I want to put all of this information here for others:

OpenERP Version 8 includes a new way to handle product attributes, multi-level variants and a configurator for eCommerce.

 Several issues have been fixed by this new approach:

Easier user interface:

• no more template and variants menu, one single and efficient view: the product catalog

• the menu/user interface does not change if you activate variants or not. Easier to understand for end-users.

• You can easily mix products with or without variants

Better approach to views management: in version 7, we had views for Products (product.product) and templates (product.template). Every module should have inherited both object's views. This led to inconcistencies in product and template views. In our proposed solution, templates are the only object you need to define views.

Consolidation of several concepts into a single one:

• product attributes

• variants

• multi-level variants

• product configurator

• manufacturing attributes

Improved eCommerce:

• Product configurator

• Multiple types of variants (selection box, color boxes, radio buttons)

• Search by attributes (color: red)

Cleaning of fields between products and templates:

on which level is the photo field, the cost price, etc.

Multi-variants for manufacturing support in your BoM

Learn more (15 minutes total - well worth your time) at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE5tgHRCSsI 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF-x5s3GRkk&t=3m58s 

Modules to enhance usability:

sale_product_variants