I too am wresting with getting product options and javascript validation to work on the products.php/products.tpl page. This is much more complicated than I thought it would be, but if/when I've got it done, I'll post here.

I have built a mod to make the options appear on the products.tpl page. If you want to pm me I can give you a quote to put it in for you.

How about posting your code so everyone can benefit?