The section on Creating Choices tells you how to create attributes and choices within a product. These choices will not affect price, and will not affect the stock levels of any other products within the store.
If you want these choices to affect price etc. then you need to create a component within the product (see What Are Components?) and then create your attributes and choices within the component.
Note: If you have already got attributes within a component, then you will need to drag and drop these out of the way temporarily before you will be able to create the component.
Create the component as described in What Are Components? and then create attributes and choices within the component as described in Creating Choices.
Once you are ready, double-click on the component.
A possible selection that a customer can make from a set of attributes and choices online is referred to within Actinic as a 'permutation'.
Switch to the 'Permutations' tab. This is where you can assign properties to all the permutations within the component.
Note: Notice that your attributes are automatically entered as column headings within the grid.
There are two ways to create a permutation:
1. Create permutations one at a time.
· Click the '+' in the top-left of the grid to create an empty permutation row, and then select the choices for this permutation from the drop-down lists. The advantage of this is that if you have two attributes, and the second one does not affect anything, then you can select 'Any Choice' for the value of the second attribute.
2. Automatically list all available permutations.
· Click 'Fill List' to do this.
The settings available for a permutation are as follows:
|
Field |
Meaning |
|
[Attribute Name] The value of this depends on the attributes you have created within the component. |
Within this field you can select the choice that will be used within this permutation. You can also select 'Any Choice' if the choice made for this attribute online will not affect anything. |
|
Valid |
De-select this box if you wish to temporarily or permanently stop the permutation from being available. The buyer is warned of this when they attempt to add the permutation to their cart. |
|
Pricing |
There are three options in this list: Component Prices - The permutation will use the price entered within the 'Component' tab (Catalog) or 'Prices' tab (Business/Designer) of the component. Override - The permutation will use the price entered into the 'Price' field for the permutation. Associated Product Prices - The permutation will use the price of the product selected in the 'Product' field. |
|
Price field Permutation Prices area |
Enter a price for the permutation. This field is only active if the 'Pricing' field is set to 'Override'. If you are using Actinic Business/Designer, you can use the 'Prices' area for setting up quantity-based pricing and customer-based discounts. See Quantity-Based Pricing and Customer Groups for more. |
|
Product |
This is where you can select a product in your store to associate with the permutation. This will mean that when customers select this permutation, the stock levels of the associated item will be decreased when the order is retrieved. The way products appear in this is determined by how you are displaying product references. See the note at the end of Supplying Additional Items With A Product for more info on this. |
|
Name From Associated Product |
Select this box to use the name of the associated product in the shopping cart (instead of the name of the component, attributes and choices). It will also use the associated product name in the order processing system. |
|
Tax From Associated Product This is only available if ' Component as Separate Order Line' is selected within the 'Component' tab. |
Select this box if you want to permutation to use the tax status of the associated product. For example if the main product is exempt from tax, but the associated product is taxable then you will need to select this box. |
|
Shipping from Associated Product |
Select this box to allow the option to be treated as a separate product for shipping purposes. The result of this is that if either 'Quantity' or 'Category' is being used for the basis of shipping calculation, the option will count as extra quantity. For more details on shipping calculation bases, see Calculation Basis For Shipping. In addition, the shipping/handling supplements from the associated product will be applied. For more details on shipping supplements, see Product Shipping Details. |
|
Barcode Requires 'Actinic EPOS Link' to be selected in 'Business Settings | Options'. |
If the main product (the product that this component is within) has 'Share with Actinic EPOS' selected, you have the option to transfer each permutation to Actinic EPOS as a unique 'Barcode Record'. To do this, enter a barcode within the permutation rows of the permutations you would like to transfer to Actinic EPOS. More details about linking are in Transferring Products to Actinic EPOS. |
Once you have set up your permutations, switch to the 'Component' tab to configure exactly how the choices available will be presented to your customers.
You can delete a permutation by clicking the arrow sign next to the name to be deleted and press the keyboard [Delete] key.
Once you have created attributes and choices within a component, then the settings within the 'Component' tab and 'Prices' tab start to take on a slightly different meaning to how they are described in Supplying Additional Items With A Product.
|
Field |
Meaning |
|
Component Name |
The name of the component as it will appear in the shopping cart and the order. This will be added just in front of your attribute and choice details. If you select 'Use Associated Product Name' (within the 'Permutations' tab) then the name of the associated product will be used in the shopping cart and in the order processing. |
|
Price field (Catalog) Prices tab (Business/Designer) |
Enter a price for the component. This price will only be used if the 'Pricing' field of a permutation is set to 'Component Prices'. If you are using Actinic Business/Designer, you can use the 'Prices' tab for setting up quantity-based pricing and customer-based discounts. See Quantity-Based Pricing and Customer Groups for more. |
|
HTML for Name |
Use this field to determine how the component will be labelled in the store pages. If you leave this blank, then nothing about the component will appear in the store page - only the details of the attributes and choices will appear. You can add HTML into this field by using 'Embedded HTML' - see Embedding HTML for details. |
|
Quantity Used |
Decide how many instances of the attribute/choice selection made you want to supply with each product. |
|
Component as Separate Order Line |
Select this box if you want the component to appear within its own separate line in the shopping cart, and in the Actinic order processing system. If you do not select this box then the details about the component will just appear as part of the product name. Also, if you do not select this box, you will not be able to select 'Use Associated Product Tax' within the 'Permutations' tab. |
|
Is Optional |
This box determines whether the component is optional or not. This means that it becomes optional whether or not the customer has to make a selection from your attributes and choices. If you are just using the component to supply choices with a product automatically, then leave this box unselected. |
|
Selected By Default |
If the component is optional, then you can select this box in order to have the component selected by default. |
|
Include [None] In Attribute Choice List |
If you only have one attribute within a component, then the option of not having the component can be included as an option in the list of choices. Change 'None' to however you want your 'no-selection' choice to appear. |