assign one attribute to multiple products...?

i have done my best to search the forum regarding attributes, but i can not seem to find anything to do with what i need to accomplish here, so here is my question:

i have the usual "clothing" attributes, such as color and size. i need to be able to assign "color-blue" to products a, b, c, and d, "color-red" to a, and c, and "color-yellow" to b, c, d.... ect ect. how can i select the attribute, then say i want it assigned to products a, b, c, whatever? i cant "copy" from one product to another because not all products have the option of "red"... or whichever color it is.

some more background info, i am setting up a site for a screen printing business. they order their products from another company, print the desired logos on, and ship them out. only problem is, there are a stupid amount of color options for each product, and sometimes, not all colors for all sizes of that one product are available. example: http://gausssales.com/shared/all/catalog/item.cfm?item_code=G2000

can this be done? am i missing something with my options under the attributes controller?

You can copy the attributes of 1 Product to another Product or Category of Products ... however, there is not a pick and choose for which Products in a Category ...

thanks for the reply linda

only problem with that is that each product has different attributes... some might have blue but not all have blue small medium large... hope that makes sense

You could always make some "template" products where they are status off but have the attribute combo that you need to base your copy patterns on ...

Can someone tell me how to delete attributes for all products so I can start over? Not the product , just the attribute.

Empty the tables products_attributes and products_attributes_download and that will delete all of the Attributes and associated downloads for them ...

You can do this in phpMyAdmin ...

NOTE: be sure to backup before making changes like this ...

I want to apply a text attribute to every one of my products. But when I go to the Copy ALL it doesn't look like it will work for me, perhaps because my text attribute is only a name and doesn't have a value.

Is there another way to do this? Or am I misunderstanding the above scenario and there is a way to do it through the COPY ALL?

Thanks!

I figured it out, I could almost cry that was so easy! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

giftbasketree

Could you share your solution for the rest of the community???

Ok, well my first mistake was I was trying to do it from the "catalog" dropdown and selecting the "option name manager". If you go to the "AttributesController" and put the attribute in for one of your items and get it looking exactly the way you want it to. And just because I am kinda anal I went out and came back in to the attributes controller, that's probably not necessary though. Go to the product again. Here's where I didn't see this before probably because my eyes just drifted down to where I had been previously assigning attributes but above the drop down that is showing your product you will see:

Products Listing for: Products ID#181 - in Category: Baby Baskets
2 Bears in a Basket

(THE BELOW ARE ALL HAVE TABS THAT YOU CAN CLICK ON!!!!)
EDIT PRODUCT
PRODUCTS PRICE MANAGER
TO DEFAULT ORDER
PREVIEW ATTRIBUTES
DELETE ALL
PRODUCT
CATEGORY

Multiple Categories Link Manager

(Just let your eyes drift up here to find where the tabs are. They are so obvious it's comical but I really never saw them before last night. The tabs go all the way across the page and the COPY TO Category is the last one on the right)

I clicked on COPY TO Category so I could assign my attributes faster because like I said I needed them on each item since it's a text box asking for a gift card message. Since I didn't have any attributes assigned to any of my items yet I left it at the default that says Delete first, then copy attributes. And it worked beautifully.

I also needed to do a "required" attribute. I was able to do this in a round a bout way and I'm very happy with the outcome. And when I assigned those attributes I selected Ignore and add only new attributes because I didn't want to override my other attribute.

I'm not an expert at this by any means and I've had lots of trial and error. I've used by back up more times than I will ever admit to anyone. Always, always have a back up.

Thanks for the update and play by play on how you did this and the results ...

This is always of help to others ... :smile:

All the credit goes to you. If I could have followed your directions in the first place I wouldn't have had such a hard time.

Truthfully, because I saw that COPY and DELETE section in the Options Name Manager I just couldn't get past that it was where I was supposed to be making this happen. I was just blinded by the obvious I guess.

Your directions on setting a required field by making a generic value (such as "colors available" or in my case "select a state") a read only or for display purposes only so that it causes the customer to select a different value was exactly what I needed. Some of my baskets can only be shipped to certain states and I was really struggling to figure out a way to force this selection and not have to go through returns and hassels if one slipped through the ordering process. So KUDOS to all of you!!!