Filter one part number to multiple car models

Hello,
I'm making a site to sell performance car parts using the traction template but I'm having an issue with filtering using Ajax filter pro. A lot of parts will fit several models with the same car manufacturer. Here's an example of my problem. If I have an air filter that fits an 04-08 Subaru Impreza, and also fits 06-10 Subaru Forester I would use "Engine>>Intake" for Category mappings. Then "Subaru" in manufacturer mappings. Then add "Impreza, Forester, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010" in Specification attributes. The problem is now when you use the Ajax filter pro on the home page and you select a 2010 Subaru Impreza this part will come up even though it doesn't fit this car, but I had to add that year for the forester. I'm still new to nopcommerce and nop-templates so I hope there’s an easy way to make this work. I would appreciate any help with this issue.
Thanks, Michael.

Hi,

What is your setup for 2010 Subaru Impreza (specifications primarily) ? 
Why do you need to add the year to the part ?

Hello, Here's how its setup. Under Catalog>Manufacturers we have our car manufacturers. Subaru, BMW, Mitsubishi, ect. Under Catalog>Specification Attributes we have "Model" and "Year". Then in the Options for Model we have all our car models, Impreza, Forester, 335, M3, Evo, ect. And in the Options for Year we have all the car years. So we have to add the manufacture and all the specification attributes to each part so it can filter for the car the customer selects. We have the Ajax filter pro setup like the demo site and how the documentation shows for the traction template. You have to select the category, manufacturer, model, and year on the home page. Is there a better setup we could use? Thanks again for your help, Michael.

Also to answer your question we are adding the year to the part so we can filter them for the car the customer selects so we don't sell them parts that don't fit there vehicle. Thanks

Hi, 

If I got everything straight, you have a product AIR INTAKE. It is in category Engine >> Intake. It`s manufacturer is Subaru. Also it has specification attributes Model and Year. The problem comes from the Specification attributes, Because your Air Filter is mapped to all the specification attributes: "Impreza, Forester, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010". You can not say combine the Model attribute with the Year attribute. So, I suggest you to do the following: 

I have seen many sites where the car parts search is made this way: 

Let`s say we search for air filter for my car: Honda Civic 1992.


The category is Engine >> Intake.

The manufacturer is Honda.

The model specification drop-down looks this way:

Civic (1987 - 1991)
Civic (1991 - 1995)
Civic (1995 - 2001)
Crx (1987 - 1992)
Crx (1992 - 1997)
Prelude (1986 - 1992)
Prelude (1992 - 1996)
etc.

Just remove the year specification and edit the options of the Model attribute. This way we combine the two required specification attributes - the model and the year. And now we can find our air filter without any problem.

I hope this helped !

This is an old question but I just run into the same problem and the way am solving it is by adding unique specifications. So instead of having one Air Filter with these specifications "Impreza, Forester, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010" add two air filters one for Impreza with these specifications "2004, 2005,2006,2007,2008" and another air filter for forester with these specifications "2006,2007,2008,2009,2010". This is somewhat tedious but it allows me to keep my year specification clean instead of doing something like "Impreza(2004-2008)" which is very restricting IMHO.

I am still experienting nop and noptemplates so this suggestion might have some other limitations I'm not aware off, please let me know if that's the case.

I tried several different ideas and heres what I went with. I combined the model and year for the specification attribute. So I add the model/year as; ( Impreza - 2008, Impreza - 2009, ect. ). Then you can add as many different models/years to one part and have it filter correctly. On my home page I have the filter set up as; ( category, manufacturer, model/year ) and it seems to work well like this. This could save you a ton of time on duplicating parts. Especially on a part like a brake rotor that could fit a lot of different models. We're still new to setting up our site on NOP as well so if you find an better way please share. Hope this helps.

Hi, 

After browsing many sites for cars and car parts (because I am a "car guy"), I found that this is the easiest way, as I have described before and you have found it too - to combine the model and the year of the part.

So, this really saves you a lot of work and keeps everything tight and clear.

Is there a way to select the type of part last, such as
ford / mustang 2014-2015 / Intake.    Then the customer will see the different air filters offered

I would like to do it that way as some cars will not use all of the part types.   such as if we do not offer any brakes for a certain car.  I don't want them to select brakes, then select the car that we have nothing for.  


ideally I would just like to be able to do something along the lines of
[Categories] [Categories_1] [Categories_2] ... [Categories_N]
which is what I expected this to be able to do and just filter down through parent categories.  help please.  

Hi,

You can do it using:

[Manufacturers] [Specification_1] [Specification_2] ... [Specification_N]

Ford will be the Manufacturer, mustang 2014-2015 will be a specification, on which you can disable AllowFiltering if you don't want to see it on the category, manufacturer, search or any other page on which the product can be listed on, but it will be available in AjaxFilters pro. Intake will also be a specification. Just like mustang 2014-2015 you can disable the AllowFiltering if you want.

Note: The downside of this approach is that it can have performance impact on the filters, because the specifications and specification mappings will increase.

Hope this helps!