New Feature: Out of Stock Block

[mimib]

In the 4.8.1 Release notes (announcements) there is a mention of a new Out of Stock custom message feature.

712-i002 Product Page – outofstock_block
New START/END block to allow users to display custom messaging when an item is Out of Stock, the block is automatically removed if the item is In Stock. The block works with the total STOCK value of the product.

Anybody know what this is? I looked in the product (listing) page templates in the common folder and do not see anything which looks like this.

[wcsjohn]

It lets you add a custom out of stock message. If you have a custom theme, you won't see it in your template.

[Evolution]

It lets you add a custom out of stock message. If you have a custom theme, you won't see it in your template.

Wasn't that already available at the product level?

[cbsteven]

Yes, you could customize the "Out of Stock" string. I can see some uses for this though. Maybe a block of text that will explain how the backorder/waiting list system works, and that will only show up on the template of the item is out of stock.

[mimib]

It lets you add a custom out of stock message. If you have a custom theme, you won't see it in your template.

Thanks, but I know it's not in my custom templates; I have to get the code from the common folder (which has been updated) and copy into my custom templates As I said, "I looked in the product (listing) page templates in the common folder and do not see anything which looks like this."

I need to know what code to copy and an better explanation of what it does -- I may not want to bother copying it over if it's a feature we won't use. As Evolution and cbsteven pointed out, it sounds an awful lot like the out-of-stock message customization we've had for years. What's new about it?

[cbsteven]

As Evolution and cbsteven pointed out, it sounds an awful lot like the out-of-stock message customization we've had for years. What's new about it?

That's not quite what I said. I view it as a general out of stock block that applies to all products, and would supplement the old customization, which is set at the product level. I can see it being useful for some people.

[mimib]

Hopefully someone from 3dCart can give us a full explanation of this feature and tell us what the code is. I just spent over an hour online chatting with support and they were unable to find the code in the common folder listing templates either.

They have opened a ticked for me -- I'll let you know if I learn anything (unless someone from 3dCart explains it here first)

[rburton34]

It is definitely not in the common folders. I searched all Listing templates and dont see it in any of them.

[Evolution]

I had a very lengthy, and frustrating, ticket with support and in the end this is what I was told. His pasting comment was related to me pasting the description from the release notes.

"This is merely an improvement to the way an existing feature is handled in the code of the store. The functionality of the feature remains unchanged. (NOTE: What you are pasting is listed under the improvements section of the store release notes. This is not a new feature, rather it is an improvement upon an existing feature.)

What I have explained prior is how to use this feature, which while it was improved with the latest release of the 3dcart software; functionally speaking it remains unchanged."

So after about an hour I still have no clue what the improvement was but functionally, it doesn't seem to have any impact on what we were doing.

[jimmy3dcart]

This is simply a new HTML block, it's advanced in the sense that it would require the merchant to edit the HTML of the product page.

So, you would add something like,

<!--START: outofstock_block-->
This item is Out of Stock
<!--END: outofstock_block-->

The message could be anything you like, an image for example, javascript, jquery, or simply text.

Jimmy Rodriguez

[Evolution]

Jimmy,

What's the benefit of this?

Since editing the template means it's global for all products I have a hard time seeing why we'd use this instead of the out of stock message at the product level?

This is simply a new HTML block, it's advanced in the sense that it would require the merchant to edit the HTML of the product page.

So, you would add something like,

<!--START: outofstock_block-->
This item is Out of Stock
<!--END: outofstock_block-->

The message could be anything you like, an image for example, javascript, jquery, or simply text.

Jimmy Rodriguez

[cbsteven]

It is helpful if you want to do something fancy. Jimmy told me that he had one customer that used the block to trigger javascript which overlayed an "out of stock" message on the product image. This would make much more sense in a template change than a per-item field.

[Evolution]

That makes more sense.

Thanks for the info..

It is helpful if you want to do something fancy. Jimmy told me that he had one customer that used the block to trigger javascript which overlayed an "out of stock" message on the product image. This would make much more sense in a template change than a per-item field.

[MissHTML]

It is helpful if you want to do something fancy. Jimmy told me that he had one customer that used the block to trigger javascript which overlayed an "out of stock" message on the product image. This would make much more sense in a template change than a per-item field.

That sounds really interesting, having a javascript overlay a message. I will have to look into that.

[mimib]

Guess I got my answer! Thanks everyone.

p.s. I see that Jimmy has edited the description in the release notes. He added, "This field is not standard and only present when added by the merchant to the template."

Thanks, Jimmy. I'd also like to add that your explanation of Rich Snippets and the link to Henry's excellent KB article made the addition of microdata to my custom templates a breeze. Great job on that!