DNN Hotcakes Server Side API for creating a Single Variant - e-commerce

Question

I'm using Hotcakes Commerce and the e-commerce platform on my DNN site. I've been using the server side API for Hotcakes to transfer product information from one install of Hotcakes to a clean install of Hotcakes. Long story short, one of my database tables got modified somehow and not knowing how it will affect the platform in the future I needed to move all the product data to a clean install of the platform. I've accomplished most of what I needed through building a console application and using the server side API.
The last piece I need is to create the variant information for each product. The only methods I've seen in the server side API is ProductOptionsGenerateAllVariants().
Is there a way to create a single variant using the server-side API?

Answer 1

This is somewhat straightforward to do, assuming that you understand choices/options and variants - as well as the differences between the two.
For the uninitiated... A choice or option allows a customer to specify a different version of the same product, nothing more. An example of this might be changing a t-shirt color from blue to grey. Nothing else changes, except the color.
A variant is still a choice at its core, but it does an additional thing which is to possibly change the SKU and/or pricing. An example of this would be choosing the size of your screen when buying a laptop. The 17" screen will be more expensive than the 15" screen, inventory may be affected differently, and possibly a different SKU/model number entirely.
When you create a single variant, you'll need the correct information to do so, which having choices created, with their variant property set to true, and you'll then need to associate those to the product. That being said, in some stores, there could potentially be millions of possible variants for even a single product. So, as such, the code is not as clean as anyone would like, but an example is below.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using Hotcakes.Commerce.Catalog;
using Hotcakes.Commerce.Extensions;
// get an instance of the application
var HccApp = HccAppHelper.InitHccApp();
// get an instance of the product which you'd like to add a variant to
var product = HccApp.CatalogServices.Products.FindBySku("SAMPLE003");
// get a list of the options that can become variants
var variantOptions = product.Options.VariantsOnly();
// we'll fill this list with choices that we wish to make variants below
var selections = new List<OptionSelection>();
// repeat this line of code for each choice in the product that makes up this variant
// replace both of the parameters when adding the new OptionSelection, based on your use case
selections.Add(new OptionSelection(variantOptions[0].Bvin, "REPLACE THIS WITH THE INDIVIDUAL CHOICE BVIN"));
// create a new variant object
var newVariant = new Variant()
{
ProductId = product.Bvin
};
// specify the choices that make up this variant
newVariant.Selections.AddRange(selections);
// get the unique key to use to compare below
var variantKey = newVariant.UniqueKey();
// check to see if the variant already exists first
if (!product.Variants.Any(v => v.UniqueKey() == variantKey))
{
// create the single variant
HccApp.CatalogServices.ProductVariants.Create(newVariant);
}