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I am trying to import a list of products which contain both simple and configurable products.

Having read the manual and other resources, I am still very confused on a few aspects on the CSV file.

What I have is various attributes such as colour, size, style, search colour, scent, pack qty and wesco type.

I have a few questions to clarify the model of the CSV I am to generate:

1) I read that you need to setup the attributes beforehand in Magento - for this I need to set up a attribute value as I have set the attribute to 'values required - yes'.

So for example 'Colour - values required yes' now when I try and save this it wants me to set up an actual colour. Can I just use the value 'none' and let Magmi handle the actual attributes (the real colour values)? Or do I need to go through all the possible options and input them into Magento manually (blue, yellow, green ...)?

2) Having looked at examples on the internet, do I set my CSV like this:

sku, type, colour, size, style, search, colour, scent, pack qty, wesco type, configurable_attributes
slave, simple, blue, , , , , , , , blue
master, configurable, , , , , , , , , colour

OR

sku, type, configurable_attributes
slave, simple, blue
master, configurable, colour

3) Is it possible for me to do all the configurable products first like in question 2. Then after do another import for just the standalone simple products. As you can see I am trying to automatically link the products.

If you require any clarification, please feel free to ask me to be more precise with any of the questions.

4) Regarding prices for simple and configurable products, can I use the price field and set £0.00 for a configurable product and the actual price on each simple product?

user1942793
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1 Answers1

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1) Can I just use the value 'none' and let Magmi handle the actual attributes (the real colour values)? Or do I need to go through all the possible options and input them into Magento manually (blue, yellow, green ...)?

Magmi will create the attribute options for you, just not the attributes themselves. So you will need to create the Colour attribute, but you do not have to input each option such as black, red, green etc.

2) Having looked at examples on the internet, do I set my CSV like this:

If you read the CSV Datasource documentation, it will tell you that the correct format for the attribute columns is the actual attribute code. You can find the Attribute Code for an attribute under Catalog > Attributes > Manage Attributes in the Magento admin.

Also, make sure you are including the required columns for Magmi. These required columns can again be found on the Import new products documentation page.

The required columns for Magmi 0.7.17+ are: 

"attribute_set","type","sku"

So to properly import configurable Colour products, your CSV should also follow the documentation for the Configurable Item Processor.

"attribute_set","type","sku","colour","configurable_attributes","simple_skus"
"Colour","simple","mysimpleproduct","Red","colour",""
"Colour","configurable","myconfigproduct","","colour","mysimpleproduct"

Then be sure to enable the Configurable Item processor plugin in Magmi and set the Perform simples/configurable link option for the plugin to Yes.

3) Is it possible for me to do all the configurable products first like in question 2. Then after do another import for just the standalone simple products. As you can see I am trying to automatically link the products.

Yes, you can associate simple products to an already created configurable product at a later time, however you MUST include the configurable product in your import CSV to associate skus to it. The simple_skus column should contain a comma separated list of simple product skus that you want assigned to a configurable product. Any skus not listed in the simple_skus column upon import will be disassociated with the configurable product.

4) Regarding prices for simple and configurable products, can I use the price field and set £0.00 for a configurable product and the actual price on each simple product?

No. Magento by default uses the Base Price for the configurable product as the pricing for all associated simple products. Simple product prices are not actually used when adding to the cart, it's the configurable parent product and based on the super attribute pricing, the price changes.

To have Magento use the simple product prices based on the attribute combination selected, you will need to install a 3rd party extension. I personally use and recommend the Simple Configurable Products extension that will do just that.

Axel
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  • Thanks for your help; just some clarification for answer 2. Does this mean I have to import colour products seperately with the colour column, then another import for size products and so on? Or can I throw in the size column and leave it empty in the csv if it does not exist for that product? – user1942793 Oct 27 '14 at 16:28
  • If you have products that have both size and color, they will need their attribute set. If you have products that just have color, they need their own attribute set. Then in the CSV, you define the attribute set depending on what that product needs. – Axel Oct 27 '14 at 16:32
  • I kind of understand, sorry my head is a bit all over the place. Say for example.. I have product A which has colour attribute and product B which has a size attribute. Now If both products were in the same CSV. Would I have the 2 seperate columns in the CSV, colour|size| but have an empty data value when there isn't any attribute for the product. So for example for product a colour can be blue and for size there shouldn't be any data? – user1942793 Oct 27 '14 at 16:50
  • Just to confuse you further (!), there are other ways of associating simple products with configurable products. For example, I use a common SKU prefix so, for example, "conf1-simple1", "conf1-simple2" has 2 simple producs in conf1. "conf2-simple3", "conf2-simple4" has two other simple products in conf2. – PedroKTFC Oct 27 '14 at 17:47
  • If you have 2 products, one that just has colour and one that just has size, simply leave the colour column blank for the size product, and the size column blank for the colour product. Just make sure both products have their correct attribute sets defined. – Axel Oct 27 '14 at 20:29
  • And yes, you can associate simply skus to a configurable product using a SKU prefix. For example, make the configurable sku `conf1`, then for each simple use `conf1-simple1`, `conf1-simple2`. As long as the prefix **conf1** matches the configurable sku and you have **auto match simples skus before configurable** option set to yes for the **Configurable Item processor** plugin it will work. Using this method, the `simple_skus` column won't be needed. – Axel Oct 27 '14 at 20:31
  • Thanks a lot guys, unfortunately the sku names are horrible - a lot were even missing so I had to set temporary names... So this probably wouldn't be an option! I have got simple skus column working fine (I hope) thanks for the help! – user1942793 Oct 28 '14 at 12:42