Product is missing Attibute Text property

Question

I have the following in my custom module:

$product = $quote_item->getProduct();

If I then do this I see the product id:

var_dump($product->getId());

This though gives me null:

var_dump($product->getAttributeText('manufacturer'));

But this gives me the manaufacturer:

$product = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load($quote_item->getProductId());

var_dump($product->getAttributeText('manufacturer'));

I can't use the second option becuase I am adding to some existing code which I do not want to break. Taking the first example how can I access the AttributeText property and why in my case is it empty?

Answer 1

If you want to add custom attributes to quote items, you have to declare them first.

Add this to your modules config.xmlglobal section:

    <sales>
        <quote>
            <item>
                <product_attributes>
                    <manufacturer />
                </product_attributes>
            </item>
        </quote>
    </sales>