Is there a simpler way to get an attribute's frontend value?

Question

I have an array of attribute codes which I need to get the values of:

$attributes = array(
    'Category'           => 'type',
    'Manufacturer'       => 'brand',
    'Title'              => 'meta_title',
    'Description'        => 'description',
    'Product Link'       => 'url_path',
    'Price'              => 'price',
    'Product-image link' => 'image',
    'SKU'                => 'sku',
    'Stock'              => 'qty',
    'Condition'          => 'condition',
    'Shipping cost'      => 'delivery_cost');

After iterating through a product collection I get the frontend values of the attributes like so:

$attributeId = Mage::getResourceModel('eav/entity_attribute')
    ->getIdByCode('catalog_product', $attribute_code);
$attribute = Mage::getModel('catalog/resource_eav_attribute')
    ->load($attributeId);
$value = $attribute->getFrontend()->getValue($product);

Simply using $product->getDate($attribute) won't work with dropdowns and multi-selects, it just returns their id and not their frontend value.

While the code above works, it seems to be a long way around getting the value, but more importantly it runs quite slow. Is there a faster/more sensible way to get the frontend values for product attributes?

Edit
I now have the following (after dealing with special cases like image and qty) which is a bit easier on the eyes and does seem to run quicker (although I don't know why):

$inputType = $product->getResource()
                     ->getAttribute($attribute_code)
                     ->getFrontend()
                     ->getInputType();

switch ($inputType) {
case 'multiselect':
case 'select':
case 'dropdown':
    $value = $product->getAttributeText($attribute_code);
    if (is_array($value)) {
        $value = implode(', ', $value);
    }
    break;
default:
    $value = $product->getData($attribute_code);
    break;
}

$attributesRow[] = $value;

If anyone can improve this (make it simpler/more efficient), please post an answer.

Hemistich

Take a look at this article blog.chapagain.com.np/… – Astonishing

Answer 1

For dropdowns and multiselects and only with products (this isn't a general EAV trick) you can use getAttributeText().

$value = $product->getAttributeText($attribute_code);

Bree

Thanks for pointing that out. I'd wondered how it was that that method worked on some attributes and not others. – Hemistich

Answer 2

In version 1.7, $product->getAttributeText($attribute_code) is not working for me on the product page. At first I thought it was because the attribute was not in the catalog_product_flat index. But it turned out that the attribute was there. In any case, the following code works for me. I try the simple code, then fall back on the EAV code.

So I am using code like this:

$value = $product->getAttributeText($attribute_code); // first try the flat table?
if(empty($value) ) { // use the EAV tables only if the flat table doesn't work
  $value = $product->getResource()->getAttribute($attribute_code)->getFrontend()->getValue($product);
}

Guardrail

I was retrieving a collection of products, and doing getValue($product) was returning 'No'. I changed $product to Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load($product->getEntityId()) and got a product whose methods would go to the database. Otherwise, the code would try to get the data from its internal array of values. Under normal circumstances, I expect the above code works just fine. – Esp

Answer 3

It depends on how you have set up the attribute (is it accessible from the context you are trying to reach it?), but the simplest way is usually like this (for meta_title, for example):

$product->getMetaTitle()

Caffrey

Thanks, but some attributes may not be accessible using the magic getter method. – Hemistich