Creating Custom Options on a Product using the Magento API - magento

Question

How do I add custom options to a product like you can in the backend, using the API.
Im using C# but if you know how do to this in Php, that would be helpful too.
I noticed that product has this:
var product = new catalogProductCreateEntity();
product.options_container = "blah";
And there is this:
catalogAttributeOptionEntity optionEntity = new catalogAttributeOptionEntity();
optionEntity.value = "sds";
optionEntity.label = "ere";
But I cant see a way of utilizing them, im not sure how to make a container, and the catalogAttributeOptionEntity does not have all the properties needed to make a custom option.

Answer 1

Look at the admin product controller. Yes it is possible.
/**
* Initialize data for configurable product
*/
if (($data = $this->getRequest()->getPost('configurable_products_data')) && !$product->getConfigurableReadonly()) {
$product->setConfigurableProductsData(Zend_Json::decode($data));
}
if (($data = $this->getRequest()->getPost('configurable_attributes_data')) && !$product->getConfigurableReadonly()) {
$product->setConfigurableAttributesData(Zend_Json::decode($data));
}
$product->setCanSaveConfigurableAttributes((bool)$this->getRequest()->getPost('affect_configurable_product_attributes') && !$product->getConfigurableReadonly());
/**
* Initialize product options
*/
if (isset($productData['options']) && !$product->getOptionsReadonly()) {
$product->setProductOptions($productData['options']);
}

Answer 2

This is not documented anywhere (else), but at least in Magento 1.6 one can find the appropriate API methods for product options in the source code. (I don 't know since which version that feature exists.)
The API itself is defined in: app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/etc/api.xml
<catalog_product_custom_option translate="title" module="catalog">
<title>Catalog product custom options API</title>
<model>catalog/product_option_api</model>
<acl>catalog/product/option</acl>
<methods>
<add translate="title" module="catalog">
<title>Add new custom option into product</title>
<acl>catalog/product/option/add</acl>
</add>
<update translate="title" module="catalog">
<title>Update custom option of product</title>
<acl>catalog/product/option/update</acl>
</update>
<types translate="title" module="catalog">
<title>Get list of available custom option types</title>
<acl>catalog/product/option/types</acl>
</types>
<info translate="title" module="catalog">
<title>Get full information about custom option in product</title>
<acl>catalog/product/option/info</acl>
</info>
<list translate="title" module="catalog">
<title>Retrieve list of product custom options</title>
<acl>catalog/product/option/list</acl>
<method>items</method>
</list>
<remove translate="title" module="catalog">
<title>Remove custom option</title>
<acl>catalog/product/option/remove</acl>
</remove>
</methods>
</catalog_product_custom_option>
The called functions are defined in: app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/Model/Product/Option/Api.php
class Mage_Catalog_Model_Product_Option_Api extends Mage_Catalog_Model_Api_Resource
{
/**
* Add custom option to product
*
* #param string $productId
* #param array $data
* #param int|string|null $store
* #return bool $isAdded
*/
public function add( $productId, $data, $store = null )
/**
* Update product custom option data
*
* #param string $optionId
* #param array $data
* #param int|string|null $store
* #return bool
*/
public function update( $optionId, $data, $store = null )
/**
* Read list of possible custom option types from module config
*
* #return array
*/
public function types()
/**
* Get full information about custom option in product
*
* #param int|string $optionId
* #param int|string|null $store
* #return array
*/
public function info( $optionId, $store = null )
/**
* Retrieve list of product custom options
*
* #param string $productId
* #param int|string|null $store
* #return array
*/
public function items( $productId, $store = null )
/**
* Remove product custom option
*
* #param string $optionId
* #return boolean
*/
public function remove( $optionId )
/**
* Check is type in allowed set
*
* #param string $type
* #return bool
*/
protected function _isTypeAllowed( $type )
}
The $data-array also is a bit tricky, since it's keys partly depend on the selected option type. The basic $data-array looks like:
$data = array (
'is_delete' => 0,
'title' => 'Custom Option Label',
'type' => 'text',
'is_require' => 0,
'sort_order' => 1,
'additional_fields' => array (
0 => array (
'price' => '10.0000',
'price_type' => 'fixed', // 'fixed' or 'percent'
'sku' => '',
),
),
);
The additional_fields always conatin at least one row with at least the columns price, price_type and sku. More additional fields (maf: …) may be added depending on the type. The types in the group select may have more than one row specified in additional_fields. The custom option types/type-groups are:
text (maf: 'max_characters')
field
area
file (maf: 'file_extension', 'image_size_x', 'image_size_y')
file
select (maf: 'value_id', 'title', 'sort_order')
drop_down
radio
checkbox
multiple
date
date
date_time
time
Examples for complete option data arrays:
// type-group: select, type: checkbox
$data = array (
'is_delete' => 0,
'title' => 'extra Option for that product',
'type' => 'checkbox',
'is_require' => 0,
'sort_order' => 1,
'additional_fields' => array (
0 => array (
'value_id' => '3',
'title' => 'Yes',
'price' => 10.00,
'price_type' => 'fixed',
'sku' => NULL,
'sort_order' => 1,
),
1 => array (
'value_id' => 3,
'title' => 'No',
'price' => 0.00,
'price_type' => 'fixed',
'sku' => NULL,
'sort_order' => 2,
),
),
);
// type-group: text, type: field
$data = array (
'is_delete' => 0,
'title' => 'Custom Option Label',
'type' => 'text',
'is_require' => 0,
'sort_order' => 1,
'additional_fields' => array (
0 => array (
'price' => 10.00,
'price_type' => 'fixed',
'sku' => NULL,
'max_characters' => 150,
),
),
);

Answer 3

In the end I decided it cant be done via the API and went to the database directly.