Automatically copy images from parent configurable product to variants in Magento

By default Magento does not copy images from parent configurable products to their child variants, i.e. associated products. So you need to manually set images for child products once they are associated with the parent configurable product, which can be rather time consuming and (let’s face it) annoying if you deal with a broader range of product variants. So, wouldn’t it be nice if Magento automatically copied images from parent products to their child product variants? Yes! Luckily, this can be achieved with the following extension.

Extension to the rescue

The Magento extension called Automatic Image assignment for configurable product variants takes care of automatically assigning required image types from parent configurable products to their associated child product variants based on the base image from the parent product once it is saved (hint: see shell script for bulk updates below). Thus, once you save the parent configurable product it checks its child products for a custom list of required image types you can set via the extension configuration. Possible required image types include

• Base image
• Small image
• Thumbnail

So, you are able to set individual image types to be copied to child products based on the base image from the parent configurable product. For instance, selecting small image and thumbnail as required image types will copy the base image from the parent product and set them for the child products in case these image types do not yet exist.

Simulate Image Assignment

Since your products are your treasure the extension offers the options to simulate the process of automatically copying and assigning images. So, instead of altering products in the database the extension will log all required actions in the custom log file specified (yes, the extension offers a custom log file, see below for more information).

Shell script for bulk update

Since the extension is primarily designed as event observer for saving parent configurable products an additional shell script is included in the package. This script will either process all configurable products and check their child products for the required image types set in the configuration or limit the list of products to be checked by an additional product-IDs parameter.

Custom log file

Finally, in order to track the extension’s step you can specify a custom log file that will enable you to easily monitor actions carried out by the extension. Thus, you can easily simulate a bulk update and track events through the log file.

Download the extension

Feel free to download the extension from Magento Connect published by Both Interact.

Alternatively, you can download the latest version 1.6.3 here: BothInteract_ConfigurableProductVariantsImageAssignment-1.6.3.