Import Configurable Products in Magento

This article is a part of the tutorial chain below. It's suggested to go over the previous posts in order to complete this tutorial.

Configurable Product Importing with Magmi

Importing Configurable Products is another great feature that comes with Magmi, but it can be a bit confusing for some, due to configurable and simple product having different columns and column count.

Start by creating a configurable product manually via the admin to assure that the super attribute and simple product relations are set-up correctly and working. After you successfully created a configurable product to go by, you can start with your configurable product spreadsheet, which requires less column headers due to most coming from the simple products. In a duplicated version of the simple products spreadsheet, cut down the values to the following (but do leave the columns you may require, such as page layout or custom designs if you intend to use them):

store,websites,attribute_set,product_type_id,category_ids,type,configurable_attributes,simples_skus,sku,has_options,name,product_name,description,short_description,meta_title,meta_description,url_key,url_path,cleaning_instructions,image,small_image,thumbnail,image_label,thumbnail_label,small_image_label,options_container,msrp_enabled,msrp_display_actual_price_type,gift_message_available,price,special_price,weight,msrp,status,is_recurring,visibility,enable_googlecheckout,tax_class_id,is_imported

You may notice that there are a few new column headers above, which are configurable_attributes and simples_skus.

The following are just suggestive notes, of how to successfully import simple/configurable products:

  • SP (Simple Product) CSV: Include the super attribute as a column header, used when you manually created your test configurable product.
  • CP (Configurable Product) CSV: Add the super attribute to this spreadsheet, under the configurable_attributes column.
  • SP CSV: You should not include the categories or category_ids column in your simple products spreadsheet, or just leave them empty.
  • CP CSV: Instead, list the categories in your configurable products CSV.
  • SP CSV: Set the value for the visibility column to Not Visible Individually or to Search if preferred (you can change this after importing simple products if missed, within Magmi configuration for configurable products).
  • SP CSV: The type column should be set to simple.
  • CP CSV: The type column should be configurable on the configurable product spreadsheet.
  • SP & CP CSV: Both spreadsheets should have the same value under attribute_set.
  • CP CSV: List the simple product SKU's under the simples_skus of the corresponding configurable product, comma separated. These will be the products you intend to link the CP with.
  • Lastly, import the simple products first, then follow with the configurable product imports.
I'm a developer at Maximus Business.
  • Saul Page
    Nice post, however I wish you would have included a sample file to see. It's easier seeing the end result along with your tutorial rather than just instructions - for some reason magmi has recently removed the sample files. I am using magmi on my army and navy store and it's an absolute gem.

    Said on Feb 27, 2013 by Saul Page - Reply
  • Ian
    Great tutorial! I'm looking at importing some products (some of which are configurable products). I've been looking around and can't find how I'd put price adjustments in for the options on the configurable product. So, for the T-Shirt example that everyone likes to use, if Red T-Shirts made the product £5 more expensive, how would you show this on the csv when importing? Thanks in advance.

    Said on Mar 28, 2013 by Ian - Reply
  • Michael
    Thanks for the suggestions! There is not a lot of information for Magmi and your help is greatly appreciated! I am just wondering if you could clarify why you suggested leaving out the categories or category id columns for the simple product? Thank you for your help.

    Said on Aug 25, 2013 by Michael - Reply
  • nak
    Nice post however i can't make the import perfectly. It dosen't put the images, neither put the configurable_attributes, neither do the relationship between the simples products althought i put the excel like you told :/ Why?, why? I think there are 2 posibles reasons: 1º I only did one excel, but first the simple products and then the configurable, i think is well done but maybe i need 2 sheets 2º I think that the problem are the "common" or "itemprocessors" options in the magmi.php run page, can you especify what check must we click in?... If i click in "Configurable Item processor" i get SQL null column "attribute_id" Error on configurable item :/ and the oders dosen't have the imgs lot of thanks in advance

    Said on Oct 9, 2013 by nak - Reply
  • 10$
    SP (Simple Product) CSV: Include the super attribute -----> i don't know about super attribute anyone replay me some example. what i write under the super attribute column?? it's same attrebute_set value??

    Said on Jun 22, 2014 by 10$ - Reply
  • aditya
    can you plz enclose a descriptive guide even we are struck on same

    Said on Jan 30, 2015 by aditya - Reply
  • Alex
    Really i was looking for a guide to help me in configuring products, i found a lot but could not went fine, but this post resolve my issue because everything here mentioned step by step and with images, i had another resource with me, https://www.cloudways.com/blog/magento-configurable-product/ , it also helped me, thanks for helping us with your guide, keep up the great work.

    Said on Jun 9, 2017 by Alex - Reply
  • Maya
    As to images, they should be uploaded to FTP folder, then import allows to assign them to products. Concerning configurable product import, there are multiple ways to make it more efficient without re-importing several times. You can follow this tutorial to quickly create configurable products through import

    Said on Aug 18, 2017 by Maya - Reply

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