Troubles with BCS Engineering Advanced Filter Options
 

I just lodged the following support ticket with BCS Engineering, and I know it's the weekend, so I thought I'd see if anyone here has had a similar issue with the mod.

I installed it myself, but I'd one heaps of them before and it wasn't a hard one. Did I miss something in the install or are others having troubles?

Is there a more advanced filtering add-on to x-car than this? Ideally I'd like it to sort by price and when I have a filter of COLOUR, I can define the colour list and my staff choose it from a drop down box, not type it in by hand every time like they have to do with this one.

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I have a big problem with the Advanced Filter Options modification that I purchased recently. I successfully installed the software on my existing 4.1.11 store, went to MODULES > ADVANCED FILTER and set up a list of initial fields.

Brand | Volume | Lid Type | Diameter | Colour | Material | Insulation

I then had my staff set up the options for over 200 different products.
Once that was done, I moved on to the next group of products and attached some more fields to the list. I didn't touch any of the exisitng ones, I simply put the mouse at the END of the existing list and then added the new ones on.

The list now looks like this.

Brand | Volume | Lid Type | Diameter | Colour | Material | Insulation | Flavour | Product Type | Age Group

When going back to one of the 200 products we did initially, we noticed that the last field - INSULATION - was nowhere to be found. The first one, BRAND, was listed twice, and it had the original brand specs we put in along with the insulation specs in a second one.

This means that I now have to go and pay my staff to alter those 200 products again along with the 30+ that I did after I added the 'Flavour, Product Type and Age Group' to the list, because now I need to make the list longer.

This is a serious flaw in the software that is going to cause chaos. Is ther a bug fix so I don't have to go and alter all these products, and apart from putting a trailing | or a filter that we're never going to use at the end of the list, how do we get around this?

My store is a large one, and having to set these products more than once is going to cost me a lot of money.

My second problem is on the 4.4.3 install I have done, although I am about to trash that and install a fresh copy of 4.4.4

The initial problem as above is still present, but if I have a trailing | at the end of the list, I'm able to add new filters without destroying the entries for the last filter, but on 4.4.3, the filtering isn't working.

If you go to www.shopnaturally.com.au/443 (user & password will be given privately on request if you want to look - you can probably guess it if you want!), and go to the Popular Features category, I have set up 2 products, each with their own filter options. I've made it easy and put the filter options in the actual product names.

You'll see if you choose the blue colour filter, both the blue and the red products still show up. The filter just isn't working.

Is this a known bug? Is it fixed in 4.4.4? Is there a fix for the issue of the last item in the filter list being screwed up when you add another one?

We currently have 1,500 products in our store and we're doubling it in the next 6 months. This feature is absolutely vital to the store.

Re: Troubles with BCS Engineering Advanced Filter Options
 

After having a look at the Clever Filter from CartOnSteriods and a couple of others, which is the most advanced around?

Re: Troubles with BCS Engineering Advanced Filter Options
 

This mod reacted the same way for me as well. I finally decided to scrap it because it was a waste of time trying to get it working right. I originally purchased it for my 4.3.1 store, and it was buggy then too, but they finally got it to work. Installed upgrade on 4.4.2 and and it does the same thing that you mentioned above. I'm looking at other alternatives to this one.

Re: Troubles with BCS Engineering Advanced Filter Options
 

Just saw this post. I don't see where we've released any bug fixes recently. So drop us an email if you're having any bugs and we'll get them in our schedule to fix. I'm not aware of all the tickets there are out there so it may be in progress. Best to drop us a note to support.

Thanks,

Carrie

Re: Troubles with BCS Engineering Advanced Filter Options
 

We are thinking about purchasing this mod for automotive site but seems like there are bugs :(

Has this issue been resolved?
Has anyone else had good/bad results with this mod?

I've looked at this one too : http://www.*********.com/store/x-cart-mods/navigation/power-filter/ but on their admin/demo site it seemed kind of clunky.

Or this mod http://mods.x-cart.com/Make-Model-Year-feature.html , has anyone tried this one?

Please share your experiences.

Thank you.

Re: Troubles with BCS Engineering Advanced Filter Options
 

hi

it still feels quite buggy and now a bit behind the times which is a shame as its a great mod

several months ago maybe even a year ago now they added the menu version instead of form which was great

i think its missing the following with them it would be the best mod around as users seem to love filters

1. menu does not ajax filter it refresh only
2. you cant multi select ie i want to see products in blue and black only
3. menu don't work with smart search only form version

i am sure there are more but the world of filters is getting more advanced all the time and if they improved this most sites would have it and customers would be happy

a good version would be if you looked at

http://www.asos.com/Women/Coats-Jackets/Cat/pgecategory.aspx?cid=2641#parentID=Rf-200&pge=0&pgeSize=20&sort=-1

little things like multi select it blacks out options you cant have once you start selection stuff

its not pretty but the core functions are good this is what bcse needs todo make the core functions better and fix a few bugs

Re: Troubles with BCS Engineering Advanced Filter Options
 

That is unfortunate as we bought it couple of days ago since there are not many options out there and we need some kind of filter so users can find their products easier.

I have not installed yet as I'm adding bunch of products first before I make a database backup, than I'll test it.

I hope BCS fixes bugs and updates it soon , at $200 it is not that cheap mod.

Re: Troubles with BCS Engineering Advanced Filter Options
 

Have you guys communicated any of this directly with us? I don't remember seeing any of these issues or comments come in.

We are always open to improving modules when we're able to fit them in.

Thanks,

Carrie

Re: Troubles with BCS Engineering Advanced Filter Options
 

I'm a little confused here on the price tag? Our module is $99.95.

Always email us your suggestions and we can either put it into the module if many people request it or we can do custom work if that seems more appropriate.

Thanks,

Carrie

Re: Troubles with BCS Engineering Advanced Filter Options
 

i have told you of the issues with smart search and filter menu

all i got was that's a custom job

the other points i made is just showing the filter is now behind the times and i was hoping it would catch up feature wise

i am happy to pay for updated but not custom work when it says in your product details works with smart search it should say form version only

Re: Troubles with BCS Engineering Advanced Filter Options
 

Sorry Carrie my bad, I was thinking of different module, you are correct this mod is $99.
Like I said I have not installed yet as I want to add new products first and than make a DB backup before running sql patch. We'll see how it goes.

Re: Troubles with BCS Engineering Advanced Filter Options
 

I have finally installed the module but there is no place to add values in product_modify page in admin for created fields in mod options like it shows in screenshots on mod page (http://www.bcsengineering.com/store/advanced-filter-for-x-cart.html)?

The link to add fields shows up on customer side viewing the product? also not logged in shows them? that is not right.

From instructions:
"6. In skin/common_files/main/product_details.tpl, add:

{*BCSE Begin - Advanced Filter module*}
{if $active_modules.Advanced_Filter}
{include file="modules/Advanced_Filter/product_modify.tpl"}
{/if}
{*BCSE End*}

After:

{if $active_modules.Special_Offers}
{include file="modules/Special_Offers/product_modify.tpl"}
{/if}"

Is this code suppose to go somewhere else? like in product_modify.php inside admin folder maybe?


Thanks.

Re: Troubles with BCS Engineering Advanced Filter Options
 

I figured it out, file product_details.tpl needed to go to different folder.

I was putting it in skin/common_files/CUSTOMER/main/
instead of in skin/common_files/main/

Re: Troubles with BCS Engineering Advanced Filter Options
 

Has anyone tried to make a search box that would work from any page (not dependent on being on actual category page) and display advanced filter fields and their respective values?

Would that be possible with this mod?

Thanks.

Re: Troubles with BCS Engineering Advanced Filter Options
 

I have this on my site. I contacted BCSE to see if there was a way to have it on my homepage to start filtering from the start. I think that would be the way it should work for a automotive accessories site. I used to have a Make, Model, Year mod/filter on my previous site from Cart-Labs that did exactly that. Right on the homepage just below the menu you could start to filter products to your car. This one does not offer this.

If there is a better filter out there that someone is using please let me know. I don't want to spend all the time typing in filters into the database for all the products to just have to do it again with a better mod.

Re: Troubles with BCS Engineering Advanced Filter Options
 

KCAutosound,

Thanks for your input.
What did BCS tell you about that possibility when you contacted them?

I wanted to get Cart-Labs MMY mod but their website is down unfortunately. Does anyone know the status of Cart-Labs? are they just out of business?

On other hand I guess no matter what filter mod we use, still all products will need to have their MMY values specified somewhere for filter to pick it up, only we need for users to be able to filter from homepage or any page for that matter and not just from categories.

I'm also aware of QTs MMY mod but years ago they did similar mod for us (for xcart 4.1) and it was nothing but bugs and very slow.
Has anyone tried their latest mod?

Thanks.

Re: Troubles with BCS Engineering Advanced Filter Options
 

This is the message that I received from Gary jolley @ BCSE about having the filter on the homepage

"Hi Travis, the filter mod will only show on categories, manufacturer pages and search result pages. We would have to customize the mod to have it show on the home page."