I sell Pet Supplies. My distributor provides me with a CVS file with all the nessacrty information for me to upload it to my website. I currently upload it as a simple product. But I would like it to be more user friendly. I am using Magento Community 1.7. I have tried messing with the configurable products but this is not possible for the upload I use.
Example: A Dog Cage comes in different sizes. Currently it shows as simple products and shows 5 different sizes. I would like it to show like all the bigger named stores. Basically show a dropdown with the different options. I tried creating a configurable product and associate the products I uploaded as a simple product but this method will not work. Any other ideas of what I can do? I want my customers to be able to click:
iCrate Double Door and have the options 18x24....24x30 etc. How do the other companies get them listed like this?
You are doing the right thing - configurable products will give you what you want to achieve.
You need to install the Magmi configurable product plugin. You also need to set your csv up so the simple products come first, then the configurable. To automatically associate the simple product with the parent configurable on import you need an extra column specifying the configurable attribute (see the Magmi docs) and the skus need set up so the simple skus are extended versions of the configurable's sku. Again, the Magmi wiki on configurables will explain more.
You could also amend your grouped products to do similar and provide the list as a dropdown
check out this thread
http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/viewthread/208482/#t297046
Related
I am working on a Magento project and I need to know if there is a way to make a product's options independent to each other or unrequired. I need to use one of several at a time (I have 6 dropdowns).
I have tried add to cart by query string but all dropdown values were still required. I also tried to make all the options default, then modify the selected options in the observer, but I did not meet with success. See the screenshot below for more details.
Any help will be appreciated
Screenshot http://secure.justhost.com/~sharpwe1/img/imf.png
Configurable Products in Magneto are only parent products of Simple Products. Whatever you have as an attribute of a Configurable - a Simple Product has to be present for each. To do this out of the box in Magento, you should be looking into setting up a Simple Product with Custom Options.
Both 2 Simple and 1 Configurable product is imported without errors but the simples are not attached to the configurable.
Please find attached my CSV.
Code: http://pastebin.com/nMeQ4fsr
Or get the CSV here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16640285/2raw-import-products-magento-1.7.csv
You will see I am using:
- simples_skus
- configurable_attributes
- Configurable Item processor v1.3.7 is enabled with Perform simples/configurable link set to Yes
I can not see what is going wrong here. The attribute is set up correctly as I can manually create a configurable product from the Magento GUI with these simple products.
Thanks,
Ben
you need to change your skus. the simple products need to have a sku that starts with the entire configurable products sku. For example:
dope-jump-rope-small (simple)
dope-jump-rope-medium (simple)
dope-jump-rope (configurable)
Notice that the simple skus all start with the configurable sku. Also, do you have the extra plugins installed? If not, go to: http://sourceforge.net/projects/magmi/files/magmi-0.7/plugins/packages/
Get the plugins and after installation (you just upload the zip via the normal magmi panel) check the ones you want to turn on at the bottom of the page. There is one that will auto match based on sku with the setup I described above. I've used it like this many many times.
Is there any way to do this with Vanilla magento? I know I can create a configurable product with simple products "Product A - Option1, Product A - Option2 etc". Is it more beneficial to create simple products for colors and sizes? Maybe from a reporting standpoint?
I found this http://www.mageworx.com/advanced-product-options-magento-extension.html
Would there be any drawbacks from using an extension like this?
if you want to be able to properly track stock etc then proper configurable products based on simple products to represent SKUs is the best way.
in my mind, custom options are really meant for non stock related options such as custom printing services, extra gift wrapping or other options like this.
the extension you mention is really for managing sets of custom options across multiple products and makes custom options easier to manage but does not meant that you should use custom options to track different SKUs such as products coming in a variety of colours that you hold in stock.
The quickest way to create the simple products for a configurable product via the Magento admin is to create the configurable product first then use the "quick simple product creator" option to create the simple products quickly and easily.
http://www.magentocommerce.com/wiki/welcome_to_the_magento_user_s_guide/chapter_3#creating_a_configurable_product (scroll down a bit)
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.
I need to set up hundreds of products, each of which need an drop down that has from a few to twenty or thirty options so I refuse to use configurable products to set these up. I just want a product to use all the options in an attribute.
For example, I want to let customers pick from colors and sizes for a product, but I don't want to have to individually create products for each option. The pricing is the same for everyone and I don't need to track inventory for the options, so there's no benefits in using configurable products.
Is this possible?
Either use simple products and utilize the custom options tab (you will not be able to track inventory of each variant if you go this route). I have seen a number of ways to do this programatically via magento's product creation API or custom code. There is also a number of extensions that make it easier to to do but they do not fully automate the process. One of the automated ways to do it very fast can be found here.
The tutorial is setup exactly the way you want (color & size). Once you create this page make sure you are logged into the admin and open it with your browser. It will work it's magic.
Here are most of the extensions that do it, but they are not as automated as the custom coding methods such as the one linked above:
Product Creator
Automatic Configurables
Better Configurable Products
Perhaps instead of configurable products you could use simple products with custom options instead. There are even ways of importing products with options intact, most of the work is done by copy & paste in a spreadsheet which is much quicker.
If you're looking for a more programmatic way of doing things then you might think of making a custom product type which adds the same options every time so you never need to specify them again. Modifying the product type would modify all options at once too.
Yes, this is possible, just make attributes and note that this is a programming forum, for general questions head to magento forums
Simple product with custom option is not === configurable product as each option do not have Magento stock control, as you can never say Size "Small" sold out as there is no stock for options, that is the main reason why Magento has to use simple product to be the option of the configurable product as simple has stock.
If you have unlimited stock then using simple product plus custom option is the best solution for performance.