Magento2 product_options field into the sales_order_itmes table

Question

Does anyone know why, sometimes, into the table sales_order_itmes, I see rows that has product_options fields like this:

{
    "info_buyRequest": {
        "uenc": "aHR0cHM6Ly9iZXRhLm5hdmlvbmljcy5jb20vaXRhL3BsYXRpbnVtLXBsdXMtbWVkaXRlcnJhbmVhbi1hbmQtYmxhY2stc2VhLTIuaHRtbA,,",
        "product": "16831",
        "selected_configurable_option": "",
        "related_product": "",
        "qty": "1",
        "super_attribute": {
            "140": "4"
        }
    }
}

and some other times I have this?

{
    "info_buyRequest": {
        "uenc": "aHR0cHM6Ly9iZXRhLm5hdmlvbmljcy5jb20vaXRhL2NoYXJ0cy9wcm9kdWN0L2luZGV4Lw,,",
        "product": "16132",
        "qty": 1
    }
}

Both are related to simple products (product_type column is 'simple')

Answer 1

In Magento 2, the super_attribute is an array that appears in the info_buyRequest object when a product with configurable options is added to the cart.

The super_attribute array contains the selected options for each configurable attribute of the product, along with their respective values. For example, if a configurable product has attributes for color and size, and a customer selects the color "blue" and the size "medium" when adding the product to their cart, the super_attribute array will contain the following data:

"super_attribute": {
    "color": 4,
    "size": 8
}

In this example, "color" is the attribute code for the color option, and "4" is the option value for "blue". "size" is the attribute code for the size option, and "8" is the option value for "medium".

The super_attribute array is important for determining the specific product variant that the customer has selected, as well as for calculating the product price based on the selected options.