How do I disable products when they become "out of stock"

Question

I'd like to have items automatically change to disabled once they become "out of stock".

The default options simply remove the add to cart button but the product is still viewable if you have the products URL. This causes issues as products are still showing up in Google shopping, costing my client unnecessarily as customers are clicking through to the product, seeing it's unavailable and leaving.

Is there a way this can be done?

I'm running community edition 1.9.1.0.

Answer 1

Yes, this is true, Magento even notifies you that: "Products will still be shown by direct product URLs".

What you can do is to use the event <catalog_controller_product_view> and if the product is out of stock then redirect to $this->_redirect('noroute'); which is the 404 page, otherwise, do nothing (return $this;), so the product page will be displayed like in the normal case.

I hope it helps!

Answer 2

This issue can be resolved with a module. Create a new module with the following files:

/app/code/local/MyCompany/Deactivateproducts/Model/Observer.php

<?php
class MyCompany_Deactivateproducts_Model_Observer
{
    public function salesOrderSaveAfter($observer)
    {

        $storeId = 0; //the admin store view, change this if you want to disable only for the store view from which the order came
        $order= $observer->getEvent()->getOrder();

        foreach ($order->getItemsCollection() as $item) {


            $stockQty = (int)Mage::getModel('cataloginventory/stock_item')->loadByProduct($item->getProductId())->getQty();

            if ($stockQty == 0) {
                Mage::getModel('catalog/product_status')->updateProductStatus($item->getProductId(), $storeId, Mage_Catalog_Model_Product_Status::STATUS_DISABLED);
            }
        }

    }
}

/app/code/local/MyCompany/Deactivateproducts/etc/config.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
    <modules>
        <MyCompany_Deactivateproducts>
            <version>0.1.0</version>
        </MyCompany_Deactivateproducts>
    </modules>

    <frontend>
        <events>
            <sales_order_save_after>
                <observers>
                    <deactivateproducts>
                        <type>singleton</type>
                        <class>MyCompany_Deactivateproducts_Model_Observer</class>
                        <method>salesOrderSaveAfter</method>
                    </deactivateproducts>
                </observers>
            </sales_order_save_after>
        </events>
        <routers>
            <MyCompany_Deactivateproducts>
                <use>standard</use>
                <args>
                    <module>MyModule_Deactivateproducts</module>
                    <frontName>Deactivateproducts</frontName>
                </args>
            </MyCompany_Deactivateproducts>
        </routers>
    </frontend>
</config>

Also don't forget to create the /app/etc/modules/MyCompany_Deactivateproducts.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<config>
    <modules>
        <MyCompany_Deactivateproducts>
            <active>true</active>
            <codePool>local</codePool>
        </MyCompany_Deactivateproducts>
    </modules>
</config>

And replace "MyCompany" string from the above code with the name of your Package/Company

Answer 3

If your intent is to HIDE products that are no longer in stock, this is a feature built into default Magento. In the Admin, go to System > Configuration > Inventory (Catalog Section). Then under the "Stock Options" group set the option "Display Out of Stock Products" to "No".

This does not actually disable those products. If you still want that as an automated feature you will need to create a module to handle that.

However, if your only goal is to prevent the products from appearing on the website then this option is designed just for that purpose. (You could always mass disable products of QTY = 0 from the Admin Product Grid on a daily/weekly basis.)