September 2^nd 2015

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Create an install- or upgrade script in Magento that creates a product attribute

Tags: install, Magento, update

When writing Magento Modules (or updating them), you’ll often find yourself in the situation where some of the functionality depends on the presence of a specific product attribute.
As you know, you can use an installer script to create product attributes programmatically, just like you can create static blocks programmatically. Since I encounter this situation often myself, I’ll show you how I do this in an install- or upgrade script.

The code

Here is the code that I use: you can edit it and use it in your installer scripts:

<?php
// This installer scripts adds a product attribute to Magento programmatically.

// Set data:
$attributeName  = 'Custom Attribute'; // Name of the attribute
$attributeCode  = 'custom_attribute'; // Code of the attribute
$attributeGroup = 'General';          // Group to add the attribute to
$attributeSetIds = array(4);          // Array with attribute set ID's to add this attribute to. (ID:4 is the Default Attribute Set)

// Configuration:
$data = array(
    'type'      => 'varchar',       // Attribute type
    'input'     => 'text',          // Input type
    'global'    => Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Eav_Attribute::SCOPE_GLOBAL,    // Attribute scope
    'required'  => false,           // Is this attribute required?
    'user_defined' => false,
    'searchable' => false,
    'filterable' => false,
    'comparable' => false,
    'visible_on_front' => false,
    'unique' => false,
    'used_in_product_listing' => true,
    // Filled from above:
    'label' => $attributeName
);

// Create attribute:
// We create a new installer class here so we can also use this snippet in a non-EAV setup script.
$installer = Mage::getResourceModel('catalog/setup', 'catalog_setup'); 
$installer->startSetup();
$installer->addAttribute('catalog_product', $attributeCode, $data);

// Add the attribute to the proper sets/groups:
foreach($attributeSetIds as $attributeSetId)
{
    $installer->addAttributeToGroup('catalog_product', $attributeSetId, $attributeGroup, $attributeCode);
}

// Done:
$installer->endSetup();

<?php

// This installer scripts adds a product attribute to Magento programmatically.

// Set data:

$attributeName = 'Custom Attribute'; // Name of the attribute

$attributeCode = 'custom_attribute'; // Code of the attribute

$attributeGroup = 'General'; // Group to add the attribute to

$attributeSetIds = array(4); // Array with attribute set ID's to add this attribute to. (ID:4 is the Default Attribute Set)

// Configuration:

$data = array(

'type' => 'varchar', // Attribute type

'input' => 'text', // Input type

'global' => Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Eav_Attribute::SCOPE_GLOBAL, // Attribute scope

'required' => false, // Is this attribute required?

'user_defined' => false,

'searchable' => false,

'filterable' => false,

'comparable' => false,

'visible_on_front' => false,

'unique' => false,

'used_in_product_listing' => true,

// Filled from above:

'label' => $attributeName

);

// Create attribute:

// We create a new installer class here so we can also use this snippet in a non-EAV setup script.

$installer = Mage::getResourceModel('catalog/setup', 'catalog_setup');

$installer->startSetup();

$installer->addAttribute('catalog_product', $attributeCode, $data);

// Add the attribute to the proper sets/groups:

foreach($attributeSetIds as $attributeSetId)

{

$installer->addAttributeToGroup('catalog_product', $attributeSetId, $attributeGroup, $attributeCode);

}

// Done:

$installer->endSetup();

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3 thoughts on “Create an install- or upgrade script in Magento that creates a product attribute”

Sreedarsh says:

October 5, 2015 at 14:11

Very good code…100% working

Reply
Amrin rajani says:

March 1, 2016 at 07:03

Hi Geil, I have a single vendor store and would like to convert it to multivendor by programming and not using extensions. How can I do this? Could you please guide me?

Reply
Chandan Rai says:

September 12, 2016 at 14:44

Very Nice code ..Worked on first run..

Reply