custom product layout problem

  • I have a website selling sheet music, using Sellerdeck e-commerce software. I want to know whether it could be recreated in WordPress.

    There is one specific layout problem, which is tricky to explain, but it’s illustrated in the link to a catalogue entry for Elgar’s Serenade for Strings. Customers can order the conductor’s score and whatever quantities they need of the individual parts.

    The catalogue entry for viola parts, for example, reads:

    “viola….o-0199-va…..￡0.40…..Quantity….”

    There are six lines like that, and below them an Add to Cart button.

    Note that the catalogue entry doesn’t include the title of the work. It would be incredibly clumsy if each line had to include the words “Elgar, Edward, Serenade for Strings, Op.20” – which is exactly what a colleague of mine is having to do in a WordPress-powered site selling similar stuff. And it IS incredibly clumsy.

    On my Sellerdeck site the basic identity of the word is given in a heading which appears above the list of parts. The heading is in two lines:

    “Elgar, Edward – Serenade for Strings in E minor, Op.20
    Parts and conductor’s score – New 2013”

    In Sellerdeck, technically, that head is a Product, but a special layout has been created for it which does not allow it to be ordered. Because of course you cannot buy a serenade. You can only buy the pieces of paper that allow you to play it.

    There’s more to it than that and I could go into details of how it’s done in Sellerdeck but they wouldn’t necessarily be applicable to WordPress. At this point I just need to know whether that appearance and that functionality can be achieve in WordPress.

    Here is the entry on my website.

    • This topic was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by Jan Dembowski.
    • This topic was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by Jan Dembowski.

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

  • Hi,

    I think I understand what you trying to achieve. It’s possible but you would need to use the eCommerce plugin WooCommerce.

    When you create a product it would need to be a ‘Grouped Product’ with simple products assigned.

    You would have something similar to the following.

    Group Title: Bach, J.S. – Brandenburg Concerto No.1 in F
    Simple Product: wind & continuo o-0006-w ￡5.20
    Simple Product: piccolo violin o-0006-vp ￡1.20

    Also worth mentioning as these simple products will be light in terms of content so I’d suggest setting them to ‘hidden’ so they aren’t directly accessible.

    Hopefully, that will point you in the right direction. If you have any other questions just let me know.

    Thanks,
    Martyn

    Thread Starter dingxiaohan

    (@dingxiaohan)

    Thank you, that offers hope. The ‘simple products’ don’t need to be hidden, in fact, since the customer has to specify the number of copies required of each part.

    A few more questions:

    I assume it would be possible to create separate styles for Group and Simple products, so that the Group line stands out as a heading.

    The next thing that occurs to me (bear in mind that I have no experience whatever of WordPress e-commerce) is what information the customer would get after ordering. In Sellerdeck the details of the order would be spelt out in two emails, one on ordering, the other on despatch. The ‘simple’ product, as displayed on-screen, is identified only by its catalogue number, which wouldn’t mean much in an email, in the absence of the “Group Product” information. Sellerdeck gets round this by allowing for a ‘short description’ and a ‘full description’ for every product. In the case of the “simple product” the ‘short description’ is what appears on the screen. The ‘full description’ includes the title of the work. This is hidden on screen, but it’s what goes to the customer in the email. So:

    “viola…..o-0475-va……￡0.40………..” (viz. “Full description…..Product reference…..Price…..”)

    is what appears on the screen, and

    “Elgar – Serenade for Strings in E minor, Op.20 – viola” (Short description)

    is what goes in the emails to the customer.

    Is there a way of doing that in WordPress / WooCommerce ?

    John Harding

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • The topic ‘custom product layout problem’ is closed to new replies.