Strategy for product inventories?

Sunday 27 April 2003 11:51:05 am

Wondering what the best / intended approach would be for handling a product inventory with content classes?

The choice seems to be either;

- create a Product class then publish multiple objects from that class

- create an integer "Quantity" field in the Product class then use it to keep track of the current inventory of any given Product object

The inventory needs to be manageable in that you can get a summary of how many of each product is available at any given time which would seem to suggest the later choice. If so, am I correct in thinking this would be a place to apply a trigger, so that on purchase the trigger checks / updates the current inventory?

Sunday 27 April 2003 9:45:16 pm

Define "content classes" so we know what you're trying to define for your inventory. Is it like "Cups", with many products which are different types of cups? Or "Hello Kitty Cups" and a few variations of the same cup (colors)? Or "Dixie Chicks Cup", with a single style and one "object" for each single cup in inventory? Or "DVD" and "VHS" classes, with product "Star Wars" having different quantities in both classes?

You'll have to clarify why "The choice seems to be either", and why your problem does not allow every Product to have a Quantity, and why you might have any products which are not in a single Product class.

(That's odd -- the New Reply button emits an invalid URL)

I see your replies -- a Pet Store could use either Cats/Siamese/Quantity (or Insects/Mealworms/Pounds) or Cats/Siamese/Number18. A supplier who merely has to send six cats of a type to a pet store could use just a Quantity. A pet store might get better results by showing information about each individual cat, such as pictures and descriptions. Whether to call a cat "Number18" or "Mittens" depends on the pet store's policies...and whether there is a registered pedigree with a name involved.

(As for shipping: You shop based on your criteria, other people have other situations. Maybe the pet store doesn't ship but people can see what is available and come to the store to check the emotional appeal. The emotions which our mammalian brains share are an important part of the relationship with pet mammals. Or maybe a customer can't find a hairless Manx nearby and must get one from a distant source. Good thing somebody shipped horses, cows, and corn between continents sometime so they are available. Shall we discuss whether cows rule the world and have trained us well to take care of them and increase their numbers?)

Monday 28 April 2003 2:37:33 am

I suppose in your very case, it would be better to have an object for each pet cause they aren't like commodity items ; they all look different, so you can actually have customers looking at the pictures of an individual pet...

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Monday 28 April 2003 8:16:30 am

I know this is off topic, but personally, I have my problems about selling pets over the net anyway. I mean I can understand pet supplies, but life animals I don't think should be sold over the net. Or shipped at all, for that matter.

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