Adding a child table to the products table

How to add a table linked to the products table by a foreign key

As an alternative to adding a field, you may wish to create a child table.

You can see cases where this is already done in Zen Cart: the products_description table is a child table of the products table, linked by products_id.

Why would you create a child table rather than just extend the products table? Here are some scenarios:

Some products may not need a child table entry.
Some products may need multiple child table entries.
Child table entries are required for each supported language.

The decision is yours, based on your needs.

Considerations:

You will need to build code to handle adding, updating and deleting this data.
What happens when a product is deleted? You may wish to modify admin/includes/modules/delete_product_confirm.php or the zen_remove_product function.
What happens when a product is copied? You may wish to modify admin/includes/modules/copy_product_confirm.php.

Then you will need to customize your template to display the new field.

Still have questions? Use the Search box in the upper right, or try the full list of FAQs. If you can't find it there, head over to the Zen Cart support forum and ask there in the appropriate subforum. In your post, please include your Zen Cart and PHP versions, and a link to your site.

Is there an error or omission on this page? Please post to General Questions on the support forum. Or, if you'd like to open a pull request, just review the guidelines and get started. You can even PR right here.

Last modified November 29, 2021 by Scott C Wilson (4d7f1004).