A key concept in Drupal Commerce is the Product Display vs Product model used to separate physical products from their display on the website. Depending on your point of view, this makes perfect sense or is a conceptual or practical nightmare. However you feel about it, understanding the reasoning behind the concept is essential when it comes to planning and implementing a Drupal Commerce project. This session gives practical examples and demonstrations of setting up different types of products and product displays. You should leave this session with clarity about the architectural choices and with a set of stories for your clients ready for when you have to explain it to them!

1. DRUPAL COMMERCE
THE PRODUCT VS DISPLAY CONUNDRUM
(AND HOW TO EXPLAIN IT TO A CUSTOMER)
Richard Jones,
Technical Director, i-KOS
DrupalCamp, Scotland 2012

2. SO WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?
• Drupal commerce has
products and product
displays
• It's
the single most
important concept to get
your head around
• Iteither obvious or really
confusing

3. WHY IS IT THIS WAY?
• Products often have multiple
variations
• Size, colour etc
• You need to know which one
of the variations the customer
wants
• Youneed don't want to display
multiples of similar things

4. THE UPSIDES
• Single
product display can
represent multiple products
• Fine
control of variables for
each variant
• Stock and pricing
• Alternativedisplays for
different contexts

5. THE DOWNSIDES
• Ifyour products are simple
you have onto create two
things to create 1 product
• Ifyour products are complex
you could end up with
thousands of variants
• Admin user experience

6. ELIMINATE THE DOWNSIDES
• Two main problems to solve
• Duplication
effort when it
seems a waste of time
• Manual creation of hundred
of variations

7. PLANNING YOUR PRODUCT
STRUCTURE
• Consider when the product
display is used and when the
product is used
• Anythingproduct variant
specific goes in the product
(eg colour image)
• Anythinggeneric about the
product goes in the display
(eg marketing description)

8. PLANNING YOUR PRODUCT
STRUCTURE
• Anything you need in the
following scenarios should
go in the product
• Confirmation email
• Order tracking

9. PLANNING YOUR PRODUCT
STRUCTURE
• Canalso have multiple
product types
• Where products have
different descriptive
elements
• Or you need separation for
logic

10. PLACING YOUR TAXONOMY
• Ifyou need to have search
or navigation based on
taxonomy apply the
taxonomy to the product
displays

11. BULK PRODUCT CREATION
• With the product display system
number of variants can multiply
quickly
• A product with 5 sizes, 3 colours
and 2 fits gives you 30 products for
1 product display
• Bulk product creation set them all
up
• Then delete the ones you don't
need

12. IMPROVING THE OWNER
EXPERIENCE
•A store admin doesn't want
to hear that they have to do
something twice no matter
how well you explain it
• Use inline edit module

13. EXPLAINING AND TRAINING
• Getting this message across
is the key to acceptance of
commerce

14. TERMINOLOGY
• Findthe terminology that fits
with the client product range
• Consensus seems to be
• Product display = product
• Product = variant

15. ANOTHER SIMPLE RULE
• Products(variants) are for
the back end
• Productdisplays are for the
front end

16. WAYS TO USE MULTIPLE
DISPLAYS
• Youcan group products
together in any way you like
• Different product displays for
different contexts
• Promotionallanding pages
are a good example

17. LANDING PAGES
• Use an alternative product
display for promotional
landing pages
• Youcan change layout in
other ways (display suite)
• Best
use of alternative
product display when you
want to group different
products

18. SALES AND PROMOS
• Alternative product display
scenario
• Normal display shows all
products (variants)
• Sale
version shows only a
subset

19. MULTIPLE PRODUCT TYPES
• Products (variants) have
different data requirements
• Also different rules
• Egbooks - need a way to
identify different VAT
condition

20. RULES BASED PRICING
• Sales and promos
• Usealternative product
types for promo price rules

21. QUESTIONS?
Richard Jones,
Technical Director, i-KOS
DrupalCamp, Scotland 2012