Magento2: Configurable product - if variant products removed in Configurations the product loses its Type and becomes a Simple.

[tadhgbowe]

Version 2.0.0. (follow on from issue #2564)

Step 1: I import a new configurable product with 2 variant simple products. All three products are imported fine and the Configurations section in the Admin Panel for the configurable product is displaying two variant products.

Step 2: I then realise that I've assigned the incorrect simple products to the configurable parent. It's an easy mistake to make then filling in a .csv import file. So in the Admin Panel Configurations section I use the Action "Remove Product" for both simple products. But when I remove the last one and save the "Add Products Manually" disappears. So I can no longer select the two simple products (that exist) I wanted. I don't want to have to generate more variants via the wizard.

Step 3: I go back to my original import csv file and put in the correct details for the configurable product row in the "configurable_variations" column. I try importing just that one row. It doesn't work! Oops. It was working a few minutes back when the configurable product was created. So why is this? I then notice that the product type for the configurable says it's now a "Simple" product. Oh dear. So when I removed the incorrect variant products in step 2 after the last was gone Magento decided that this was no longer a configurable product and switched it back to a Simple. Oops. This should not happen.

It must try to remember that the product is configurable and also remember the attributes being used for the configurations e.g. color, size.

Thank you.
Tadhg

[katmoon]

Hi,

Thanks for reporting the issue.
An internal ticket MAGETWO-47700 has been created.

Please note you can also update variations using Actions menu

[adifucan]

Current behavior is expected and is the same as on Magento version 2.0.0

To be able to add products manually user needs to select attribute first to generate product variations with this attribute.

For example, user starts to create product configurations. First he selects attributes or attribute (for example, color). Then he add only 2 values to this attribute (white & black) out of 4 values (red & yellow). Then he generates products and gets 2 products. There is Add Products Manually button and user can click on it and filter products that have attribute color. Now user can add products but only those ones that have color attribute value red & yellow.

So to add products manually you need to select attribute first. That's why there is no Add Products Manually button on empty Configurations section. Attribute is unknown when there is no product variation.

[shiftedreality]

Appropriate comment added above.
Closed.

[tadhgbowe]

Hello guys. I'm sorry you've not understood the issue correctly. If you remove all the variants (because they were imported incorrectly) you suddenly can't choose a different product. The configurable product itself has reverted back to being a simple. Here are the steps:

Step 1: I import a new configurable product with 2 variant simple products. All three products are imported fine and the Configurations section in the Admin Panel for the configurable product is displaying two variant products.

Step 2: I then realise that I've assigned the incorrect simple products to the configurable parent. It's an easy mistake to make then filling in a .csv import file. So in the Admin Panel Configurations section I use the Action "Remove Product" for both simple products. But when I remove the last one and save the "Add Products Manually" disappears. So I can no longer select the two simple products (that exist) I wanted. I don't want to have to generate more variants via the wizard.

Step 3: I go back to my original import csv file and put in the correct details for the configurable product row in the "configurable_variations" column. I try importing just that one row. It doesn't work! Oops. It was working a few minutes back when the configurable product was created. So why is this? I then notice that the product type for the configurable says it's now a "Simple" product. Oh dear. So when I removed the incorrect variant products in step 2 after the last was gone Magento decided that this was no longer a configurable product and switched it back to a Simple. Oops. This should not happen.

Thanks
Tadhg

[shiftedreality]

Thank you for clarification.
Reopened, increased priority caused by incorrect import.

[tadhgbowe]

Hello.
Thanks. Doing an incorrect import was only an example of how the real world sometimes messes up data. It could easily be somebody creating a new configurable product in the Admin Panel. Creating it initially works absolutely fine. It's when the user realises their mistake an unassigns all the simple variants first, maybe click save oh oh! the configurable has changed to a simple. Oops. Not good.
Maybe the next version will miraculously fix it :-)
Kind regards,
Tadhg

[jBOKA]

Getting back to @adifucan 's comment, since he posted here (see issue https://github.com/magento/magento2/issues/2564). Do you really mean it is expected behaviour to generate unnecessary variations (like color black and white), just to replace them afterwards? I mean you would be creating products to delete them afterwards. That sounds unreasonable.
Could you suggest a workflow for many imported simple products, of which many need to be "grouped" as a configurable product?

[tadhgbowe]

Hi folks. Thanks for your contributions.

Nobody is creating variations just to delete them afterwards. I was only giving a real world example. People make mistakes. And it's pretty easy to make them when product importing.

In my example the simple and configurable products do need to exist. They just made the mistake of associating the wrong simples to the wrong parent configurable in the import. So they view the configurable in the Admin Panel, realise their mistake, remove the incorrect associations and oops! when they remove the last one and save the "Add Products Manually" disappears. So I'm in trouble. They are then forced down an incorrect path. And Step 3 described above will not work now either.

Hope this helps. So what needs to be fixed:

1. We need to always have the "Add Products Manually" available in the Admin Panel whether creating a new configurable in the Admin Panel or fixing up an existing product where we have to remove incorrect associations.

PS. Magento 2 is awesome. I don't know how you community dudes find the time. Well done to everyone :-)

[atIOCrON]

+1

[katmoon]

I'm closing the ticket since the issue has been fixed and delivered to develop branch.

[rosandrest]

where is the fix? is there a patch as it is still an issue in 2.1. and it is burdensome to have to create variations just to get the Add Products Manually link. thanks!

[katmoon]

Hi @rosandrest ,

It should be fixed in 2.1

[rosandrest]

It is not.

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 25, 2016, at 7:01 AM, Kateryna Muntianu [email protected] wrote:

Hi @rosandrest ,

It should be fixed in 2.1

—
You are receiving this because you were mentioned.
Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or mute the thread.

[katmoon]

@rosandrest please open a new ticket and describe the detailed steps, Magento mode, any errors in Magento or php/apache error logs if present.
It can be a different issue.

[SewHappy58]

It's not fixed in Magento 2.1.1

[rma-web]

I am having this issue too. It would be great to be able to create configurations from existing products instead of relying on the configurable products builder to create them. I am using CE 2.1.1 in developer mode.

[MarekKarmelski]

It's not working in MCE 2.1.1 still

[cdbessig]

Why are we still having issues from December 2015 in February 2017....I'm experiencing an issue where a configurable product turned into a simple product because its only configurable product was removed. Now I want to add the simple product back, but I cannot without creating a new dummy product first.

Anyway seems to be linked to this github issue and a few others that have been marked as closed and in magentos internal backlog.

[tadhgbowe]

Hello All.

Yes I reported this a long time ago. I think it got moved into "improvement" somewhere but must now be long forgotten about now.

Yes @cdbessig, you are correct. If all the configurable children are removed and you click Save then it changes the type_id from configurable to simple. So we're immediately in trouble.

In the real world people make mistakes especially when using the product import. They may accidentally assign the wrong simple products to a configurable parent. Or they may have imported simple products first. Then import just the configurable parents separately with the hope of marrying everything up in the Admin Panel. No such luck.

I will try get this case reopened because some of the previous comments to say it has been fixed are incorrect. I've just retested in 2.1.4 and it's still and issue.

Thanks
Tadhg

[HenKun]

I am on 2.3.5-p2 and still encounter this issue, which leads to massive problems. Can anyone guide me to the place where this issue should be fixed? @katmoon, why creating a new ticket, the description is quite exact. The product is transformed to simple after all variants are removed from the product and the product is saved. The result can be seen in catalog_product_entity in column type_id.