Magento - Product flat functionality with many attributes - magento

So we have over a hundred filterable attributes divided over more than hundred categories (mostly 5-20 per category). The flat table can't contain so many keys so will have to look in the eav table anyway on both product list and product normal page.
Is the flat product of any use now? Can I just as well turn it off and save possible troubles with it?

With filterable attributes you mean, you're using them for layered navigation in catalog and catalogsearch?
If you don't have any other listing where you don't need all your attributes like topsellers etc. I don't know where the product flat table could help you.

Related

Why does Magento show the configurable products and its associated simple products as well?

On my online store, we sell jeans. The configurable products are the different types of jeans, and the associated simple products are the sizes for each (6,8,10,12,14). When i search for a product or just scroll on the feed it doesnt only show the configurable products and when i click it you can choose the size, but the individual simple products show up too eg:
Skinny Jeans
Skinny Jeans-6
Skinny Jeans-8 etc. How do i fix this?
For your simple products, you can set its Visibility. You can change it under
Product Information > General > Visibility > Not Visible Individually
This way they won't appear on front-end while still being associated with your configurable product.

How to remove information in Magento catalog, but only for specific product type

I am wondering how can I delete this two divs -
in Magento catalog, but only for specific product type. In short, I would like to have product type which would appear in catalog only with product-image and product-name, without - price, Out of stock, Add to Wishlist, Add to Compare.
It's possible to load different layout updates depending on loaded product type. You can see an example of how it's done in Magento for configurable products here: https://github.com/LokeyCoding/magento-mirror/blob/magento-1.7/app/design/frontend/base/default/layout/catalog.xml#L275-L287
It's possible because view action of product controller makes this to be executed: https://github.com/LokeyCoding/magento-mirror/blob/magento-1.7/app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/Helper/Product/View.php#L59-L60
You can change the design for any product from the admin.
You need to create a separate theme with a different product page which will have only the attributes you would like.
Then you can select the design for that specific product. Please see the screenshot, how you can change design for any product

Are there any advantages with Simple products over Configurable products

I need to import many products into Magento for a client.
I am not sure to set the type to Simple or Configurable. In the current state, all products are Simple. But I expect that the client will need some of the products to become "Configurable".
I therefore plan to import all products as Configurable. My question is, what is the downside of only using Configurable products? Are there any advantages with Simple products?
Thanks.
If you have different colors or sizes (or other configurable options) you'll need to create simple products for every combination (small/red, medium/red, small/black, medium/black, etc) which you can do from within the configurable product screen, associated products tab. If your product doesn't have any options, it should just be a simple product.
For reference, here is a page detailing the purpose of each product type: http://www.magentocommerce.com/wiki/modules_reference/english/mage_adminhtml/catalog_product/producttype
I also suggest to use Magmi for large Magento imports. http://sourceforge.net/projects/magmi/
You can even have it create your configurable products automatically and it goes MUCH faster than magentos standard import. Like 1000's of products in seconds not hours.
My company has SKU101LG, SKU101MD, and SKU101XL (All simple products)
Therefore SKU101 is my configurable product with the above skus as its 'children' or as magento calls them 'associated products', based on their size attribute.
(You have to create attributes such as size or color under CATALOG > ATTRIBUTES )
An Ipad is a simple product. And Ipad with color options is configurable, and has two OTHER skus (the simple skus for each color) associated to it.

magento - product model and product_collection items have different properties in flat catalog mode

i just know that if i have a product_collection (for example the collection generated in catalog pages)
//event catalog_product_collecion_after_load
$productCollection = $observer->getEvent()->getCollection();
if i take an item from this collection and i compare it with the relative model
$_product = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load($item->getEntityId());
this 2 instace of the same entity have different properties!
I'm working in flat catalog mode.
Why the collection's items are not the same of product models?
I would to know if this is the right behaviour and if is it how to have same properties in both object!
sorry, but magento is very dark :(
Because Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load($item->getEntityId()); loads all attributes for the product and the collection loads only specified attributes different from situation. You may find (CTRL+F) at app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/etc/config.xml something like attributes then you will see the list of all default loaded attributes for product collection. Also you able to change them in your module or directly in Catalog config.xml. But it's not the best idea to change something at app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/etc/config.xml except for debug
For the catalog_product_collection with flat_mode is more complicated add an attribute to the item's collection.
The attributes that are in product items are the join between catalog_product_flat table and the EAV attribute for product entity.
So, in product model from:
collection we have the attributes joined between catalog_product_flat table and the EAV attribute
getModel('catalog/product') we have all EAV attributes
Over these attributes we will certainly have other attributes, i think added in other point.
Now, which attributes are in catalog_product_flat?
Simple are the attributes you checked as "Used in Product Listing" in magento manage attributes! :)
But in some attributes you can't change this option, depends by kind of type you have select. Atribute type Image hasn't "Used in Product Listing" flag, so you have to modify catalog_eav_attribute if you want the new image in product listing.
Well, i spent 2 days to know this, i hope it will useful for other unlucky magento developer. :)
Magento version 1.5

Magento grouped product options

I want to show a set of products as a table inside one product with these attributes.
Dimensions Width x Gusset x Height Code Price/Case Bags/Case Weight
So i chosen grouped product option but it does not match the requirement. How can i design a table like format from the grouped product option with radio button to choose only one product from it. So using grouped product or configurable product or by any way how can i achieve this.
Here am attaching the screen-shot which i actually wanted
I can think of two ways to represent this in code. If the dimensions tend to be from a limited set of choices, you could use a configurable product to represent this choice, simply displaying all possible sub-products in the table. This would let you reuse the existing catalog product page with a little retrofitting.
If they do not fit well, you could place the items in a category hidden from the public categories and loop through each of the products in the category to display the table. This would require more work to tie back to putting into the cart, etc.
Importantly, it looks like each of your options has an entirely uncorrelated price, so it seems to me that you need to have a simple product underpinning these options at some point. (I'm sure you could get more clever, I'm just not sure that's a good idea.)
You can easily solve this with a plugin for Magento. There is a plugin here which will do exactly what you want. It will display product options in a grid: http://www.magemechanics.com/product-grid-options.html

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