Magento – Why isn’t the attribute text showing on the front end

Everything was simpler than I thought, as shoes_model is text-based attribute, I should get it like so:

$_product->getShoesModel();

or like so:

$_product->getData('shoes_model');

To change the attribute type you can create a set-up script and call the following snippet:

$installer->updateAttribute('catalog_product', 'your_attribute_code', array(
    'type' => 'varchar',
    'input' => 'text',
));

But this will not copy over the currently set values on the products. I am not sure what the best way to cover this would be. Though I can give you the following information:

1. catalog_product_entity_int: will store the id of the options selected,
2. catalog_product_entity_varchar: is where the varchar attribute values should be stored,
3. eav_attribute_option: this will give you the link from options to attributes,
4. eav_attribute_option_value: this will give you the text value for each of the attribute's options,

From this you should be able to copy all the attribute values from the integer values stored in catalog_product_entity_int and make them the relevant text values stored in catalog_product_entity_varchar