I would like to see an attribute type that can accept multiple values. For example, “authors” could be an attribute of a book. Each book may have one or more authors.
Current Method—So Close
The current method is created an attribute “authors” of type “multiple select” and then pre-defining all the offers. Once defined, one or more authors may be selected when adding the product
The Problem
I have over 25,000 authors! Can you imagine how long a list of 25,000 authors takes to load let alone how much strain my browser is under? Can you imagine how long it takes to find one, let alone two, author in that list when creating a product? Let me tell you… A lot of time!
The Easy, Elegant solution
The easy solution is to have a new type that is a new type of textarea. Every line in the text area is a new value. This way I dont get a list of existing authors when adding a product and I can even order the authors how they need to be added. I would just enter them in, one author per line. So simple!
An even more “user friendly” method
Or, if you want to get really fancy you could have a multiple input text box. Then, this is what happens when I add a product
1) I see an “Author” box and enter in the first author “Author1”
2) Poof, another textbox appears underneath the first called “Author 2” and I enter in (or skip it and it will be like the field does not exist) “Author2”
3) Poof, I see another textbox “Author 3”. This time there is no author 3 so I ignore it and it is like a value is never entered (because a value is not entered).
In Conclusion
Magento already has this essential feature built in. The only thing that needs to change is the method of entering the data in. Attribute type “Multiple Select” is simply impractical for large data sets (> 100) and it does not give attention to sort order or anything.
I would love to see this functionality as well. I want to use it for displaying things like weight, length, and area in both metric and imperial units.
For Example:
Weight: 3.5 lbs 7.7 kg Length: 42 in 107 cm
It looks so much better in a fomatted table, than if the metric and imperial values are combined into one field like this:
Weight: 3.5 lbs / 7.7 kg Length: 42 in / 107 cm
ShopGuy, have you had any luck developing this functionality?
