Magento – Add custom field to Attribute page

attributes

Is there any clean way to add custom field to all product attributes in Magento?
Catalog -> Attributes -> Manage Attributes -> (Add new/Edit) Attribute page.

Something like it can be done for catalog category:

$setup = new Mage_Eav_Model_Entity_Setup("core_setup");
// below code will add text attribute
$setup->addAttribute("catalog_category", "attribute_code", array(
"group"         => "General",
"input"         => "text",
"type"          => "varchar",
"label"         => "Attribute label",
"backend"       => "",
"visible"       => 1,
"required"      => 0,
"user_defined" => 1,
"global"        => Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Eav_Attribute::SCOPE_GLOBAL,
));

There is no record in eav_entity_type table for attributes, so i can not use this method.
Is there any suggestion on the best way for adding this custom field for attributes.

Best Answer

There is no record in eav_entity_type table for attributes

The only attribute connection in the eav_entity_type table is a field (addition_attribute_table) which points to additional attribute metadata for each type.

The fields in the Catalog > Attributes > Manage Attributes create/edit views are attribute metadata and map to the columns in the eav_attribute and catalog_eav_attribute tables. The canonical attribute record and cross-entity metadata are in the former table, while catalog attribute metadata are in the latter table.

In order to have another field in the referenced view, you either need to rewrite the Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Catalog_Product_Attribute_Edit_Tab_Main class or (more flexibly) add another tab which contains the input for your custom field. You will also need to add your column to the catalog_eav_attribute table.

You might want to rewrite the Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Product_Attribute_Collection model if you need to conveniently apply filtering conditions based on your field, and you might consider rewriting Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Setup::_prepareValues() if you want to specify a default value for your field.

Pretty neat!

Related Solutions

Magento – Loop Magento Custom Attributes in Product View Description

Magento already has a block that displays the attributes in the view page. It is called Mage_Catalog_Block_Product_View_Attributes. See this as demo (additional information section).
All the attributes that have is_visible_on_front are displayed in that section.

The only down side is that it shows event he attributes that don't have a value.
To overcome this, just rewrite the method getAdditionalData in that block and replace

if (!$product->hasData($attribute->getAttributeCode())) {
    $value = Mage::helper('catalog')->__('N/A');
} elseif ((string)$value == '') {
    $value = Mage::helper('catalog')->__('No');
} elseif ($attribute->getFrontendInput() == 'price' && is_string($value)) {
    $value = Mage::app()->getStore()->convertPrice($value, true);
}

with

if (!$product->hasData($attribute->getAttributeCode())) {
    continue;
} elseif ((string)$value == '') {
    continue;
} elseif ($attribute->getFrontendInput() == 'price' && is_string($value)) {
    $value = Mage::app()->getStore()->convertPrice($value, true);
}

EDIT
But just in case you need it for something...here is how you can get the product available attributes

$attributes = $product->getAttributes();

Magento – Field dependency for category attributes

Bad news: You cannot define dependencies in attributes, so yes, you will need to manipulate the form directly like in the linked article(s).

Good news: No rewrites are required, there is an observer that you can use: adminhtml_catalog_category_edit_prepare_form

It's triggered for each group in Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Catalog_Category_Tab_Attributes::_prepareForm() and has the Varien_Data_Form as parameter, that you can access with:

$form = $observer->getForm()

At this point all attributes are already added to a fieldset called fieldset_group_{$groupId} - by checking for the fieldset you can identify the currently rendered tab. You need to know the group ID of your tab. Unfortunately the group object itself is not passed to the observer.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Magento – Loop Magento Custom Attributes in Product View Description

Magento – Field dependency for category attributes

Related Topic