Addons and Configurable Options

Configurable Options on products allow you to give your clients variables which alter the price of that product. Product Addons let you offer additional items which the client has a yes/no choice over and are billed seperately from the product. In this article, we will look at when you would use them and how.

Configurable options are defined in groups
Groups of options can then be applied to one or more products

Setting up a New Group

Go to Setup > Products/Services > Configurable Options > Create a New Group
Enter a name & description (used for admin reference only) and choose the products it applies to (you can do this later aswell)
Then click Save Changes
The page will reload showing the group details and allowing you to move on to managing options

Managing Options

Go to Setup > Products/Services > Configurable Options and click the edit icon next to the option group you want to modify
At the top of the page you can edit the name, description and assigned products
To add a new one, click Add New Configurable Option
A popup will open and ask you to enter an option name and choose a type. The type can be one of 4 things:
- Dropdown - this will show a dropdown of options on the order form
- Radio - this will show a radio button selection of options on the order form
- Yes/No - this will show a checkbox on the order form allowing the option to be turned on or off
- Quantity - this will show an input field on the order form allowing the user to enter the number of the item they want
Next, enter the first sub-option value you want to offer for this option (pricing is set after saving)
Then click Save Changes
The page will refresh with the sub-option showing pricing fields where you can then enter prices - you should enter pricing for all the cycles that the product has enabled
If for the option type, you chose Yes/No or Quantity then only one sub-option is necessary
For Dropdown or Radio types, to add another sub-option, again use the Add Option field at the bottom of the page
After every addition, hit Save Changes to reload and set the new sub-options pricing
Once you have completed configuring your options, click Close Window
This will refresh the underlying page to show the option you just setup
Once you have more than one option setup in the group, you can use the Sort Order column to define the order the options should show in (just like with products)
Once you are entirely finished, click Back to Groups List to complete the process

Option Types

WHMCS offers a variety of different configurable option types allowing for choice of the most appropriate input format. Below is a summary:

Dropdown

The Dropdown option type presents a standard combo box, this is useful when there are a large number of items from a client to choose from whilst taking up minimal space on order form.

Yes/No

Use the Yes/No option type to display a checkbox for the client to tick or leave unticked, useful for simple opt-in/out questions. Both yes or no are valid items so the form validation will accept the unticked state even if this is a required option.

Radio

When the Radio option type is selected a list of the available options option are displayed alongside a radio box for the client to choose from. However if there are too many a long list can look messy, consider using a Dropdown instead.

Quantity

Choose the Quantity option type and field will be displayed allowing the client free entry of a number. Specify the unit price in the One Time/Monthly column and that will be multiplied by the quantity selected.

When creating/editing a quantity option maximum and minimum vales can be specified, you may also allow clients to enter any quantity by leaving both 'Minimum' and 'Maximum' fields blank - it is currently not possible to specify just a minimum or just a maximum value.

Slider

The slider provides a graphical method for clients to specify a quantity. As above choose the Quantity option type, a minimum and maximum quantity must be supplied and it can be used in conjunction with all order form templates except Boxes.

Hiding Options

Hiding is useful for when you want to remove an option from the order forms that you no longer offer to new signups, but don't want to lose the selections for existing customers
You can hide entire configurable options or just individual sub-options.
This can be done in the managing options screen detailed above by ticking the Hidden/Hide box for an option you want to disable
Important Note: Once hidden, they remain visible to admin users to allow you to view them for existing customers and so when viewing clients or the order forms while authed as an admin you will still see the hidden options.
Note: As of version v5.3 and above, hidden configurable options are not included in the "Starting From" price displayed on cart.php in the Modern order form template. Prior to this hidden configurable options were included in the price.

Friendly Display Names

On occasion a module may require a configurable option value to be formatted in a certain way, but this might not be very easy for visitors to understand. WHMCS can display a friendly name to visitors on the order form, emails and invoices, but still send the required machine code to the module.