Multiple Product Options

Hi,

I've built a number of online shops with but I want to increase the
flexibility of the system that I use, mainly relating to product options.

Currently I just use an admin area to assign one or more options to a product
and these get displayed on the product page of the site, however what I really
want to do is relate those options so that only the options available are
displayed. This has my head in a bit of a spin as I haven't entirely decided
on the best way to do this.

My current thinking is to - in the admin area - list all the permutations for
a product each with a stock level form element, then when submitting the form
I use PHP to only grab the options that are available and store them in MySQL
as an string that can be eval'd when extracted and processed on the product page.

The product option drop-downs would be displayed in an iframe so that it can
refresh quickly based on the options chosen and what's available. I was going
to output a JavaScript array and use that but I want the system to work
whether JS is on or off.

Does this sound the best way to go about this or are there better more
efficient ways?

Any input would be most appreciated. :)

Cheers,

Paul