How to create a Magento configurable product [ Tutorial ]

In this tutorial, we will guide you How to create a Magento Configurable Product. For this you should follow below steps:

Step 1:Log into your Magento admin panel and Navigate to “Manage Attributes” under top menu Catalog -> Attributes -> Manage Attributes

Step 2: Click on “Add New Attribute” in the top right

Step 3: In this step, you will be switched to Attribute edit page. Click on Properties tabs to start creating new product attribute. You will Create attributes that you want to be configurable by the customer – in our example we will use Color.

a. Attribute Properties:

• Attribute Code: the name of the attribute used by the system, in our example use “color”
• Scope should be set to Global
• Catalog Input Type is set to dropdown – this is required for the attribute to be compatible with configurable products
• Unique Value: select “yes” if you want the data saved in this attribute to be unique for each product. But you should use “no”, because different product types may be made of the same “color”.
• Values Required: If “yes”, you will have to to enter data in this attribute field when before you save a product that uses it. Should be set “yes“.  In order for a Simple Product to be associated to a Configurable Product, it must have a value for all configurable attributes, so making it required ensures that you will add a value for this attribute for all Simple Products.
• Input Validation for Store Owner: This decides whether the data entered by the store owner is validated when the product is saved.  Recommended to be set None
• Apply To: This determines for which Product Types this attribute will display.  If you choose “Select product types”, you can select one or some product types will have this attribute. If you chose “All product types”, this attribute will be applied for all product types.
• Use To Create Configurable Product: If this “Yes”, attribute will be applied to create configurable products. This must be set to Yes.

b. Frontend Properties:

• Use in quick: If “yes”, the data saved in this attribute will be searchable in the front-end in the quick search and advanced search.
• Use in advanced search: If “yes”, the data saved in this attribute will be searchable in the front-end in the advanced search.
• Comparable on Front-end: If “yes”, this attribute will be displayed in a product comparison, so long as at least one product in the Compare List contains a value for this attribute.
• Use in Layered Navigation: This can be used with catalog input type Dropdown, Multiple Select and Price. If “filterable”, this data will be available as a filter in layered navigation. Filterable (with results) means that only values that are associated to specific products in a given category page will list in the Layered Navigation menu. Filterable (no results) means that all existing values for an attribute will display in the menu, even if using this as a filter will produce no results.
• Use In Search Results Layered Navigation: This can be used only with catalog input type Dropdown, Multiple Select and Price. If “Yes”, this data will be available as a filter in Magento’s search result layered navigation.
• Use for Promo Rule Conditions: If you want to define Catalog Price Rules Conditions, you need to set this is “Yes”.
• Position: This determines the position of this attribute in the Layered Nav menu with respect to the other filterable attributes.
• Allow HTML Tags on Frontend: Allow attribute values that have HTML tags enclosing them
• Visible on Catalog Pages on Front-end: Displays this attribute and it’s value on product pages in the “Additional Information” section. If “no”, this attribute will not be displayed in the product info page. The “visibility” only controls whether or not the attribute displays in the front-end. Keep in mind – if you set an attribute to “Visible: No”, and leave it as “Comparable: Yes”, this attribute will still show up in comparison charts.
• Used in Product Listing – Depends on design theme.
• Used for Sorting in Product Listing – By setting this option to Yes the attribute gets added to the default sort options. So at the bottom of the product list this attribute can be chosen as a sort option.

Step 4: Click on Manage Label/Options tab to create the possible options for this attribute.

Manage Titles Field Descriptions: Enter a label for the attribute as it will be seen in the Admin Panel and on the frontend stores. You can enter different labels for each store. Notice if you have multi-language stores, this is where you would translate attribute labels and values. If you leave a store field blank, it will use the default (admin) label.

Manage Options Field Descriptions: For drop down or multi-select attributes, you must provide the options for the attribute. Use the [+Add Option] button to create fields for all your options and enter the values for each. Notice if you have multi-language stores, this is where you would translate attribute labels and values. See below for how it looks after adding some colors as options. You can enter a numerical value in the Position field, and this will determine the sort order of the values in the drop-down/multiple select menu relative to each other. For the Dropdown Input Type, you will have an Is Default radio button with which you can select one value. For the Multiple Select Input Type, you will have an Is Default checkbox with which you can select multiple values.

Step 5: When you finish the setup, click Save Attribute in the top right corner.

Step 6: Now we have to apply this attribute to a product.

• Step 6.1: Create a new attribute set. Go back to the Catalog tab -> Attribute -> select Manage Attribute Sets -> and Click Add New Set. Set you new attribute name by entering the Name filed. E.g. Clothing, and it can Based On -> Default. Click Save Attribute Set.

• Step 6.2: On the next page you will see the attribute set you’ve just created in the third column labeled Unassigned Attributes. You have to drag and drop it to one of the groups in the second/middle column named Groups. For instance, to General, or you can create a new Group. Click Save Attribute Set in the top right.

Step 7: Create Configurable products.

a. Go to “Catalog -> Manage Products” and press “New Product”

b. Create a Configurable Product based on the “Clothing” attribute set

c. The next screen you should pick which attributes you want. Select “color” and “size”, if you created both attributes, then “Continue”.

d. Complete the Product Information as you would for a Simple product, with the following exceptions:

• On the Prices tab, the Price is required, but is used as a default price. The price of individual associated products can be adjusted as needed.
• On the Inventory tab, Manage Stock is set by default to “No,” because inventory is managed by each associated product (simple products).

Then, Save and Continue Edit button to save the “Configurable Product.

e. From the Configurable product record, in the Product Information panel on the left, select the last option, Associated Products. Then, use one of the following methods to add associated products.

Method 1: Quick Simple Product Creation. Click all fields as image below then click Quick Create button to create the associated product record.

Repeat this step for the values needed for each associated product. As each associated products is created, it is added to the list at the bottom of the page.

Method 2: Create Empty. This method opens a blank Product Information form, which you can complete for each associated product.

• In the Create Simple Associated Product section, click the Create Empty button. A pop-up window with a blank Product Information form appears.
• Complete the required fields as you would for any Simple product.
• Click the Save button to add the associated product to the Configurable product record.

Method 3: Copy from Configurable. This method opens a Product Information form that contains the values already entered for the Configurable product. The only fields that need to be completed are the Name, SKU, and values for each drop-down list.

• In the Create Simple Associated Product section, click the Copy From Configurable button. A pop-up window with the basic Product Information from the Configurable product appears.
• Complete the following required fields
• Complete the fields with values for each drop-down list.
• Click the Save button to add the associated product to the Configurable product record.

Method 4: Create new simple product under Catalog -> Manage Products -> Add Product and in the Attribute Set drop-down select the attribute set you’ve created. Then click Continue. Make sure to also set Visibility to Not Visible Individually, because we want it to appear as a Configurable Product, not on its own.

•  You can create a new simple product based on the new product attribute group you created (“clothing”). If you have added the new attribute to the General section or if you create a new group named Clothing, you will find it under the General tab or in the Clothing tab, in the same order it was added when you dragged and dropped the attribute.  Once your new product is created, you can open it on the front end to see the new attribute you have added among its details. Save the product.

• Create other simple products to create combination of options that your super product will contain as below. Then, when you open the Configurable product and in Associated products tab check all simple products created which you want to be associated with this configurable product:

Step 8: Select Save in the top menu and your configurable product should now be ready to be seen on your store front end.

It is done. How the product is going to look on the front end depends on the installed theme and plugins from your store, as well as custom design.

But no matter how they look, by using configurable products will allow you to have an improved customer experience on your store.