How to create & deal with Configurable / Grouped products in Magento once posted from Vend.

Click Here... (http://youtu.be/ZQkVIjJUSOU?hd=1) to view our YouTube Clip on Configurable products in Magento and Vend.

How to deal with and create Configurable Products once pushed from Vend as simple products: 

Quick check guide:

A> Vend: You would create the simple products in Vend.
B> Vortex: You would then go to Vortex > Product management within the hour and then select them.
C> Vortex: You would then push to Magneto via a manual latest update in Vortex or wait on your next scheduled sync.
D> Magento: Once the simple products are in Magento, you would then edit the simple products not to be visible.
E> Magento: Add attributes to simple product(s).
F> Magento: You would then create the configurable product and associate the simple products to it.
G> Vend: You would then go back into Vend and create the Configurable product by itself and assign it to a tag called configurable.
H> Vortex: You would then make sure the configurable product is selected in Vortex > Product Management

* Please note, you dont have to create the configurable product in Vend if you dont plan on using Vend to change product information for a configurable product in Vend.

In detail please continue to read:

A product from Vend regardless if its composite, variant or single product, will ALWAYS be sync'ed / pushed to Magento as a simple / single product ONLY. 

 

This is a screen shot of what a Vend product and its variants would look like in Vend:

 

 

This is what the products and their variants would look like when they are pushed to Magento:

 

 

Once simple products have been pushed to Magneto under their Attribute set, edit each simple product and in the General tab enter in the attribute value, and then select the Visibility to Not Visible Individually. 

 

Please note: Due to the Magento API limitation, we cannot automatically create a configurable product.

You will need to manually create a configurable product and assign single/simple/child products to it manually.

Moving forward, create a configurable product and assign the child products manually as per the following screen:

Once you have done that, your products in Magento should look like this:

 

 

Please note, you need to now create the configurable product in Vend with the same SKU.

 

Ensure the configurable product is select in Product Management.

You now make changes to a price / description / title change in Vend for the configurable product(s). (For making price changes, description changes, Product Title changes to a simple / child product does not reflect the Configurable product price / description and Product Title, and only QTY of child / simple products are synced to configurable products inventory.)

 

 

 

 

 

Please note, you wont need to manage images for simple products in Vend, only upload a image to the configurable product in Vend.

Please note, you would be best to have Magento Back orders enabled (see this article, click here...) so your child / simple products are set to out of stock if QTY is 0.

 

 

Or if you like, you can try this work flow, which may be easier for some customers:

 

A> Magento: Create simple products
B> Magento: Create a configurable product.
C> Magento: Add attributes to simple product(s), assign products to their respective categories. 
D> Magento: You would then create the configurable product and associate the simple products to it.

E> Vend: You would create the simple products in Vend (Using the same Product SKU used in Magento)
F> Vend: You would then create the Configurable product by itself and assign it to a tag called configurable (Using the same Product SKU used in Magento).

G> Vortex: You would then go to Vortex > Product management within the hour and then select them the simply and configurable products.

* Please note, you dont have to create the configurable product in Vend if you dont plan on using Vend to change product information for a configurable product in Vend.

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What is a Configurable Product?

In Magento, configurable products compose of one or more independent simple products.

In Vend products and their child products are referred to as products with variants. 

The way that a configurable product works in Magento: 

A configurable product requires that you have defined two or more simple products, which have attributes defined that can be used in a configurable product.

Steps on how do deal with creating configurable products:

1. The first step in creating a configurable product is to first define the attributes that will be used as part of the configurable product. 

2. The second step is to create an attribute set containing those attributes. 

3. The third step is to define two or more simple products using the attribute set you defined with the configurable attributes.

4. The final step is to create your configurable product using the simple product you created for this purpose. 

 

You can read about the process for creating a configurable product here (See the attachment to this article or follow this link: Creating a Configurable Product)

 Posted by Jason Shico