Create programmatically a WooCommerce product vari

Question

I have created a variable product ("parent" product) in Woocommerce version 3+. From a Wordpress plugin, I would like to programmatically create the product variations ("children" product) with new attribute values.

The variation attributes are already set in Woocommerce.
So every time one variation is created, the new attribute's values should be created programmatically too and set in the parent Variable product.

How can this be done? is it possible?

---

Update : I had written more lines of codes on this that I wished, and tried many things to solve it, using woocommerce objects, and added missing data about terms, termmeta, the relationship from term with post, in the database using the wordpress database object - but nothing has sufficed to make it work. And I couldn't pin-point where I went wrong - that is why I couldn't provide a narrower problem - things for which stackoverflow is more made for.

Answer 1

Expanding on LoicTheAztec's answer, you can check if the attribute combination exists with the following modification to his code.

function create_update_product_variation( $product_id, $variation_data ){

    if(isset($variation_data['variation_id'])) {

      $variation_id = $variation_data['variation_id'];

    } else {

      // if the variation doesn't exist then create it

      // Get the Variable product object (parent)
      $product = wc_get_product($product_id);

      $variation_post = array(
          'post_title'  => $product->get_title(),
          'post_name'   => 'product-'.$product_id.'-variation',
          'post_status' => 'publish',
          'post_parent' => $product_id,
          'post_type'   => 'product_variation',
          'guid'        => $product->get_permalink()
      );

      // Creating the product variation
      $variation_id = wp_insert_post( $variation_post );

    }

    // ...

}

Example usage

// The variation data
$variation_data =  array(
    'attributes' => array(
        'size'  => 'M',
        'color' => 'Green',
    ),
    'sku'           => '',
    'regular_price' => '22.00',
    'sale_price'    => '1',
    'stock_qty'     => 1,
);

// check if variation exists
$meta_query = array();
foreach ($variation_data['attributes'] as $key => $value) {
  $meta_query[] = array(
    'key' => 'attribute_pa_' . $key,
    'value' => $value
  );
}

$variation_post = get_posts(array(
  'post_type' => 'product_variation',
  'numberposts' => 1,
  'post_parent'   => $parent_id,
  'meta_query' =>  $meta_query
));

if($variation_post) {
  $variation_data['variation_id'] = $variation_post[0]->ID;
}

create_update_product_variation( $product_id, $variation_data );

Answer 2

If you want to generate products for testing in WooCommerce, you can use WooCommerce Smooth Generator, made by WooCommerce itself.

https://github.com/woocommerce/wc-smooth-generator

Example:

// Generate WC_Product object and save it to database
// 70% change generated product is simple
// 30% chance generated product is variable
$product = \WC\SmoothGenerator\Generator\Product::generate();

// Returns WC_Product object of Simple product and don't save it  to database
$product = \WC\SmoothGenerator\Generator\Product::generate_simple_product();

// Returns WC_Product object of Variable Product and saves it to database
$variable_product = \WC\SmoothGenerator\Generator\Product::generate_variable_product();

Src: https://github.com/woocommerce/wc-smooth-generator/blob/master/includes/Generator/Product.php

If you want to create products programatically, you can Product class with your needs.

Answer 3

Update September 2018: Handling taxonomy creation (Thanks to Carl F. Corneil)

From a defined variable product ID You will find bellow, a custom function that will add (create) a Product variation. The variable parent product needs to have set for it the needed attributes.

You will need to provide some information as:

• the array of attributes/values
• the Sku, prices and stock….

This data has to be stored in a formatted multi dimensional array (see an example at the end).

This function will check if the attributes values (term name) already exist and if not: - it create it for the product attribute - set it in the parent variable product.

The custom function code:

/**
 * Create a product variation for a defined variable product ID.
 *
 * @since 3.0.0
 * @param int   $product_id | Post ID of the product parent variable product.
 * @param array $variation_data | The data to insert in the product.
 */

function create_product_variation( $product_id, $variation_data ){
    // Get the Variable product object (parent)
    $product = wc_get_product($product_id);

    $variation_post = array(
        'post_title'  => $product->get_title(),
        'post_name'   => 'product-'.$product_id.'-variation',
        'post_status' => 'publish',
        'post_parent' => $product_id,
        'post_type'   => 'product_variation',
        'guid'        => $product->get_permalink()
    );

    // Creating the product variation
    $variation_id = wp_insert_post( $variation_post );

    // Get an instance of the WC_Product_Variation object
    $variation = new WC_Product_Variation( $variation_id );

    // Iterating through the variations attributes
    foreach ($variation_data['attributes'] as $attribute => $term_name )
    {
        $taxonomy = 'pa_'.$attribute; // The attribute taxonomy

        // If taxonomy doesn't exists we create it (Thanks to Carl F. Corneil)
        if( ! taxonomy_exists( $taxonomy ) ){
            register_taxonomy(
                $taxonomy,
               'product_variation',
                array(
                    'hierarchical' => false,
                    'label' => ucfirst( $taxonomy ),
                    'query_var' => true,
                    'rewrite' => array( 'slug' => '$taxonomy'), // The base slug
                ),
            );
        }

        // Check if the Term name exist and if not we create it.
        if( ! term_exists( $term_name, $taxonomy ) )
            wp_insert_term( $term_name, $taxonomy ); // Create the term

        $term_slug = get_term_by('name', $term_name, $taxonomy )->slug; // Get the term slug

        // Get the post Terms names from the parent variable product.
        $post_term_names =  wp_get_post_terms( $product_id, $taxonomy, array('fields' => 'names') );

        // Check if the post term exist and if not we set it in the parent variable product.
        if( ! in_array( $term_name, $post_term_names ) )
            wp_set_post_terms( $product_id, $term_name, $taxonomy, true );

        // Set/save the attribute data in the product variation
        update_post_meta( $variation_id, 'attribute_'.$taxonomy, $term_slug );
    }

    ## Set/save all other data

    // SKU
    if( ! empty( $variation_data['sku'] ) )
        $variation->set_sku( $variation_data['sku'] );

    // Prices
    if( empty( $variation_data['sale_price'] ) ){
        $variation->set_price( $variation_data['regular_price'] );
    } else {
        $variation->set_price( $variation_data['sale_price'] );
        $variation->set_sale_price( $variation_data['sale_price'] );
    }
    $variation->set_regular_price( $variation_data['regular_price'] );

    // Stock
    if( ! empty($variation_data['stock_qty']) ){
        $variation->set_stock_quantity( $variation_data['stock_qty'] );
        $variation->set_manage_stock(true);
        $variation->set_stock_status('');
    } else {
        $variation->set_manage_stock(false);
    }

    $variation->set_weight(''); // weight (reseting)

    $variation->save(); // Save the data
}

Code goes in function.php file of your active child theme (or theme) or also in any plugin file.

Usage (example with 2 attributes):

$parent_id = 746; // Or get the variable product id dynamically

// The variation data
$variation_data =  array(
    'attributes' => array(
        'size'  => 'M',
        'color' => 'Green',
    ),
    'sku'           => '',
    'regular_price' => '22.00',
    'sale_price'    => '',
    'stock_qty'     => 10,
);

// The function to be run
create_product_variation( $parent_id, $variation_data );

Tested and works.

Part 2: Create programmatically a variable product and two new attributes in Woocommerce

You will get this in backend:

And it will work perfectly in front end.

Answer 4

I'm just going to throw this out there, since i couldn't get any of the above examples working. Don't ask me why as other people seem to have success. So, i took the minimalist approach and tried to figure out the bare essentials for a product attribute + variation (by creating it manually in wp and looking at the db) and came up with this.

$article_name = 'Test';

$post_id = wp_insert_post( array(
    'post_author' => 1,
    'post_title' => $article_name,
    'post_content' => 'Lorem ipsum',
    'post_status' => 'publish',
    'post_type' => "product",
) );
wp_set_object_terms( $post_id, 'variable', 'product_type' );

$attr_label = 'Test attribute';
$attr_slug = sanitize_title($attr_label);

$attributes_array[$attr_slug] = array(
    'name' => $attr_label,
    'value' => 'alternative 1 | alternative 2',
    'is_visible' => '1',
    'is_variation' => '1',
    'is_taxonomy' => '0' // for some reason, this is really important       
);
update_post_meta( $post_id, '_product_attributes', $attributes_array );

$parent_id = $post_id;
$variation = array(
    'post_title'   => $article_name . ' (variation)',
    'post_content' => '',
    'post_status'  => 'publish',
    'post_parent'  => $parent_id,
    'post_type'    => 'product_variation'
);

$variation_id = wp_insert_post( $variation );
update_post_meta( $variation_id, '_regular_price', 2 );
update_post_meta( $variation_id, '_price', 2 );
update_post_meta( $variation_id, '_stock_qty', 10 );
update_post_meta( $variation_id, 'attribute_' . $attr_slug, 'alternative 1' );
WC_Product_Variable::sync( $parent_id );

$variation_id = wp_insert_post( $variation );
update_post_meta( $variation_id, '_regular_price', 2 );
update_post_meta( $variation_id, '_price', 2 );
update_post_meta( $variation_id, '_stock_qty', 10 );
update_post_meta( $variation_id, 'attribute_' . $attr_slug, 'alternative 2' );
WC_Product_Variable::sync( $parent_id );

This is not using global product attributes, but article specific ones. Hope it helps someone as i was about ready to tear my hair out before i got it working.

Answer 5

You might run into a problem here if the the taxonomy of the product is not registered beforehand somewhere else. If you want to make sure the taxonomy exists, you could add a conditional to LoicTheAztec's answer.

Something like this.

foreach ($variation_data['attributes'] as $attribute => $term_name )
{
    //echo 'attribute ' . $attribute . ' term name ' . $term_name;

    $taxonomy = 'pa_' . $attribute; // The attribute taxonomy

    // Check if the Taxonomy exists, and if not we create it.

    if (! taxonomy_exists($taxonomy)){
        register_taxonomy(  
            $taxonomy,  //The name of the taxonomy. Name should be in slug form (must not contain capital letters or spaces). 
            'product',        //post type name
            array(  
                'hierarchical' => false,  
                'label' => ucfirst($taxonomy),  //Display name
                'query_var' => true,
                'rewrite' => array(
                    'slug' => $taxonomy, // This controls the base slug that will display before each term
                    'with_front' => false // Don't display the category base before 
                ),
            )  
        ); 

    }
...