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By MDeBaise - Tue 2 Oct 2012
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Hello all. I am new to this open source software and have been working with it all morning. I am looking for a configurator that is more like a quote building tool instead of an order building tool. Can Kartris be transformed to be used to quote the build of an entire product.
Example:
Instead of selecting products from a menu, I would rather it always start you at step one and go through a series of substeps. Like building a car.
Select a Chassis > Display options
Select an exterior color > Display options
Select an Interior > Display options {(show limitations) maybe charcoal interior is only available with a red exterior color}
Select a Radio > Multiple Options
etc, etc, etc.
Is this something I can transform this package into doing without too much work? Any thoughts would be great and thank you in advance for your time!
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By Paul - Wed 3 Oct 2012
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Kartris 1.4 does support 'custom controls' which I think is what you would need. It requires some experience of ASP.NET coding to do this though. The idea is that you create a custom user control that handles creating the item's price and description, etc. and these values then get passed over to the basket and on to checkout.
A couple of examples we've built for clients (or are presently building):
- configurator for plastic signage - the custom control uses an Excel spreadsheet with named ranges for the choice of plastics, the prices, thicknesses available, and max and min dimensions possible, so the custom can update the spreadsheet to add or remove options and change prices in the future
- configurator for curtains/blinds - custom enters height and width required, and type of curtain or blind and the system looks up the appropriate material and labour costs (again from an Excel spreadsheet) to formulate an item which can be added to basket
The name of the custom control is then specified in the 'object config' within a new product that is setup (the custom control object config setting).
We tend to use Excel as it's convenient for customers to change, but you could get price and info from any data source - an XML file, a web service, another database or new db table, etc.
So it's totally possible to write a multi-stage configurator as a custom control and then when you have the final item description/details and price, have an 'add' button to place the configured item in the basket where it can be purchased.
If you look in the default kartris zip, the user controls folder has a couple of simple custom controls in it to demonstrate how this works. We're working in improved online documentation at the moment using tomeCMS (www.tomeCMS.org) which should be online shortly.
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