Which Magento Product Type for grouping products then displaying them in a list each with "add to cart"

Question

I am implementing a magento shopping cart for the purpose of selling course material and online/offline tests.

Their is a couple of different ways to purchase the course material.

1. Book Only
2. Online Test Only
3. Book & Online Test
4. Paper Test Only
5. Book & Paper Test

Each of the above are represented with their own sku's and prices and vary from course to course. So some courses may not have all of these and their prices always vary.

I would like to organize the site in such a way where each course is listed in it's categories. Selecting the course displays a list of the above purchase options with their sku, title, price etc... and an option to add to cart.

The user wishes to not have these listed as "options" in a drop down menu, but instead all displayed on the page.

A Grouped product seems like the right direction, however it asks for the user to select a qty for each purchase option then click the group products add to cart button. Any ideas on how to achieve what I'm looking for.

Let me know if I missed any details here on what I'm after.

thanks

Answer 1

Here are some possible solutions.

1. Edit the file template/catalog/product/view/type/grouped.phtml so instead of one form with several qty boxes and one button, there are several forms each with one qty and one button. Of course this would affect all Grouped products in the same way, if that was unsatisfactory you would then need a custom product type descended from Grouped with it's own modified template.

2. To avoid coding use a simple product with the various course material as a custom option. Make it a radio button list and each option can have a different price and SKU. This way doesn't give you a button per option but they are all displayed on the page which seems to be the concern.

3. Make each course it's own category or sub-category. Categories are much simpler but can still have a description and picture. The options would then be individual products, each with their own add-to-cart button.