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Combination Generator not working


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Version: 1.5.6.2

Hosting: Bluehost

 

I have created a new product. For this product, there are 11 attributes to choose from and a total of 42 values split between the 11 attributes. When I 'add' these and then press the 'generate these combos' button, it loads a blank white screen with a really long URL. So I tried just adding a few combinations and it worked just fine. Is there a limit to what the combo generator is able to generate?

 

[ 11 attributes total ]

3 values

6 values

2 values

5 values

3 values

3 values

2 values

5 values

6 values

4 values

3 values

 

This is a fresh install of PS and this is my first product. 

 
Here is the URL that is produced:

http:// [ my domain ] /shop/ [ name of my admin folder ] /index.php?controller=adminattributegenerator&id_product=1&attributegenerator&token=6f1b1a858f08bd5f27e858db09597eb5 
Edited by waterworks2 (see edit history)
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Hello waterworks2 !

 

I have the same problem in many shops, due to server max_execution_time limit.

Depending on your server you can change the max_execution_time limit in your php.ini file, or not...

 

This is one of my reproches to prestashop some script are long to execute and not optimized to run under small servers.

I'm trying to improve this but it means lots of core overrides and I don't have much time for this...

 

For thumbnail regeneration you could have the same issue, there is a post in wich I explain how to avoid this :

http://www.prestashop.com/forums/topic/305266-prestashop-improvements-php-max-execution-time-issue/?do=findComment&comment=1544846

 

Hoping you find an solution for this, If so let me know !!

 

Best regards.

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Interesting find yomas! Editing core files is definitely above my level of comprehension and something I want to avoid at all costs.

I did some digging right now and discovered this thread on problems with combination generator when there are so many possible combinations for a product:
http://www.prestashop.com/forums/topic/255253-trouble-with-adding-a-product-that-has-multiple-combinations-combination-generator-fails-to-finish/

 

This thread talks about the same problem and offers a link to a solution via module, but it's an expensive $150 module that I am really hoping to avoid:

http://www.prestashop.com/forums/topic/302348-product-with-thousands-of-combinations/?hl=%2Bproduct+%2Bcombination+%2Bgenerator


and then i found this link too:
http://forge.prestashop.com/browse/PSCFV-6488

 

Thanks again for your detailed response. I'm going to explore these threads right now including your solution and see if I can't get this working. I really don't want to pay for a module and this problem may be a deal breaker for me for using PrestaShop.

Edited by waterworks2 (see edit history)
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I tried adding the following line to /config/config.inc.php

 

ini_set('memory_limit','128M');

 

but it didn't work. The combination generator is still producing the blank white screen when I add all possible attribute/values needed for the product.

 

How far can I kick up the memory value in that line of code?
 

Also, is it possible I can increase the memory way up to get the combination generator working and then when I'm done, remove the line to return the config.inc.php file back to it's original state, after I've produced the combinations I need for this product?
 

Also, I logged into my cpanel for Bluehost. There is a 'php Config' but under that area, there aren't any options for increasing memory. I noticed a note in this area about the settings that the /public_html/php.ini file is affected. So I opened up that file and found the following line of code:

; Maximum amount of memory a script may consume (128MB)
; http://php.net/memory-limit
memory_limit = 128M

Edited by waterworks2 (see edit history)
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Hi!

Obviously you can't increase this param...

You can ask your hosting if they can raise it for a time but I think you're gonna have a negative answer...

I totally agree with you that buying a module for every prestashop non option is annoying but for now on there isn't any other solution I guess...

It's an issue mainly uped by users but it seems not to be prestashop team urgency...

Sorry if I can't help you further but maybe in the future I'll have a solution!

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There is a non elegant solution but that works without buying module...

Export your database, get your FTP files, and make it on local machine then put the files and database updated online again...

This is an ugly way but on local it will work, or you can upgrade your hosting offer to a dedicated or VPS.

The second option seems to me the best since the VPS prices are lowest but costs more than a small one!

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That's a very interesting work-around. Thanks for posting. I will try it, but oh boy that is going to lead to some problems for me when adding products in the future. Not to mention the trouble of moving the data from offline to online setup.  :blink:

 

(Cough, cough, ahem.) I really wish the development team would chime in on this. If a module can get it done easily, it seems like this would be a good candidate for something that should work out of the box, non?

 

This might be a deal breaker for me for using PrestaShop as my e-commerce site. I have quite a few products that have enough variations that the combination generator isn't going to be able to produce. :(

Edited by waterworks2 (see edit history)
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What is the product and what are the attributes?

Do you need to do it as one product with all 11 attributes?  Could you not have a number of products which 'use up' some of the attributes, so that for each of those products the number of combinations based on the remaining attributes is far smaller?

Cheers, Dave

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Hi have the same issue with a product with 544 combinations and it was lucky if upgrading to strongest server config made the script execution faster and worked...

But still the php script for these tasks isn't optimised...

 

What's good about presta is running under small hosting services works but with those non optimized services for medium shops or simply shops with complex products it's very anoying..

 

I'm wondering if working on Magento isn't best for this kind of product types...

 

And be sure I'm very sad to say this because I really appreciate presta for the perfect compromise between users and devs...

Edited by yomas (see edit history)
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Hi Dave, thanks for chiming in. Unfortunately the product is such that the product must have these options. Any one of the 11 options could be ordered or not ordered based on the customers desires for that product.

 

I've read on the forum that other guys can generate combinations for products in the 300 value range. That is to say there are 300 possible combinations between the attributes/values. I'm thinking based on my number of values and attributes, I must be in this range for total possible combinations of the product, but it seems to be way too much for the system to handle. I don't think I'm anywhere near the amount of combinations of some guys on here that say they have products with 1000's of variants like ordering a computer system.

 

I think it should be stated in the documentation that the combinations generator has limitations to generating combinations for very simple products with just a few variations.

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I completely agree with you Yomas. I also feel Presta is a nice balance between user-friendly and still powerful enough to attract developers, but after discovering this problem has no easy fix other than an expensive module I'll have to maintain every upgrade, I'm going to have to look at other e-commerce platforms.I have less than 50 products total in my whole shop which is why I thought presta would be a great solution. This sucks because I've already put time into building a great looking store for my products. This is just a deal breaker for me for using Prestashop. I will have to look at other options I guess.  :(

As far as Magento being the answer, I'm not sure. They have an expensive add-on module that makes combination building much easier too so I'm not sure what the stock version can handle. It's also a beast to use though. Maybe you're an expert dev and would not have any problems working in Magento. It's not something I could consider to be user-friendly.

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Hi Dave, thanks for chiming in. Unfortunately the product is such that the product must have these options. Any one of the 11 options could be ordered or not ordered based on the customers desires for that product.

 

I've read on the forum that other guys can generate combinations for products in the 300 value range. That is to say there are 300 possible combinations between the attributes/values. I'm thinking based on my number of values and attributes, I must be in this range for total possible combinations of the product, but it seems to be way too much for the system to handle. I don't think I'm anywhere near the amount of combinations of some guys on here that say they have products with 1000's of variants like ordering a computer system.

 

I think it should be stated in the documentation that the combinations generator has limitations to generating combinations for very simple products with just a few variations.

waterworks, the figure I've seen is that native Prestashop will support up to approx. 3000 combinations per product before issues are likely to be encountered. That came from the developer of Attribute Wizard Pro, one of the modules you felt was too expensive, but who should know his stuff about combinations.

I'm not sure if I've made myself clear, but the approach I was proposing doesn't result in the loss of any options, but you spread the options over a number of products, rather than just using one.

Having said that, your structure generates over 1.1 million combinations, so to cover that, you would need to use probably at least 400 different products, so trying to use standard facilities within Prestashop doesn't seem practical in this case.

Is $150 really a deal breaker for your business?  As you have noted, you're likely to face the same issue with other e-commerce platforms, so is that an unreasonable price to enable your business to continue?

Cheers, Dave

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Having said that, your structure generates over 1.1 million combinations.

 

 

Thanks for the response. I definitely am glad to hear other people's opinions on this. I'm curious how you came up with the 1.1 million combinations? My math isn't so great, but did you just multiply each of the numbers per 'rule of product' method? I should have done that myself. I can certainly understand why the generator could not possibly generate that many combos. Hmm...there must be a better way of doing this. The $150 isn't the deal breaker part of it, but I was really hoping to keep the store free to extra plugins and stuff of that nature. I don't want to clutter the back-end, slow the store down, and create much more to manage in the future. I love the idea of 'ready out of the box' products but I guess I'll have to budget for some extra modules to make things smoother. There must be an alternative method for producing combinations, but I can understand adding an entirely second method of doing things to the core might start bloating it.

 

After giving your idea more thought and banging my head against the monitor a few times, i'm thinking I could knock down the amount of variants by perhaps adding a simple drop-down menu for attributes that have no affect on price. Each of the products is hand-made at the time of order, so there is no 'inventory' per-se to be concerned with when it comes to final product. That should knock down my total combinations to much less, and perhaps doable.

 

So I'd still have maybe 6 attributes

Couple values per attribute

Then before the price field, somehow add drop-down fields for remaining attributes that don't affect price. Hmmm...how to achieve this now? I will do some research and report back.

 

 

Wow, thanks for knocking this around with me today. You knocked some sense into me about how else to tackle this.   ;)  

Edited by waterworks2 (see edit history)
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  • 8 months later...

Reporting back on this product combination problem in case others have the same questions / problems we had.

 

Unfortunately we decided on using X-Cart all because of the product combination problem we were having with Prestashop. In Xcart, there is an option when setting up or editing a product called "Product Option Groups". It works great. You can read more about it here: Product option groups

 

It's quite simple to use in Xcart. It will allow you to add all of the options for a product as well as what the price effect will be. When a user chooses the variants / options for the product, the price on the screen auto adjusts in real-time.

 

I really want to be using Prestashop though. The backend is so much nicer and overall just a better product I feel...except when it comes to products with lots of variants. We were close to purchasing the Prestashop Module: Attribute Wizard Pro, and giving it a go. But the fine print specifically states "This module requires core code changes" and that really concerned us for future upgrades to our Prestashop store. I have to say though in reading the reviews for the module, it sounds like it has an awesome support team! So good on you guys for such fast responses on support. We might still go this route yet.

 

I will post in the modules forum and request that for the Attributes Wizard Pro, if they could make the pricing update in real-time, that would be an awesome feature for the module, especially for products that have a lot of possible variants that all have an effect on the price of the product. How is the user to know the true price easily without clicking 'add to cart' to see what the total calculated cost is from all the variants / options they selected for the product?

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