Cloning/Duplicating an existing OpenMage module?

[ADDISON74]

I created a demo online store for a client to evaluate products with stock, which have (color and size) as purchase variants. Each product has color and detailed images.

The "Custom Options" in the Backend does not allow stock control for each combination of options (MageWorx Advanced Product Options allows it), so they analyzed the configurable product type, in the following two variants:

---

Variant 1: Classic (1 Configurable + 3 Simple)
Name: Brand + Item
Associated Products: size + color combination

• Name: Brand + Item / Color 1 / S
• Name: Brand + Item / Color 1 / M
  ...
• Name: Brand + Item / Color 2 / L

In this variant there are (1 Configurable + 6 Simple) Products.

---

Variant 2: Advanced (Configurable for each color)
Name: Brand + Item / Color
Associate Products: size only

• Name: Brand + Item / Color 1 / S
• Name: Brand + Item / Color 1 / M
• Name: Brand + Item / Color 1 / L
• Name: Brand + Item / Color 1 / S
• Name: Brand + Item / Color 2 / M
• Name: Brand + Item / Color 3 / L

In this variant there are (2 Configurable + 6 Simple) Products.

---

They chose the Advanced variant because they thought it was much easier for using images. In addition, if a color is no longer available from one season to another, it is very easy to disable that configurable products only.

There are a few issues based on this variant:
In the product categories, these configurable products must be listed together by Default so that a visitor does not see only one variant (if they do not sort by price or name). This is easy to achieve based on positions.

In the product page there will be only sizes and no colors. A block must be inserted into the Frontend to show the other color variants. I could use Up-sells, but I would keep it for similar products in the same category. At the same time, by using several configurable products, the product offer for a manufacturer increases, leaving the impression that the offer is large (instead of 20 configurable products, there can be 70).

Questions:
1 - Is it complicated to clone one of the modules responsible for Related Products / Up-sells / Cross-sells to use it for associating products with the other color variants?

2 - Has anyone come across a ready-made module to associate any other type of products than the three available in OpenMage?

Thank you.

[fballiano]

If the customer has simple rules to associate the products (and the rules don't change that much) I'd develop a custom script to put in a cron and that's it.

Otherwise, having one of those commercial modules it shouldn't be too hard to create a new part and adapt the logic for your needs.

Or maybe there's no need for any module "indexing" the variants, and that could be easily done in the frontend block...

[DegrizNet]

I had the same problem where client had juat a few products with color/size variation and they also choose your options. I decided to use one of related / upsell options for color variations and i think it look good and client loved it. Most of the time I see clients do not use both options of related/upsell products but if there was a need I would clone one of existing. In most of the cases they even don't use of the options so I always add auto related module. :)

I found one old post on this from Inchoo: https://inchoo.net/magento/how-to-add-custom-product-relations-in-magento/

Here is how it looks on my development store:
https://awevideo.s3.amazonaws.com/video-24518688-848e865a6cd5a38ccdb69ce91905809f.mp4?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAJSCJQ2NM3XLFPVKA%2F20240131%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20240131T080742Z&X-Amz-Expires=86400&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=134dc24eb24718ea31cb1b13c621eaa7d0dae39cf52ce4db61100c67d09d356d

[ADDISON74]

I am analyzing this request that I made at the beginning of the year. It is not a specific module from OpenMage that can be cloned/duplicated, but the source code must be modified, adding more stuff. In this case, an extension must be created to extend the functionality.

In the past, the people from Inchoo analyzed the functionality of the Related products and created their own extension, but it lacks a lot to be a complete solution and has issues. For example, the import/export part is not available. In addition, the use of the Related products feature is not correct, but Upsell should have been used, because it is the same product in several color variants. Thus, in the Frontend, the checkboxes no longer need to be displayed to be bought together, as long as it is the same product.

I will create a repository for this request and I will try to offer an extension as complete as possible. Later I will make it public for testing.

[ADDISON74]

Let's analyze a little. Why did they choose the option of a Configurable Product per color with Simple Products as size options, instead of a Configurable Product with both colors and sizes? Because it is easier to manage when working with images.

In the first case, in a Configurable Product you can insert the color images (probably one) and the detailed ones, without the need to add images for the Associated Products.

In the second case, the situation is considerably complicated by using colors and sizes all together. In the Configurable Product you have to add swatches, detailed images and you are forced to add an image for each variant (Color x Size) to make the color picker work. If you have 10 Colors with 5 Sizes, you end up adding 50 images for every combination of simple product. While in the first case, having only one color, there is no need to change the product image because there is no color option selection, so you use the images from the Configurable Product.

Maybe that's why more and more stores are starting to display the same products in a category several times in its color variants instead of a single product with all the variants in it. For example,

Patagonia Men's Triolet Jacket has 5 colors and 6 sizes. 1 CP + 30 SP, but a store creates 5CP with 30 SP just to avoid loading the same images 30 times.

Case study this store (I guess based on the Magento 2 platform) https://8a.de/vaude. It displays 210 products for Vaude brand, although in reality there are much less. Look at the first two in the category, it is the same product, only the color is different. If you visit one of them, you have that block of colors, when you choose the other color, the other simple product page loads.

I think that this problem of images was addressed in the past, but I didn't have time to go into it in depth. Someone could say use MageWorx Advanced Product Options with Custom Options but the program is no longer maintained by the developer, but it offered control over stocks, images, special price periods.

At least in the case of Configurable Products, OpenMage does not offer the feature to have a special or tier price on a certain Simple Product, for example only on White x Small. The special price only works on the configurable product.

[fballiano]

couldn't read in details but it seems to me something similar to what https://github.com/organicinternet/magento-configurable-simple was doing

[DegrizNet]

yes, I am using this one (simple configurable) on couple of stores and it works... so it takes prices from simple products. It also enable to switch some data like sku, name,..

[ADDISON74]

It was a good extension for a while, but the number of unresolved issues is impressive.

I am analyzind the problem with Tier / Special Prices for an associated product or more, it seems that it does not work, if there is a promotion only for that Simple Product, you must either use it individually or create another product that contains all Simple Products with Tier / Special Prices. We don't really have flexibility with certain facilities that are found in simple products.

This extension comes to improve the work with configurable products and seems to be free:
https://www.best4mage.com/magento-easy-configurable-product-matrix-multiple-attributes.html