Tutorial: Set-up Configurable Products in Magento
Magento’s configurable products allow you to give users options when ordering products. This could be a product like a t-shirt which is essencially one product but can be bought in different sizes or colours.
Configurable products in Magento appear on the front-end as drop down boxes on the product pages. They are required fields and the user must select one of the options in each of the drop-down boxes before the product can be added to the cart.
Configurable products are managed via one central ‘configurable product’ and lots of associated ‘simple products’. Each of the simple products are created dynamically from the information you add to the main ‘configurable product’.
Set-up your Attributes
First thing you need to do is set-up attributes for the configurable products, like colour, size, etc. Login to magento and navigate to ‘Catalog’ > ‘Attributes’ > ‘Manage Attributes’. Click on the + Add New Attribute button in the top left of the screen.
Fill in the properties with the following settings…
- Scope = Global
- Catalog Input Type = Dropdown
- Use to Create Configurable Product = Yes
Add your attribute to a set
Navigate to ‘Catalog’ > ‘Attributes’ > ‘Manage Attribute Sets’. You can just use the Default attribute set, or create a new one based on the default. Choose the set you want to use and click on it. Drag your new attribute into the set (listed in Unassigned Attributes).
Create the Super Product
Next step is to create your configurable, or base, product. You will need to go to ‘Catalog’ > ‘Manage Products’ and click on + Add New Product. Choose your attribute set, and set the product type ‘Configurable Product’, click continue. Next you need to choose which configurable attributes you want to use to create the configurable product. You can choose as many as you want, but to make life easier for your customer you may want to limit yourself to two or three at most. Click continue.
On the next screen you need to add in the basics for the product; name, descriptions, SKU, status, price, tax, images and categories. Click on the Sage And Continue Edit button at the top of the page.
Create Associated Products
Next you will need to find the Associated Products tab, usually at the very bottom of the list on the product page. To create your configurable options you need to create Associated Products. These share the common details above, but can have different prices and most importantly you can manage the stock independently. Using the Quick Simple Product Creation box set the status, visibility, select the option(s), any additional price can be added to the option(s) and enter the quantity available. Click on Quick Create button. Each of the associated products created will appear in the list at the bottom of the page.
One thing to be careful of is when editing the product at a later date make sure you only edit the Super Product (the one with type: configurable product)
That’s it.
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Written on 8 February 2010 at 7.45 pm, by Keith Greer. "Tutorial: Set-up Configurable Products in Magento" was posted in Magento with the tags Magento, products, tutorial . 5 Comments
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5 Comments to Tutorial: Set-up Configurable Products in Magento
by Pete
On February 12, 2010 at 10.11 am
There is nothing in the drop down when i try to add the associated Products?
by admin
On February 12, 2010 at 11.15 am
@pete In your case you need to add the sizes into the product attribute. Go to ‘Catalog’ > ‘Attributes’ > ‘Manage Attributes’ click on your attribute and then click on ‘Manage Label/Options’. You can add in the values you want there. On the product page only attributes which have been used to create a simple product will be shown.
by Will
On February 16, 2010 at 3.16 am
I created “size” attribute and added into the the default attribute set. I also created a configurable product with associated simple products of different sizes. However, the size are not shown in the product page for selection. The dropdown list of “Size” is empty (only showing “choose an option”). I am using Magento 1.4. Any suggestion??
by Keith Greer
On February 16, 2010 at 12.04 pm
@will If your attribute is set-up right, and it sounds like they are, then the problem is with either the configurable product our associated simple products. The most likely is that the simple products have either “qty = 0″, “stock available = out of stock” or both.
by John | Magento Developer
On February 17, 2010 at 10.21 pm
This is one great function of Magento. It gives customers the flexibility of choosing options. Great tutorial!