4.3. Product Variants

The MageSuite allows to offer Product Variants in the shop. Product Variants are similar to configurable products as they show variations of a given product. However, there are some crucial differences:

• All Product Variants are located on the same hierarchy level. Unlike configurable products are is no mother (configurable product type) and child (simple product attached to configurable product) relation.

• All Product Variants are stand-alone simple products and so they are all displayed on the Product Overview Page per default. In the case of configurable products only the configurable product itself is displayed on the Product Overview Page.

• Product Variant products do not have any attribute to be configured. Instead there is only a variant switcher that allows switching to the related simple product. In case of configurable products 
  the configurable product (mother) displays certain configurable attributes such as size or color. Selecting the proper configuration (or variation) will lead to the simple product (child) attached 
  to the configurable product.

In order to set up Product Variants firstly access STORES / SETTING / CONFIGURATION and then navigate to MAGESUITE and then PRODUCT VARIANTS. In order to enable the Product Variant feature set the ENABLED dropdown to “YES”. Now enter the attribute code that you want to use for controlling the Product Variant group in the ATTRIBUTE CODE input field. The default attribute code is “article_group_id”. In case you want to use another attribute, make sure you enter the correct attribute code from STORES / ATTRIBUTES / PRODUCT. Finally you can choose the pattern for displaying the Product Variant name in the Variant switcher on the Product Detail Page:

1. FULL NAME: The full product name of the given Product Variant will be displayed in the Variant 
   switcher.

2. REMOVE PREFIX: In this case the Variant switcher will contain only the latest strings of the product name that are differentiating. For example:

   1. “Crown Backpack 20L” will be named “20L” in the Variant switcher

   2. “Crown Backpack 30L” will be named “30L” in the Variant switcher

3. REMOVE SUFFIX: In this case the Variant switcher will contain only the first strings of the product 
   name that are differentiating. For example:

   1. “35mA battery” will be named “35mA” in the Variant switcher

   2. “40mA battery” will be named “40mA” in the Variant switcher

4. REMOVE PREFIX AND SUFFIX: The backend will take both removing suffix and removing prefix under consideration and will calculate the largest common counter.

Now you can put simple products to Product Variant groups. Access CATALOG / INVENTORY / PRODUCTS and click EDIT in the product entry to be put into a group. In the ARTICLE GROUP ID input 
field (in case you have chosen another ATTRIBUTE CODE in the preceding configuration, another attribute name will be displayed here) enter an alphanumerical value to define the Product Variant group you want to put the given simple product in. Now click SAVE on the top area on the right-hand side. Perform this action for all simple products that you want to put in the Product Variant group.⁵³ Based on the input made here the backend will automatically calculate which simple products to group. All the simple products grouped here will be displayed as Product Variants in the Product Variant switcher on the Product Detail Page.

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⁵³ Note: You can also put simple products into Product Variant groups in the Product Grid view via mass action.