Feature Request: Real Time Online Quote

Alex,
I have been racking my brain trying to figure out how I can do this on my own and not display the designer but just something like the cart but I just can't figure it out.

I am not sure if this would be of use to anyone outside the screen printing industry, but I know for myself it would be extremely useful. Here is what I am wondering is possible:

On many online screen printing sites, they allow you to get a quote without actually designing something. This sometimes rests on a quote page or it can be accessed anywhere on their site. This is how I for see something like this working:

Within the quote form it would start out with you selecting your category from a drop down (Let's say t-shirts as our example). Next, it would dynamically create a drop down below this with a list of all the brands of t-shirts we offer (Gildan 5000 is chosen). Next, it will let you select from all the colors in our list of backgrounds (t-shirt colors) so that it knows the appropriate price based on light or dark garment. Next it will have a drop down to select how many colors for the front, and then another drop down for how many colors on the back. Once the product was selected as well, it dynamically creates fill in blanks for each size. Once the user hits submit, it spits out the price. The user can then change items within this and resubmit for a new price.

I feel like the functionality is already there as it is similar to the cart view and also it would just be pulling data from the pricing structure for a certain product. This all seems so simple in my head, but I am not you, Alex, the one doing all the programming.

So let me know if this is something that would even work. I think it would be a great addition to the feature list of RTD.

Thanks!
Scott

A couple other things before I forget:
On most other sites, when it shows the colors of the shirt (background), it shows the actual squares of colors and not the name. That way users can see what actual colors are available. Basically, the background selection squares from the designer.

Was wondering if this could be pulled out as like an api or in a frame where we could just drop this anywhere we want on our sites just like how we did with the pricing structure.

With that being said, it would be awesome if you named everything with classes and id's so that we could style it all. Not sure how that would then work with an api or iframe though, maybe have a css on RTD to do this. Just a thought.

Also, don't want you to stress out about all this, just thought it would be a nice function down the road. Awesome if it came to happen soon but not worried about it.

Uhm....
Looks like there's some possibility by mixing to something we already have.
I don't know if you ever saw or used the standalone instant pricing page, in case here's a link to it on a company in the testserver:
http://testserver.realtimedesigner.com/screenprint/instant_pricing
You want to select the "Gildan" entry as the product.

Looks like it already does part of the job, in some way.
I have to check that, but it looks like the best option could be to see adding more fields for users in there.
The difficult part could to have items added to cart from there, because that page actually runs outside the regular RTD environment.
Otherwise, another option could be to try creding a sort of standalone version of the cart itslef, by faking in some way the data of the product you want to add to it.

I will look into this matter, but please gimmie some time.
I will leave this afternoon from the States, and will be back in Italy (ready to work) by Wednesday.
However, I will first have some other urgent releases to finalize (mostly about new TP, API, and setting up a new server to receive user uploads without affecting RTD speed), so I expect at least a couple weeks before being able to do tests on this request.

In the meanwhile, feel free to add here any extra thoughts you may have about this issue.

I just logged on to post a request for what I think is a feature along the same lines as this. I use the [INSTANTPRICINGBOX] feature in my RTD catalog and would love to be able to embed this feature onto my own site. Any thoughts if this can be done easily already or worked in with Scotts request. I don't want to get off topic so if you feel the two are unrelated let me know and we can move this to a new topic.

Andy

Isn't this basically the same thing i was talking about? http://www.realtimedesigner.com/forum/read.php?3,3228

We ended up doing a price calculator / option form using jquery... its not live on our site yet, but 95% done with it.

No this is different. Just so everyone is clear - I do not want them to be able to add things to a cart or buy now. I want it so they can select those options above and it will spit out a price. That is as far as it will go. There are too many other variables for them to just add that to a cart (artwork issues, placement, etc). This is just so they can get a quick idea of costs involved without actually designing and they will be able to select any garment category, brand, sizes, # of colors, etc, right from one form.

Then I think my initial proposal is what I should try.
It will not allow adding to cart, it's only a pricing calculator.
So, it wil be something telling you the expected cost based on input parameters, but not related to designed stuffs at all.
Sort of "quote calculator" based on your pricing matrix

Alex,
Yes, that is all it is, a price calculator. Most screen printing sites have them and you can just get an idea of what the costs are going to be. Thank you for working on this.

Scott, this is a good idea! One I proposed many "millenia" ago...lol....

I shall be joining you guys back soon...just been dealing with the baby and his health for now. Things are looking better though...hate that I had to miss the show in New Orleans!!

Southland!

Great to hear from you, I've been praying for your little one. I am finally getting the time to work on my site. My goal is to have a finished product by the first of the year. I have been just so busy with the printing aspect that the site is always on the backburner (Not a bad thing when work is consistently coming in). Would love to see how your RTD is coming along.

True Scott, ....yeah Baby Blake (thats his name) is doing great! Keep us up all the time ...lol...but Mom has been dealing with some heart problems...so ...yeah...thats not good. We find out tomorrow whats going on.

I love the suggestions you have been coming up with...had them all written down, but it takes so long to explain my thoughts to Alex (not alex's fault lol)....I am a thinker, not a programmers.

I love the order status, (needed), and all other ideas. I am still waiting on a new "add to cart" in which customer can only have certain sizes available based on color. Right now...it seems only single sizes are eliminated or added based on color....

I will be following up though....

- I just need some help on my CSS....I have no clue how you guys make it look it so good!