Refine Filters module released
 

Hi folks,

we are glad to finally announce our Refine Filters for X-Cart.

http://www.x-cart.com/sites/default/files/modules/filter_image-1.png

Customer demo
Admin demo :: Catalog :: Refine Filters :: iGoods->Mac

A lot of efforts was put into designing and development of the module. We focused on making it as easy as possible to set up. To be more certain, you do not need to create all those filters and attributes and assign it to products. Instead, it utilizes already existing extra fields, product options, variants and even Feature Comparison classes. Still it's possible to create special classes for filters - there is page for this in admin area.

Since the module is quite complex we realize that there may be some bugs but we are going to fix it in a timely manner. Do not hesitate to post bugs here or to your HelpDesk accounts. Your improvement ideas are also welcome. Our aim is the ultimate filtering add-on so we are not going to stop developing it.

We'd like to thank ADDISSON for his invaluable help in designing and testing the module.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

Thank you. But what I did for this important module is very small comparing with your work (my idea about a filtering module from scratch to final work + impressions after testing). The "dirty" job is made by developers, and I would like to thank you all for doing this. I am offering my volunteer work to anyone interested to make XC one of the best platform for e-commerce in the world. It really deserves to be.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

Of course we have to improve the user interface, finding bugs.

Please note in Admin -> Catalog, the last two menu items are missing (both for filtering). I have white space, but there are links moving the mouse over.

>> update: check the menu from Home page, just after you enter in Admin area.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

It's a know bug of our demo, not the module buth thanks anyway. We will fix it.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

It is great you show the attributes which are not available in some combinations. You made them gray, but do not allow check for them. It is sad to check a box in a filter and see "0 product found". I already know that looking of the color of the attribute. Do not allow checking. You will get a full report for all issue I found in about 10 days. As I read from your post, you continue the work to this module after releasing which is great.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

There is something I do not quite understand about this module: It is said it works with product variants but does it?

Lets create a product that has option class "size" populated with S,M,L. Now lets make it as variants and put 0 in size S - (somebody has just bought your last S). X-cart shows S properly as "out of stock". But one can still filter by size S and get this product listed, even if "in stock only" checkbox is checked.

It does not make much sense for me - I believe if a customer wants to find size S, he should get products that have S available, especially with "in stock only" checked. He filters for S that is in stock, right? Or am I missing something?

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

@not_so_young_greg: I suggested Qualiteam to show all filter attributes. Once you make a selection the others remain visible (gray as texts), but they should be disable as checked (this will avoid situation like checking and getting 0 results - which is stupid. filtering is based on real figures - just see Excel for example).

This module will get more features soon as Qualiteam says, and an user manual too. Please share your opinion here for discussions. Qualiteam will reply you, I am only the person who's testing this module and suggesting issues/improvements.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

A very important issue is related to Price min-max inputs. Refine Filters should work with X-MultiCurrency. For the moment it is not working.

If you set up 3 currencies, first time you will see $ in price range. But if you change front-end currency to Euro, price ranges remain in USD. Normally if you change the currency, the values in price ranges should change according, from minimum price to the maxim one.

Personally I get rid of symbol $ near input boxes (imagine some currencies are not just one symbol, but letter. But I will update in Filter name, just after Price, inside round brackets, the currency, based also on Front-end currency (e.g. Price (Euro), Price ($), Price ($). In this way it is a clean design, intuitive, which not consuming space (inserting for example USD near input boxes, will brake the layout, imagine how annoying is when changing currencies).

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

>> There is an issue with Assigning product class in product management page. I created before a filter class named Fabric, I would like to assign it, but after I push [Apply] still Undefined, even the filter class is in selector.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

I've registered it as a feature to our internal bug-tracker. Most likely we will add a setting for it disabled by default. There are many popular filters which allow narrowing the list down to zero. Since it's a real-time information it does not cause much confusion.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

Thanks for noticing it. Actually, this is a tricky issue. Let me try to explain.

Imagine there are two classes with two options each, combined in four variants. For example,

Color: Red, Green
Size: S, L

the resulting variants are:

Red S
Red L
Green S
Green L

Now, let's say "Red S" variant is out of stock. How in this case should the filtering behave? In fact, there is no problem if the filters selection is as follows:

Color: Red
Size: S

In this case we can disable "In stock only" filter but what if it's chosen like:

Color: [not selected]
Size: S

or

Color: Red, Green
Size: S

Should it disable "In stock only" filter in these particular cases? It's a hard question, isn't it?

This is a very basic variants example. Imagine, there are 10 classes with 10 options each. A customer will have to choose one and only one attribute from each variants-related filter to have "In stock only" react basing on variants stock levels.

Nevertheless, I've registered this in our bugtracker - we will think what can be done here. Your suggestions will be much appreciated.

Thank you.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

I've registered this bug. We hadn't have a chance to check the compatibility with all paid add-ons before the release.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

This is something strange. It works fine at our installations. I suggest you to post a support ticket to helpdesk. Please make sure we have an up-to-date access to your server.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

Yes. In this case if "in stock only" is checked it should show nothing. If is unchecked,should show Red S

In my opinion: In your first example color: [not selected] it should show Red S and Green S, if "only in stock" is unchecked. Otherwise should show only Green S.
If a customer wants Red and Green in size S (quite common I think), the filter should behave alike: if "in stock only" is checked, shows Green S (Red S is out of stock), otherwise shows both items.
I perfectly know from my experience that variants are confusing and power-consuming.
But what is actually funny is that every filter I have had a look at, had "filter by size" option, obviously designed for apparel stores. And they were all based on option classes, disregarding availability.
But we all know that when a clothing store owner buys a jacket, he buys sizes S,M,L,XL,XXL etc., at least in most cases. And soon he ends up with only L in stock, the thing cannot be reordered because it is last fall collection and so on.

In a case like this filtering by size is useless since most items have all the sizes. If a customer searches for size L, he definitely should have an option "show only what is in stock".
Otherwise this filter is good only for people who search for a quadruple L or XXS - sizes that are not so common.
And adding "in stock only" filter is only confusing because apparently it does not filer by availability.

By the way: what is this filter for? To show in-stock items when "show out of stock items" is checked in apperance settings?

But thanks for your answer. I know you guys will come up with a good solution soon.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

Did you check your public demo? In my case it has the same issue.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

Hello Thanks for the great module.

I love how it can pick up your variants however I have found a issue I can not solve.

Example

I sell some motorcycle helmets and we have the following sizes
S
XS
M
L
XL
XXL

When the variants display on the filter page it displays them in ABC order I need them to display from S to XXl

How do you set the positions to display on items you need NOT by ABC


Thanks

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

I'm guessing this module won't be available for 4.4.X ?

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

Sure, we will do our best to find the best solution. Thank you.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

It's even more strange now :) We will take a look what the problem is.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

For now, it's not possible to sort attributes and we now realize that it is a problem. ADDISON already pointed this issue out so we planned to implement the sorting ability. It will be included into the module soon.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

We plan to release Refine Filters for 4.4 branch by the end of February.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

We've fixed it. RF packages for all versions are re-uploaded to File Area.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

Question: Feature Comparison module creates in the same way classes like Refine Filter module. If FC is installed is it necessary to use internal Refine Filter class creator? You just offered this feature for those who are not using Feature Comparison.

More thoughts are needed about this info.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

Exactly! Filter classes are basically a clone of Feature Comparison functionality.

However, it may be used together if, for example, a merchant doesn't want to use his FC classes for filtering or there is no FC module at all but extra fields and variants in not an option for some reason.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

One thing no one has thought about is duplicate content in Google and the affect on your SEO.

If the filters created their on additions on the page url then it would significantly increase your Google ranking and traffic. At the moment the filters will be indexed by Google and give you loads of duplicate content for the same category url.

I have worked with the guys at Cart on Steroids to modify their filters to give the perfect set of seo urls.

Power Filters from ********* gave us thousands of long tail links for virtual categories that we added virtual SEO and meta data to which increased our Google traffic significantly but the urls weren't great. I know the new version just out has fixed that issue but I was already on a journey with Clever Filters.

When I have finished I will have thousands of virtual categories with SEO and Meta data and perfect SEO urls to those categories which will get indexed by Google.

If this was done to X-carts version then it would be worth looking at but at the moment it is nothing new to the market. It does nothing that any of the other filters out there can already do.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

I do recommend these features for next versions:

- WEIGHT. This is an important field that could be used to create automatically a filter. Please take in consideration Enable/Disable for it in module configuration.

- NEW ARRIVALS. I got a notification you improved X-Notifications according to my requests. One is Mark as NEW from time to time. Please use this new field for creating a filter named NEW ARRIVALS.

- There is an option in module configuration [Show filters classes info at product details]. As it is now it is applying to all products. We have to control every product showing. I recommend when you assign a class to a product, to have a check box also Enable/Disable [Show filter classes info in product details]. This should be related to module configuration. If in module settings it is enabled, to have it enabled in product management filter class. If disabled in module settings, disable in product management too.

>> If you allow me, this module is very promising and I do recommend it. If the team will continue its work to get it in the best shape, XC will have one of the best filtering module on the market comparing with other carts. Just look who primitive is filtering in Magento comparing with Refine Filters.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

But there is no thought about adding SEO urls so it has a long way to go to be any good.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

Thank you for pointing this out, philrisk. Although, we have already planned implementing SEO URLs for Refine Filters, your experience in this field may help us to create even greater product. So if you wish to take part in creation of an ultimate filtering facility for X-Cart and improving the whole platform, feel free to write your thoughts to vladimir.gritsenko@x-cart.com

Thank you in advance.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

Hi Vladimar.

That would be good. I have done a lot of development on this with Clever Filtres and our SEO company to get it just right. I will drop you an email of what we have done.

Cheers
Phil

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

Hi ADDISON,

Thank you for ideas.


Planned for future releases.



There are some difficulties with this but we understand that it's necessary so planned to think on it.




I am not sure it's needed on a per-product basis. Please could you describe a real use case?

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

A recommendation that I have is that the filtered out options should not be displayed in the filter option after you have applied selected options. For example in the demo say I selected desktop then notebook should not be still displaying in the filter option.


If you are going to keep it the way you have it I would recommend that the filter option is displayed without clicking on show at the bottom. So once you select a particular filter option say desktop the page loads desktop.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

It is great you can see the other filter attributes, but they should be disabled from clicking (and text in grey color). Hiding them you won't see what other combinations you could do, in case you didn't find one you want. Always the whole filter situation should be reset and you have to read all attributes again. Imagine that this is time consuming and annoying.

Refine Filter could have an option to hide the attributes (Enable/Disable), for requests like yours, but over a while you will migrate to show all attributes, trust me.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

@Vladimir: As I understand [Show filters classes info at product details] means to show one filter class with its attributes in product page. If I am right, the request bellow means to avoid showing a class in product page. Just give you an example: I have a class named Fabric with attributes like Membrane (Yes/No), Waterproof (Yes/No), Windproof (Yes/No) and so on. In product description all these information are described in details. I need this filter class only for filtering. And it is easy to do, if you see my implementation.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

Do you mean to completely hide the options which are just grayed out now?



Thank you. We will consider this idea.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

Adrian, there is already an option to have filter classes info disabled at a product details page. As I understand you offered to have such an option on a per-product basis. In other words, to show it for some products and to hide for others. If I got your idea properly, I do not think it's necessary. No real use case comes to my mind.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

Once I get a real situation I will let you know. It is not hard to use a check box in product management page to show filter class in details. Anyway it is something I can do by my own ;-)

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

Yes

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

>>> PRODUCT LOGIC ISSUE 1

1) I created a product class named ProductType.
2) ProductType class has only one option called Type. For this option type is [Multiple option selector]. Variants in total are 50 (stove, tent, canister, mug, ...).

3) I have a category named Camping which has 25 products.
4) For these products I have to allocate a filter class, the one created above ProductType.

5) Inside this category I will select for those 25 products only 5 variants in different combinations to be used.

ISSUE: As it is now, in Front-End Refine Filters module will show in category Camping all ProductType variants, 50 as number, instead only those 5 variants I used.

For the moment RF shows them and it is space content consuming and also stupid as behavior to show them when they are not assigned. Those 45 variants which are not assigned to products in the current category shouldn't be listed in module box. Even these variants are in gray color! JUST HIDE THEM because they are not available in current category!

Example:
- ProductType class - with 1 option. This option has 50 variants
- Category X with 25 products, only 5 variants from that option will be used.
- RefineFilter shows the other 45 unused variants in Front-End.

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

>>> PRODUCT LOGIC ISSUE 2

1) I will add more 2 options to product class ProductType to be widely used inside shopping cart
2) I will go to a product and set up only 2 options, not 3 options (sometimes there are 1 options, 2 options or all three options)

ISSUE: By default Refine Filter shows in Front End all 3 options. I would like to change this annoying behavior based on the number of options chosen in that category. If only 1 options is set up in those products show only that options, if 2 option is set up only those products to be shown in Front end. Imagine that if only 2 options are used from a filter, showing the third is not logic - because it is not generating any filtering results. It should be hidden in Front-End, because it is not used with any product in that category.

Imagine having a product class with lots of options and showing all options even most of them are not used, specific to a category.

Example:
- ProductType class - with 20 options
- Category X with 30 products, only 4 options from ProductType class will be used
- RefineFilter shows the other 16 unused options in Front-End (which is not correct, the options not used shouldn't be visible).

Re: Refine Filters module released
 

Thank you for revealing the bug. We've fixed it and uploaded new module packages to the File Area. Feel free to download and use it.