Custom Options Swatch Tutorial - Overview & Installation

Custom Options Swatch Tutorial – Overview & Installation

Overview

This tutorial document describes how to install and use SMDesign’s Custom Options Swatch extension for Magento. It can be used as a step by step guide for installing and configuring the extension on your magento website.

Installation

The installation process consists of extracting the extension files on your local computer or server and copying them to the correct path of your magento system structure. In most cases we will send you the extension files in a .zip archive, you’ll have to extract the archive and upload the files to your web server.

Before you start with the installation process, you should make sure that your magento caching and compiling are switched off. Log in to your magento administration and go to System > Tools > Compilation

01-check-compilation

Make sure the Compiler Status reads Disabled. If it’s not disabled, you will have to disable it by pressing the appropriate buttons on that page.

Next, go to System > Cache Management and make sure all the cache options are also disabled.

02-check-cache

If they’re not disabled, select all the options and from the actions dropdown select disable and hit submit button.

Next, check to see what package/theme structure your magento website uses. By default, magento uses default/default package/theme structure unless you installed some custom package/theme. Go to System > Configuration and click on the Design tab.

03-check-package-theme

Notice that the Current Package Name reads default. If it doesn’t read default, then you’re using custom package. Please make note of the package you are using.

On the same page, in the Themes box you’ll see the name of the current theme that your magento website is using. If the fields are left blank, then your current theme is default. If not, please make note of your current theme.

Next, extract the extension files on your local system. Once extracted, browse the extension files and folders structure. In case your magento system doesn’t use default package, navigate to /app/design/frontend/ folder of the extracted extension files, and rename the default folder to your package name.

05-rename-package

In case your magento system doesn’t use the default theme, navigate to /app/design/frontend/default – or your package name/ folder and rename the default folder to the name of your theme.

06-rename-theme

Once that’s done, you can upload the files to your magento web server.

Once the upload is complete, open your magento administration panel in your web browser and go to System > Configuration.

You should be able to see the Custom Option Swatch tab in the left menu under the Catalog section.

07-custom-option-swatch-admin

Once you click on the Custom Option Swatch link from the left menu, you’ll be presented with a configuration page for Custom Option Swatch extension. You can change the configuration settings here. Be sure to hit the Save button that’s in the upper right corner of the page once you’ve changed the configuration values.

If you saved the page, and are presented with the 404 page, just log out of magento administration and log back in, and everything will work just fine.

04-404-page-admin

This error can appear when you first install the extension. Magento Team actually recommends that you log out of administration and log back in every time you install a new extension to your magento.

To make sure the extension installed properly go to Catalog >> Custom Option Swatch menu option. You should be presented with this page:

08-catalog-custom-opt-swatch

In case the Custom Option Swatch menu item is missing from the Catalog Dropdown and you can’t access the Swatch Management screen, something went wrong with the installation process.

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