Is there a place for part number (sku)?

Hello and please pardon my ignorance. I've looked through all the documentation, reviewed this forum and looked at various live sites, but haven't come to a conclusion about my question yet.

Besides being able to record various product options for the customer to select (eg size, color, qty, etc), is there any way to record the part number that is associated with each choice the customer makes? I am not interested in displaying the part number to the customer, but after the sale, the part number is necessary to complete the transaction. So I'm looking for a place that this info is maintained. But I haven't found it yet.

Can anyone help me find what I'm failing to find?

Thank you, Gary Rhoades

Gary, usually the part number is usually stored in the 'model' field. It is recommended you use this for the sku as all sku's are unique, a requirement of the 'model' field.

Thank you for the response. However, I'm not sure if your suggestion is a work-around, or recommended practice. Let me illustrate the need with a common example.

Say I sell a specific model of t-shirt that comes in 3 colors and 4 sizes, for a total of 12 unique part numbers. I don't want to create 12 products to capture 12 unique part numbers in the model field.

I know some merchants reduce this problem by associating one selectable property (size) with three fabricated product variations, say Red Shirt, Blue Shirt, Green Shirt. Instead of having one model, they synthesize three models, but this still isn't ideal, because the cart design doesn't reflect reality, and it makes the product manager go thru hoops to fix it.

If Opencart doesn't support part numbers for a set of attribute permutations within one model, then so be it. I'm just trying to understand if that is the case, or I'm simply lost.

However, IMHO, without support for product variations at the sku level, it's suitability as a production cart is severly reduced.

Thanks again.

Well if I understand correctly, you need a sku to go with each of the "options" applied to go with each product. But obviously do not want to create lots of products for these values.

I only have a limited knowledge of OpenCart (using it for roughly a week), and I cannot see a way of doing it with the default setup. however, I can say that a workaround can be available, and may be easier than you think.

For example, when adding a name to an "option value" you can add a name for each language. So if you had a duplicate english language, renamed it to sku then you can store this value, people will not be able to see it but the value will still be there.

Other than that you would have to add a new field, like sku for each option value and this could easily be stored in the option_value_description table in the database.

Thank you for the clever suggestion. I tried it, and can see how it might work in a pinch, but it's really not the right way to address the issue. Daniel wrote me to say that he would put support for product numbers in a future update, so I'll wait until then to see how that solution works.
Thanks, Gary

I have already done the coding for sku and location fields in the admin.

should this be included when you see the invoice?

Daniel -

Thank you for the quick response on this. It would be very nice if the display of the part number (and other attributes associated with the product/model) was configurable. A case could made to show it, and not to show it. So I think each merchant would have their own reason and preference.

Product attributes, like part number, have value to different aspects of the product fulfillment flow. Not all have the same relevance at each step, so it's not necessary to show all on every display or report. For example, Location (I assume this means the shelf on which it is stored) is useful for the clerk picking parts off shelves. But it wouldn't be useful to include location info on the customer invoice.

There are numerous other attributes that could be defined for products, that have value for other nodes in the product flow (eg oversize, overweight, fluid, hazardous, fragile, customs content description, etc.) The ideal condition would be to have the attributes (and the characteristics of the attributes, such as when and where to display/print/report) defined by the merchant.

I know this adds a bit more complexity to the code, but I think the need justifies the effort. I'd do myself if I could.

Thanks for your excellent work. Gary

Hi

I am on V 1.3.4. Is a an SKU per option already integrated or is it still in the development stage? I can't see anything resembling an SKU under options.

I too badly need the option to be able to attach an SKU number to each option, as these are different products from an ordering (from my suppliers) and stock keeping point of view. E.g. I sell canoe peddles in 5 sizes. If I can't attach an SKU number to each size I will have to create 5 different products with the same descriptions etc. etc but only a different size and SKU number. And that is the case with dozens and dozens of products.

There is an evil genius way to do this also
make an empty text box, in your options field, and populate it with the choices sku using jquery later.
you can change it in your css as a hidden field
when you are inputting say option colors input them as pink - sku number, before the option is displayed
split the option and display only pink, and store the sku number in the empty textbox.

sorry if my english is bad