Product types

Every GrandNode product has a Product type, chosen at the top of the General tab. The type decides how the product is sold - added to the cart as it is, chosen from a list of variants, sold as a set, booked for dates, or auctioned - and which tabs the product editor shows. Pick the type before you fill in the rest: switching it later hides tabs whose data then stops being used.

The five types at a glance

Type	Use it for	Extra tab
Simple	An ordinary product: one price, one stock level, optional attributes such as size and color. Also used for downloads, gift vouchers and subscriptions.	-
Grouped (product with variants)	A shared page that lists several simple products, each bought separately with its own price and stock.	Associated products
Bundled product	A set of existing products sold together at one price and added to the cart as one line.	Bundle product
Reservation	Something booked for days or hours: rentals, rooms, courses, appointments.	Reservation calendar
Auction	A single item sold to the highest bidder before a closing date.	Bids

Simple products

Simple is the default and covers most of a catalog. All tabs are available: prices, inventory, product attributes, and on Additional info the switches that turn a simple product into something special - Is gift voucher, Digital product (a downloadable file, with download limits and an optional sample), Recurring product (a subscription with a cycle length and period) and Require other products added to the cart. A shirt in three sizes is still a simple product: the sizes are product attributes.

Grouped products

A grouped product is a shop window for a family of simple products. The grouped product itself has no price, inventory or attributes - those tabs are hidden. Instead, the Associated products tab lists the simple products shown on its page, each with its own price, stock and add-to-cart button.

1. Create the individual variants as simple products first. If they should not appear on their own in lists and search, switch off Visible individually on each.
2. Create the grouped product, set Product type to Grouped (product with variants) and Product layout to Grouped product (with variants), and save.
3. Open Associated products, click Add new associated product, search for the variants and tick them. Set their Display order.

A product can be associated with only one grouped product at a time. On the storefront, the variants are listed under the description of the grouped product, each with its own options and price:

Bundled products

A bundle sells several existing products together as one cart line, for example a coffee starter kit made of a kettle, a dripper and beans. The bundle has its own price on the Prices tab; price adjustments of attributes chosen for the bundled items are added to it, multiplied by the item quantity.

1. Create a product with type Bundled product and save it.
2. On the Bundle product tab click Add new products, pick the items and set the Quantity of each in one bundle and their display order.
3. On Inventory, choose Track inventory by bundle products if the bundle's availability should follow the stock of its items. The cart then checks, for every item, that bundle quantity × item quantity is in stock.

Reservation products

Reservation products are booked rather than stocked. Choosing this type switches inventory tracking off, unticks shipping and marks the product as not returnable, and shows the Reservation calendar tab. The calendar is a list of bookable slots that you generate once and top up from time to time.

1. On Reservation calendar, set a Start date and End date for the period to open for booking.
2. Choose the Interval unit. With Day(s) each slot is a whole day; you may name a Resource (for example a room or bike number) and choose Include both dates to count the end date as booked. With Hour(s) or Minute(s) you set the interval length, the daily From hour and To hour, how many parallel bookings a slot takes (Quantity) and an optional Additional parameter the customer chooses (for example a language or a guide).
3. Tick the Week days that can be booked and click Generate calendar. The slots appear in the grid below; booked ones link to their order.
4. Use Clear old, unused records to remove past slots nobody booked, and Clear calendar to start over.

On the storefront the customer picks the reservation dates and any add-ons, and the button reads Reservation instead of Add to cart. The price is shown per interval:

Auction products

An auction sells one item to the highest bid. Set Product type to Auction; the Prices tab then shows a Start price, the lowest acceptable first bid, and the Bids tab lists every bid with date, customer, amount and, once won, the order.

The auction closes at the product's Available to date on the General tab - set it, or the auction never ends. After that moment the End of the auctions scheduled task (System → Scheduled tasks) picks the highest bid, puts the item in the winner's cart at the bid amount, and sends the auction ended messages to the store owner, the winner and the other bidders. If nobody bid, the auction is simply marked as ended and the store owner is notified.

Tips and common mistakes

• Changing the type of an existing product does not delete its data - associated products, bundle items or calendar slots stay stored but are ignored while the type does not use them.
• Variants of a grouped product that are still Visible individually also appear on their own in category pages and search, which usually looks like duplicates.
• Remember to regenerate the reservation calendar before the last generated date passes, otherwise the product can no longer be booked.

Related

• Adding and editing products
• Product attributes and combinations
• Prices, discounts and inventory