X-Cart:Feature Comparison

Overview

X-FeatureComparison enables your customers to use feature-based comparison service.

Unless a customer comes to your store with his mind set on a specific product, he is likely to browse and compare different products trying to determine which product will be right for him.

Feature-based comparison service facilitates the process of choosing the right thing by a customer: the user enters a desired combination of features, and the system then determines the product or products that provide that combination. For instance, if a customer is looking for a mobile phone, but is not yet sure as to its model, he can pick the desired mobile phone features (e.g., dual or triple band, light weight, replaceable covers, or programmable ringtones) and immediately buy the phone that matches the requirements. Visitors can also pick a product and compare it side by side with other products, so the customer can pick a product that he likes, and then compare other products against it to see if there are any better choices.

Using X-FeatureComparison module provides the store admin/provider users with the following abilities:

• to group products into product classes
• to define features specific to product classes
• to assign class-specific features to products
• to create multilingual names for product classes and class-specific features.
• to search for products by their product class

The customers get the ability:

• to search for products by features
• to compare products of the same class with one another

Installation

To install the module you have to perform the following actions:

1. Download the module distributive (x-fcomp-x.y.z.tgz, where x,y,z are the numbers of the module version) from File Area section of your X-Cart Account. 2. Uncompress the x-fcomp-x.y.z.tgz file and copy the files to X-Cart directory.

Note: Please make sure you keep the directory structure during unpacking and uploading, otherwise some necessary files can be overwritten!

3. Run in the browser the installation script http://www.yourhost.com/xcart_dir/install-xfcomp.php 4. Enter your authentication code, accept conditions of the License Agreement and click Next.

Note. The authentication code is issued on completion of X-Cart installation. It is used to prevent unauthorized re-installation of X-Cart and to install X-Cart modules (if you decide to purchase them). If you forgot the code, you may look it up at any time in include/install.php file.

5. Installation script will copy the files and make all the necessary changes in the database. 6. After module Installation is completed, you need to log in as Admin and

• enable Feature Comparison from the Modules section
• set the module options in General settings/Feature Comparison options.

X-Cart Gold and Pro module installations do not differ.

Configuring settings

To set up the options affecting the work of Feature Comparison module in your store:

1. Select General settings from the Administration menu.
2. Click the Feature Comparison options link in the section menu.
3. Set up the following options:

• The product class image width in the product classes list: Set the desired image width in pixels.
• Enable adding products to comparison lists for further comparing: Select this check box if you want to enable your customers to add products they want to compare to a special list appearing in the 'Comparison list' box in the menu column. If you leave this check box unselected, the link 'Add to comparison list' will not be displayed, so there will be no way for your customers to use the 'Comparison list' box.
• Enable feature-based search: Select this check box to allow your customers to search for products, possessing the specified features.
• The maximum number of products in the comparison list in the menu column: Specify the maximum number of products which a customer will be allowed to add to the Comparison list.
• Maximum number of products which can be shown on the feature-based comparisons page and on the Product details page in the form of a select box: If the quantity of products for comparison exceeds the number specified here, product selection will be done in a popup window: Specify the maximum number of products for comparison that will be able to appear in a select box.
• Maximum number of products which can be compared: Specify the maximum number of products that a customer will be allowed to compare at a time.

Click Save to apply the changes.