How to link simple products to configurable product?

Question

Im building an import extention, that imports bicycles from an external Database into Magento.

I managed to create working helpers, that create a configurable product and the different bikesizes as simple products.

Now I struggle to get them linked. I tried 7 "solutions" so far, none is working. The Configuration in the configurable product wont show up.

Here are my 2 helpers, that create configurable and simple product:

public function createsimpleproduct($productoptions)
    {
      $objectManager = \Magento\Framework\App\ObjectManager::getInstance(); // instance of object manager
      $product = $objectManager->create('\Magento\Catalog\Model\Product');

      $product->setUrlKey($productoptions['url']);
      $attid = $this->createOrGetId('marke', $productoptions['marke']);
      $product->setData('marke', $attid);
      $attid = $this->createOrGetId('rahmenhoehe', $productoptions['rahmenhoehe']);
      $product->setData('rahmenhoehe', $attid);
      $product->setSku($productoptions['sku']); // Set your sku here
      $product->setName($productoptions['name']); // Name of Product
      $product->setAttributeSetId(4); // Attribute set id
      $product->setStatus(1); // Status on product enabled/ disabled 1/0
      $product->setWeight(10); // weight of product
      $product->setVisibility(4); // visibilty of product (catalog / search / catalog, search / Not visible individually)
      $product->setTaxClassId(1); // Tax class id
      $product->setTypeId('simple'); // type of product (simple/virtual/downloadable/configurable)
      $product->setPrice(100); // price of product
      $product->setEan($productoptions['ean']);
      $product->setStockData(
                              array(
                                  'use_config_manage_stock' => 1,
                                  'manage_stock' => 1,
                                  'is_in_stock' => 1,
                                  'default_stock' => 10,
                                  'qty' => 10
                              )
                          );


      $product->save();
      return $product;
    }

And the one for the configurable product:

public function createconfigproduct($productoptions)
    {
      $objectManager = \Magento\Framework\App\ObjectManager::getInstance(); // instance of object manager
      $product = $objectManager->create('\Magento\Catalog\Model\Product');
      $product->setUrlKey($productoptions['url']);
      $product->setSku($productoptions['sku']."-base"); // Set your sku here
      $product->setName($productoptions['name']); // Name of Product
      $product->setAttributeSetId(4); // Attribute set id
      $product->setStatus(1); // Status on product enabled/ disabled 1/0
      $product->setVisibility(3); // visibilty of product (catalog / search / catalog, search / Not visible individually)
      $product->setTaxClassId(1); // Tax class id
      $product->setTypeId('configurable'); // type of product (simple/virtual/downloadable/configurable)
      $product->setPrice(100); // price of product
      $product->setDescription('Geiles Teil');
      $attid = $this->createOrGetId('marke', $productoptions['marke']);
      $product->setData('marke', $attid);
      $product->setStockData(
                              array(
                                  'use_config_manage_stock' => 1,
                                  'manage_stock' => 1,
                                  'is_in_stock' => 1
                              )
                          );


      $product->save();
      return $product;
    }

A third helper function, were I can just give the configurable product id and the simple product ids (as an array) into, would be really nice. But all the functions I tried so far are failing. It looks like I need the Attribute(Id), that I want to be the Attribute, I want to be the "configurable" one - That problem is already solved by 2 other functions - so no worries, if those are needed in a possible solution.

Thanks in advance

Some solutions I tried so far:

How do I create a configurable product programmatically and assign simple products?

Magento 2: How to create configurable product Programmatically

https://firebearstudio.com/blog/how-to-programmatically-create-a-configurable-magento-2-product.html

https://www.mageplaza.com/devdocs/magento-2-create-product-programmatically.html

UPDATE: As the save method from the $attributeModel is deprecated since 2.3, you can get an updated question and answer for magento > 2.3 here: Creating configurable product attribute with magento > 2.4

Answer 1

you will need to tell magento first on what attribute you need to create configurable product for example , if i need to create configurable product on the basis of size and color ,

1. first i will do this .(Set on which attribute the configurable will be created)

    $attributeModel = $objectManager->create('Magento\ConfigurableProduct\Model\Product\Type\Configurable\Attribute');
    $attributes = array(93,146);/*93 color | 146 size */
    foreach ($attributes as $key => $attributeId) {
    $data = array('attribute_id' => $attributeId, 'product_id' => $configurable_productId, 'position' => $key);
                $attributeModel->setData($data)->save();
    }
   

2. Assign simple product ids to your configurable product object

   $configurable_product->setAssociatedProductIds($simple_product_ids);

where $simple_product_ids is an array containing ids of separate simple product. i created simple product and configurable product at the same time so i did this

An important thing to note here is , for this to work both color and size attribute must have global scope and should be either dropdown or visual swatch

I had the exactly same requirement where i have to create custom product import functionality , through there was a lot extra things that i need to implement here i have tried to extracted the required code

$configurable_product = $objectManager->create('Magento\Catalog\Model\Product');
$configurable_product->setStoreId(0); 
$configurable_product->setPrice($configurable_product_row['price']);
$configurable_product->setWebsiteIds($website_ids);

/*add dropdown attribute value to products */
$additional_select_values_array=array("brand","season","celebrity_name","pattern","sleeve","neck","length","occasion"
);
foreach ($additional_select_values_array as  $option_name) {
    $attrid = creatOrGetId($option_name);
    $configurable_product->setData("$option_name",$attrid);
}

$configurable_product->setSku($configurable_product_row['sku']);
  $configurable_product->setAttributeSetId(13);
  $configurable_product->setStatus((int)$configurable_product_row['enable']);
  $configurable_product->setTypeId('configurable'); 
  $configurable_product->setWeight(0);
  $configurable_product->setVisibility(4);
  $configurable_product->setTaxClassId($tax_class);
  $configurable_product->setStockData(array('use_config_manage_stock' => 0,'manage_stock' => 1,'is_in_stock' => 1,));
  
  $urlKeyY = makeUrlKey($configurable_product_row['name']);
  $configurable_product->setUrlKey($urlKeyY);
  $configurable_product->setUrlPath($urlKeyY);
  $configurable_product->setIsMassupdate(true);
  $configurable_product->setExcludeUrlRewrite(true);
  $configurable_product->save();
  $configurable_productId = $configurable_product->getId();
  $attributeModel = $objectManager->create('Magento\ConfigurableProduct\Model\Product\Type\Configurable\Attribute');
  $attributes = array(93,146);/*93 color | 146 size */
  foreach ($attributes as $key => $attributeId) {
      $data = array('attribute_id' => $attributeId, 'product_id' => $configurable_productId, 'position' => $key);
      $attributeModel->setData($data)->save();
  }
  $configurable_product->setTypeId("configurable");
  $configurable_product->setAffectConfigurableProductAttributes(13);
  $objectManager->create('Magento\ConfigurableProduct\Model\Product\Type\Configurable')->setUsedProductAttributeIds($attributes, $configurable_product);
  $configurable_product->setNewVariationsAttributeSetId(13); 
  $configurable_product->setAssociatedProductIds($simple_product_ids);
  $configurable_product->setCanSaveConfigurableAttributes(true);
  $configurable_product->setCategoryIds($category_ids);
  $configurable_product->save();
}

hope it helps.

Answer 2

For anyone looking for help with this, try the RedirectSimpleProducts module on GitHub. Worked for me.