set users down different attribute paths?

what im looking to do is have a product page with a single attribute called “choose your path” for example, which contains 2 options. if the user chooses option 1, they are set down this path with a set of new attributes available to them, lets call them attributes a, b, and c. but if the user chooses option 2, a completely different set of attr开发者_如何学Cibutes becomes available, lets call those attributes d, e, and f.

is this functionality built into magento by default? or anything like this? or is there some extension available somewhere that does something similar?

This is not something that is built into Magento, and to do it with existing attribute mechanisms will mean that you have to make them non-required (which is nonoptimal).

My suggestion would be to use 2 products for this (one for each path), and to have a sort of disambiguation page that lets you choose one of the two products. The downside to this is that you will have a more difficult time tracking the inventory on your products properly. This may be solveable by using configurable products rather than simple ones with required options.

Hope that helps!

Thanks, Joe