Item Feature Selections - Logical Conjunction...

Contributor: Alt Alt
Currently all checkbox selections use logical disjunction "OR-ing" (||) together the selected categories.

I am wondering if there are any plans to implement Logical Conjunction "AND-ing" (&&) together the selected categories.

If you do not know what these are please read here:
link
link

It is more of a logical programming usage, so if you don’t understand those, then let me try to explain by giving an example:

Current setup (Disjunction): Waterproof, Multifunction --> Results = List BOTH Waterproof OR Multifunction vibes

New option (Conjunction): Waterproof, Multifunction --> Results = List ONLY Waterproof AND Multifunction vibes

I encounter this issue a lot and would love to have the option to select between conjunction and disjunction. The coding wouldn’t be too difficult (well in theory). I would imagine you would need to sent your operator as a variable depending on if the user selected the “Only list items with all of these features” (Conjunction &&) or not (Disjunction - ||)
Probably much easier said than done, but it would help out product browsing to a great extent.

Let me know what you think
07/18/2008
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Contributor: Bulma Bulma
Quote:
Originally posted by Alt
Currently all checkbox selections use logical disjunction "OR-ing" (||) together the selected categories.I am wondering if there are any plans to implement Logical Conjunction "AND-ing" (&&) together the selected ... more
Hmmm, I'm pretty sure it only selects "OR" if the options selected are in the same category. Like I can select a G-spot vibe, with silicone OR silicone composite, AND waterproof, AND powered by AA batteries.

This is something that would only be useful within a couple of the categories, not all of them of course. I can see this being helpful, but personally I only shop for one feature at a time so it wouldn't be a biggie to me either way. I am curious what others think though.
07/18/2008
Contributor: Jimbo Jones Jimbo Jones
I think that generally it selects the way I want it to, but I have come wanted to narrow my selection in the way you describe and was unable to do so. I am not sure how they would implement it though. Would there be more boxex that say and/or that you would select depending on how you wanted to select? Good idea!
07/18/2008
Contributor: Alt Alt
They would just need a checkbox, which based on its toggle state would switch between Conjunction or Disjunction. They could call it something like "Only display items with ALL of these features" and it would specify the following:
[Unchecked = Dis(Or), Checked = Con(And)]

The main issue is making their current code work with it that kind of option. Breifly glancing at the source, it appears it is written in html, and due to my lack of web design experience, html is not a favorite of mine. I am not exactly sure what function populates the list based on the selected checkboxes, but the code change will need to be in there (most likely some script reading a database). If there is a way of setting an operator as a variable (which I don't think will work, but might (I don't know, javascript isn't really my area either) then it could be better than rewriting a lot of code with many conditionals to check the state of that checkbox and either use && (Bitwise Conjunction) or || (Bitwise Disjunction)
07/18/2008
Contributor: Grizli Grizli
Unexpected but surprisingly pleasant post.

Thank you Alt for finding easy way to explain difference between AND-ing and OR-ing.
Here are some thoughts from inside the company.
By programming this we of course were confronted with this question and had to answer it. Initially we designed Categories so that, as Bulma correctly noted, from the practical point of view there were no need for AND-ing inside one category and OR-ing between categories.
Most of the Categories do “OR” inside category and “AND” between the categories.

However, recently we introduced Safety features in Lubricants that allows selecting “glycerin-free”, “paraben-free”, “L-arginine free” lubricants. While working on this category, we realized that this is the perfect example of the category which should do “AND”-ing inside it. Totally practical consideration, if you pick “glycerin-free” than you probably want something that is ALSO “paraben-free” etc. Therefore, we coded this category with AND logic, instead of usual OR.

We also revised several existing categories and switched them into default AND logic.
Those are: Safety features and Special features in Vibrators, Dildos and Anal toys.

We thought about making this logic as a setting for each filter category but decided against it. The main reason was that this is simply too much for the majority of the people. We haven’t seen anything like this on the internet.
07/20/2008
Contributor: Jimbo Jones Jimbo Jones
I was wondering how EdenFatasys would respond to Alt's request, and I consider that a very good answer. It is impressive to me that you are so responsive considering I think you already have probably the best shopping selection features I have seen on any website. Keep up the good work!
07/21/2008