Magento: Configurable products without setting up each simple product?

I need to set up hundreds of products, each of which need an drop down that has from a few to twenty or thirty options so I refuse to use configurable products to set these up. I just want a product to use all the options in an attribute.

For example, I want to let customers pick from colors and sizes for a product, but I don't want to have to individually create products for each option. The pricing is the same for everyone and I don't need to track inventory for the options, so there's n开发者_StackOverflow中文版o benefits in using configurable products.

Is this possible?

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Either use simple products and utilize the custom options tab (you will not be able to track inventory of each variant if you go this route). I have seen a number of ways to do this programatically via magento's product creation API or custom code. There is also a number of extensions that make it easier to to do but they do not fully automate the process. One of the automated ways to do it very fast can be found here.

The tutorial is setup exactly the way you want (color & size). Once you create this page make sure you are logged into the admin and open it with your browser. It will work it's magic.

Here are most of the extensions that do it, but they are not as automated as the custom coding methods such as the one linked above:

• Product Creator
• Automatic Configurables
• Better Configurable Products

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Perhaps instead of configurable products you could use simple products with custom options instead. There are even ways of importing products with options intact, most of the work is done by copy & paste in a spreadsheet which is much quicker.

If you're looking for a more programmatic way of doing things then you might think of making a custom product type which adds the same options every time so you never need to specify them again. Modifying the product type would modify all options at once too.

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Yes, this is possible, just make attributes and note that this is a programming forum, for general questions head to magento forums

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Simple product with custom option is not === configurable product as each option do not have Magento stock control, as you can never say Size "Small" sold out as there is no stock for options, that is the main reason why Magento has to use simple product to be the option of the configurable product as simple has stock.

If you have unlimited stock then using simple product plus custom option is the best solution for performance.