Magento getAttributeName / Text - magento

Question

I'm playing arround with magento product attributes.
What i'm trying to do is getting an "Unique Product Number" attached to the same " Unique Video Number" That works perfectly.
The same goes for an Dropdown Attribute using the following code.
<script src="js/jquery-1.9.1.min.js"></script>
<script src="js/avembed.js"></script>
<div class="av_videoplayer" data-av-search-ean="<?php echo $_product->getAttributeText('DropDown_Atribute') ?>"></div>
But as soon as i try it with an TextBox or TextField it fails to return an output.
I have been using getAttributeName to make it happen but i can't seem to get it working or find the anwser to do this.
Any tips on what i might be doing wrong here?
Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Magento provides magic getters and setters, so for most product attributes, you can retrieve them using the attribute name, preceded by get. For example:
$freeShipping = $_product->getFreeShipping();
The alternative to this is the method you are using, getAttributeText.
$freeShipping = $_product->getAttributeText('free_shipping');
HOWEVER, the attribute must be in the product collection, which most custom attributes are not. When you setup your attribute, you need to set the option Visible on Product View Page on Front-end to Yes.
Failing that, you can recreate the product collection (in your own helper, for example) and add your attribute(s) manually as follows:
public function getMyProductCollection( $skuArray ) {
$products = Mage::getResourceSingleton('catalog/product_collection')
->addAttributeToSelect(
array(
'free_shipping',
'list_price',
'manufacturer',
'name',
'price',
'special_price',
'special_from_date',
'special_to_date',
'thumbnail'
)
)
->addAttributeToFilter(
'sku', array( 'in' => $skuArray )
)
->load();
return $products;
}
You can then use the public function as follows:
$_productObj = $this->helper('my_helper')->getMyProductCollection(
$_productSkus
);
Understand that I'm describing the principle, this code is not copy + pastable. Hope that helps.