Product Configurator Dependencies: hide options that do not fit

About the Extension

Add-on plugin – requires the Product Configurator (SwpProductOptionsSix). This plugin works exclusively as an extension of the base plugin Product Configurator (SwpProductOptionsSix). Without the installed, active, and separately purchased base plugin, this plugin has no function.

A customer builds a fitted wardrobe in your shop. 2.8 metres tall, solid oak, sliding doors. Order placed, card charged. Two days later the workshop calls: sliding doors do not exist at that height. Now you are the one making the phone call, explaining, refunding.

The problem

A configurator shows everything you have loaded into it. It has no idea that the special finish only comes on the small model, or that the XL size never works with the standard frame. That knowledge lives in your head, in a spreadsheet, or in a line of small print under the form that nobody reads. Every order that still comes in wrong costs you a call, a credit note and a bit of trust.

The solution

You record once, per option, which other options it rules out. The moment a customer picks sliding doors, the 2.8 metre height drops out of the form. Or it stays visible and goes grey, if you would rather show that the height exists in principle. The wrong combination can no longer be submitted, because it can no longer be clicked.

What's in it for you

Wrong orders never happen. The customer cannot select the impossible combination, so it never lands in your order list. That saves you the whole tail of query, amendment and cancellation.

You maintain the rules yourself. Open the option, go to the Dependencies tab, pick the option that does not fit from the search field. No developer ticket, no rule in a configuration file, no waiting for the next deployment.

Your inbox gets quieter. Questions like "can I have both of these?" are answered by the form itself, at the moment the customer clicks. From our project work, that is where configurator shops save the most email traffic.

You choose how strict it looks. Hiding keeps the form short and easy toscan. Greying out shows the customer that the option exists, just not with what they picked. Both are a setting, not a rebuild.

Each sales channel gets its own answer. Your trade customers may be allowed to combine anything, your retail customers not. Switch the plugin on or off per channel without uninstalling it.

How the plugin works

Every option in the product configurator gains an extra tab called Dependencies. There you assign the options that rule this one out, using a search field. The result list shows the option name and the identifier, so you pick the right one even when several options share a name. Everything you assign sits in a list below and can be removed again from the context menu.

An assignment always works in both directions. Block the 2.8 metre height on "sliding doors", and sliding doors are blocked as well once somebody starts with the height. You maintain each pair once, whatever order your customers configure in.

In the shop, the plugin evaluates the current selection in the browser. When a customer clicks an option, the options it rules out vanish or go grey immediately, with no page reload. If nothing in an option group can be chosen any more, the whole group disappears instead of leaving an empty block behind. Whether options are hidden or greyed out is set in the plugin configuration under "Depiction of the dependencies".

Typical use cases

Made to measure furniture. Fittings, handles and door systems only suit certain carcass sizes. Instead of a compatibility table in the description, the configurator walks the customer down the routes that actually exist.

Trade and engineering supply. Connections, voltages and frame sizes rule each other out. The identifier in the result list helps when your options carry part numbers rather than plain names.

Workwear and promotional printing. Embroidery does not sit on every fabric, and digital print does not come in every size. The customer only sees the finishing methods your production can actually run on the garment they chose.

Technical facts for your IT team

The plugin needs Shopware 6.7 and PHP 8.2.

Add-on plugin – requires the product configurator (SwpProductOptionsSix) from version 6.7.12 onwards and cannot be installed without it. Assignments live in a database table of their own; the Shopware tables and those of the base plugin stay untouched.

The plugin sends no data to external servers and processes no personal data. On the product page it only attaches one association to the query the configurator already runs; in the basket and in the checkout it does nothing at all. The evaluation itself happens in the browser, so the HTTP cache of your product pages is unaffected.

For the administration it ships its own privileges (view, edit, create, delete) that you can hand to roles. When you uninstall, Shopware asks whether the data created by the plugin should be deleted. Leave it in place and every assignment survives for a later reinstall; otherwise the table and the settings are removed completely.

To be honest

This is an extension, not a configurator of its own. Without the Product Configurator it does nothing. And it knows exactly one kind of rule: these two options rule each other out. If you need conditions such as "from three units the frame becomes mandatory", or surcharges that depend on the selection, this is the wrong tool. If your configurator simply offers too much, give it a try.

Legal notice

We accept no liability for legal requirements. Please check the use of this plugin with a qualified legal advisor.