Product Comparison feature

Hi Guys,

Did anyone started working on "Product Comparison" features?

If you've started already and willing to share with us. Please give us info of your plan.

I am about to work on this feature. And i already have an idea how to implement this, but if you already started working on this, why not let us work together? you might need a bit of help from us.

anyway if you have not started yet, here's my idea ( quick ones ).

Implement "Product Type" and their generic attributes. Product type would be very important. This is the feature where you assign product to a certain type. e.g computers/cellphones. I firmly believe that without this, product comparison might be half-baked. This is where we can compare apples to apples and not apples to orange.

You'd likely be adding a compare feature to a category list page. As a store owner you'd likely have categories like:

- Computers
- TVs
- Phones

So you'd already have a grouping of like-minded products wouldn't you?

Qphoria wrote:You'd likely be adding a compare feature to a category list page. As a store owner you'd likely have categories like:

- Computers
- TVs
- Phones

So you'd already have a grouping of like-minded products wouldn't you?

that will work too, but my intent is different. if you have to compare through "category" it will work -- but it is just a rough comparison, and not possible to some -- some shops categorize psp, xbox, iphone under "gadgets" category and comparing them is a bit off.

jaggy wrote: some shops categorize psp, xbox, iphone under "gadgets" category and comparing them is a bit off.

Sounds like the problem is their design.

I understand your point. But it seems for most category compare would be sufficient. That is technically the definition of a 'category'... you are categorizing items together to organize them.

People putting xbox and iphone under the same category is no different than someone selecting the same product type for toasters and alarm clocks. It's user error from the start.

But don't let me discourage you. If you want the type feature, then you could add that as part of your contrib.

From a design/implementation perspective, as well as someone who recently setup an online store for the first time even (what we don't do for relatives), I would suggest sticking with comparison within Category.

IMHO, it has the following advantages:
- Simpler design (already have Category menu and allocation of products to a category) and better separation of concerns (Category used to identify where the product belongs, while Compare is used to take action on the attributes of the products within a category)
- Fewer entries to maintain (and mess-up)
- Simpler interface for the user (with a new Product Type entry, the user would need to select products from potentially different areas of the site to compare - can be very confusing)

Regards,
YK