How do I add an attribute + it's sortorder (position) to the product list collection?

Question

How do I add an attribute + it's sortorder (position) to the product list collection?

In the catalog category list we use 1 text attribute (brand) and 1 list attribute (size) .... for every product we have to use getAttribute() and getAttributetext() ....

BUt: how can I

1. add the brand attribute to the list collection?
2. add the size attribute + it's position (sort order) to the list collection?

Can this easily be added to the query? or how do I do this?

thanks!

Answer 1

Copy the file \app\code\core\Mage\Catalog\Block\Product\List.php to \app\code\local\Mage\Catalog\Block\Product\List.php

In the function _getProductCollection after the statement

$this->_productCollection = $layer->getProductCollection();

add below code.

$this->_productCollection->addAttributeToSelect('brand')->addAttributeToSelect('size')->setOrder('size','DESC');

You can also override the List class by adding below code into a custom module's config.xml.

<config>
    <global>
        <blocks>
            <catalog>
                <rewrite>
                    <product_list>Custom_Module_Block_Product_List</product_list>
                </rewrite>
            </catalog>
        </blocks>
    </global>
</config>