboard (dropdown list)
    a. MB-AMD1 < - Pre-selected on page load.
    b. MB-AMD2

I know that I can create a product variant fore Intel, and another for AMD and then control the attribute options individually. My actual scenario is much more complex... In my case, it deals with a delivery service to schools. Each school has a different caledar that is stored in a custom table. The customer can purchase a week of service and each particular day has different options and price adjustments... This is why it would be way too many product variants. I had to build code that automatically populate the available "weeks", and "months" available in the school year as well as calculating the remaining days in the year to calculate today's price...etc...etc...

Like I said, it's complex. Luckily this is the last obstacle left for me to overcome. If anyone has any suggestions, it would be much appreciated. This is really the last piece of the puzzle holding me back.

Thanks again,

Jose

My personal opinion is that you implement an AJAX callback that uses the first attribute value as a criteria for the matching of the next attribute.

I hard coded mine at www.JacksonvilleTires.com which allows for a Year Make Model search for a vehicle which only shows the relevant values in each based on the selected value.

If I were to implement this in a non-hard-coded way, you would have to have a crosslink table added to the database that establishes a "parent - child" relationship between two separate attributes.... not pretty.. particularly when attribute values can vary by product.

Jared Nielsen
www.FUZION.org

Hi Jared Nielsen,
I have the similar requirement for a tire shop can you please explain  how you have defined the products and how the search functionality on the Home page of http://www.jacksonvilletires.com works?

Your help is really appreciated.

Regards,
Hemant