Nick
We have a mix of stocked lines and drop ship lines, how we handle the drop ship products is that we set the qty to -1, this ensures that the stock value remains correct, that is we don't have any stock on hand, but the customer can still order the stock.
If you are getting a regular availability and price update from the supplier then you could use NB_Stores extra tag to make the availability then test this field in your product list templates, if the availability is zero or low then you could warn the customer in your template.
The extra tag could be populated like this |SUPQTY=100| you can then test this from your template and display text or image showing availability. We use the extra tag for a number of back office tasks, one is that we put the order date in there and the product list calculates the expected arrival date based on a typical lead time, this is then displayed for items that have a qtyremaining of -1.
This suggestion still allows you to mix stocked lines with non-stocked lines.
I would guess that for your stock - once a product has been ordered then you manually place the order on the supplier, in this case if the customer orders more than the supplier has available then you could interact with the customer, suggesting a part order now and remaining stock in x days?
Hope this helps, I can expand on the how to if required.
Craig
We have a mix of stocked lines and drop ship lines, how we handle the drop ship products is that we set the qty to -1, this ensures that the stock value remains correct, that is we don't have any stock on hand, but the customer can still order the stock.
If you are getting a regular availability and price update from the supplier then you could use NB_Stores extra tag to make the availability then test this field in your product list templates, if the availability is zero or low then you could warn the customer in your template.
The extra tag could be populated like this |SUPQTY=100| you can then test this from your template and display text or image showing availability. We use the extra tag for a number of back office tasks, one is that we put the order date in there and the product list calculates the expected arrival date based on a typical lead time, this is then displayed for items that have a qtyremaining of -1.
This suggestion still allows you to mix stocked lines with non-stocked lines.
I would guess that for your stock - once a product has been ordered then you manually place the order on the supplier, in this case if the customer orders more than the supplier has available then you could interact with the customer, suggesting a part order now and remaining stock in x days?
Hope this helps, I can expand on the how to if required.
Craig