osCommerce Blog

Although the product attributes implementation has been replaced with the newer Product Variants feature, a new feature of the same title is being introduced to 3.0 Alpha 5 which deals with non-core related product data with a flexible and modular implementation.

This allows modules to be created to define new data parameters for a product which can easily be accessed via its module code.

Once a product attribute module has been installed via the Administration Tool (in the same manner payment and shipping modules are installed), its field is automatically added to the edit product page where the module controls the presentation of having its value defined.

This allows add-ons to be installed that add data fields to the product without the need to modify the edit product page in order to save the data in the database.

A minor change to the database class has also been performed to automatically bind the database table names in SQL queries which allows any database table to be accessed without the need to define it first in the includes/database_tables.php file. (This file will be removed in the 3.0 release)

Here is a short QuickTime movie showing the new Product Attributes feature with the following attribute modules:

1) Date Available (javascript controlled input field)
2) Manufacturer (pull down menu)
3) Shipping Availability (pull down menu)

osCommerce Online Merchant Product Attributes QuickTime Movie; 1.1MB

The product information page on the store front-end has also been updated to allow the dynamic product variant combination values to control certain data on the page, such as the product price and the product model.

osCommerce Online Merchant Product Info Page

The introduction of the new Product Attributes feature is currently defined for master products only, which product variants will use, and will be definable at the product variants level once the edit product page has been redesigned to handle the presentation of the data.