Need Solution

I need a solution for displaying the availability of matrix items online.  Currently we have a field that tells the customer that the product is "In Stock".  However this field is controlled on the parent record and does not give any indication of the status of the children items.  A solution I thought of was to have a link called "click for Availability" on the item template.  When clicked, a pop up window with a table that contains the child items would be displayed.  A custom field on each child item would display telling the customer whether the item is