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VirtueMart multiple product enquiry - solution available or hack?
Posted on 2010-08-31
We have a VirtueMart / Joomla installation where clients might want to ask questions about multiple products as these products are used in combinations.
This would work in a similar manner to adding items to the cart with the exception that instead of going through the billing information / payment process the cart is sent as an email with user comment.
Question: Does VM support this natively, is there a module to add this or is a hack required?
One option is a wishlist module but from what I have seen of these they simply store wishlist items against your profile and don't provide functionality to send as an enquiry. They also require a logon - you cannot submit in guest mode.
The key here is being able to select multiple products for the same enquiry.
This would work in a similar manner to adding items to the cart with the exception that instead of going through the billing information / payment process the cart is sent as an email with user comment.
Question: Does VM support this natively, is there a module to add this or is a hack required?
One option is a wishlist module but from what I have seen of these they simply store wishlist items against your profile and don't provide functionality to send as an enquiry. They also require a logon - you cannot submit in guest mode.
The key here is being able to select multiple products for the same enquiry.
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4 Comments
WE have looked into this before
The solution we thought about which we didnt finish was use forester's wishlist mod hack
To be honest if the user is going to contact you regarding a product they will provide a username and an email to you for your reply, which can be grabbed and used to register an account automatically so I wouldnt worry about guests needing to register for this feature.
Guests can do it for a single product but for multiple you need to record what products they are interested in and only way is with it being recorded to a username, the bonus is they can login and buy their wishlist so your giving your clients a great service for a simple registration request.
Now the next bit
If you have a look at the code which allows you to send the wishlist to shopping cart when you select various products, you can copy this function, and at the point the function adds to bag after selecting all products simply grab the function code for the "ask us a question" and output the data through it instead. YOu can then add a link on the wishlist mod which is "ask us a question on selected items" o soemthing like that
THis shouldnt be too hard as you have both functions from VM core and the hacked WIshlist mod.
This was our plan when we were going to create this.
It might need a fine tune on the subject email output to add in extra lines for the other products but reeally all you need is for it to grab the product ID, and name and maybe description.
It doesnt need all the details as you will look this up when answering the customers queries
Storm
The solution we thought about which we didnt finish was use forester's wishlist mod hack
To be honest if the user is going to contact you regarding a product they will provide a username and an email to you for your reply, which can be grabbed and used to register an account automatically so I wouldnt worry about guests needing to register for this feature.
Guests can do it for a single product but for multiple you need to record what products they are interested in and only way is with it being recorded to a username, the bonus is they can login and buy their wishlist so your giving your clients a great service for a simple registration request.
Now the next bit
If you have a look at the code which allows you to send the wishlist to shopping cart when you select various products, you can copy this function, and at the point the function adds to bag after selecting all products simply grab the function code for the "ask us a question" and output the data through it instead. YOu can then add a link on the wishlist mod which is "ask us a question on selected items" o soemthing like that
THis shouldnt be too hard as you have both functions from VM core and the hacked WIshlist mod.
This was our plan when we were going to create this.
It might need a fine tune on the subject email output to add in extra lines for the other products but reeally all you need is for it to grab the product ID, and name and maybe description.
It doesnt need all the details as you will look this up when answering the customers queries
Storm
Active today
Thanks Storm,
Your answer is along the lines of what I suspected. My idea was (and I am not a VM expert) was to use the existing cart functionality from VM i.e. you add items to the cart as if to purchase and then at the check out stage have a button that says Product Enquiry.
This would load a custom module that would "access" the VM cart and pull the items from it and build a mail message which is then sent to the email address filled in by the person requesting the data in other words use the existing cart process but hijack it at the point you would normally go through the checkout process.
Given that you have obviously put some time into this already - do you think the above will work and if so is the method you propose above still a better solution?
Thanks again for comprehensive reply - I will close and allocate points after your next reply.
Your answer is along the lines of what I suspected. My idea was (and I am not a VM expert) was to use the existing cart functionality from VM i.e. you add items to the cart as if to purchase and then at the check out stage have a button that says Product Enquiry.
This would load a custom module that would "access" the VM cart and pull the items from it and build a mail message which is then sent to the email address filled in by the person requesting the data in other words use the existing cart process but hijack it at the point you would normally go through the checkout process.
Given that you have obviously put some time into this already - do you think the above will work and if so is the method you propose above still a better solution?
Thanks again for comprehensive reply - I will close and allocate points after your next reply.
Your reply would work but if the user changed there mind and wanted to e
remove an item thevwishlist would be the solution
Or you xould add to your custom mod anability to edit the list with checkboxes maybe
Storm
remove an item thevwishlist would be the solution
Or you xould add to your custom mod anability to edit the list with checkboxes maybe
Storm
Active today
Actually all we really need to do is a multi-product enquiry form - but I hear what you say - it might be nice for them to be able to store the "order" while enquiring about it and then "activate" it again when they want to purchase rather than having to add everything back again - in which case a wish list that is retained might be the answer.
Thanks - you have given me something to think about
Thanks - you have given me something to think about
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