magento get products only works with disabled Flat Catalog Product

Question

we would like to check if products exists with the following code:

$foundProduct = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->loadByAttribute('sku', $sku);

We only get positive results if "Use Flat Catalog Product" is disabled in the configuration.

Answer 1

Try using $_product = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load($productSku, 'sku'); instead of Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->loadByAttribute('sku', $sku);

Answer 2

the only working solution for both disabled and enabled products I found here: http://magentoexplorer.com/how-load-product-by-sku-or-id-in-magento

$_sku = 'leathershoes';

$_catalog = Mage::getModel('catalog/product');

$_productId = $_catalog->getIdBySku($_sku);

$_product = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load($_productId);

Answer 3

Just tested this on a category page, and it does work. On which page are u trying to do this, and in what code are you using $foundProduct?

Have you reindexed all indexes after enabling flat catalog? cleared all caches? Perhaps try to run the code with all caches disabled.