Magento gather attributes as multidimensional array keys - php

Question

I need to gather all of the available attributes for the given product and then create a multidimensional array with them. Hopefully you can create a multidimensional array with more than two dimensions? The resulting array declarations should look like this:
$simpleArray[$child->getVendor()][$child->getColor()]=$child->getPrice();
First I'm gathering all the attributes then adding them to a string where I can call each one later:
$_product = $this->getProduct();
$_attributes = Mage::helper('core')->decorateArray($this->getAllowAttributes());
//Gather all attribute labels for given product
foreach($_attributes as $_attribute){
$attributeString .= '[$child -> get' . ucfirst($_attribute->getLabel()) . '()]';
}
Then I'm attempting to append that string to the array to declare it:
foreach($childProducts as $child) { //cycle through simple products to find applicable
//CAITLIN you are going to need way to search for other attributes, GET list of attributes
$simpleArray. $attributeString =$child->getPrice();
}
Mage::log('The attributeString is '. $simpleArray. $attributeString, null, 'caitlin.log'); //This is logging as "The attributeString is Array74"
Any suggestions?

Answer 1

You'll need to use recursion to do what you're requesting without knowing the attribute names while writing the code.
This will loop through and provide all of the child product prices, in a multi dimensional array based on the configurable attributes. It assumes that $_product is the current product.
$attrs = $_product->getTypeInstance(true)->getConfigurableAttributesAsArray($_product);
$map = array();
foreach($attrs as $attr) {
$map[] = $attr['attribute_code'];
}
$childPricing = array();
$childProducts = $_product->getTypeInstance()->getUsedProducts();
foreach($childProducts as $_child) {
// not all of the child's attributes are accessible, unless we properly load the full product
$_child = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load($_child->getId());
$topLevel = array($child->getData($map[sizeof($map)]) => $_child->getPrice());
array_pop($map);
$childProducts = array_merge($childProducts,$this->workThroughAttrMap($map,$_child,$topLevel));
}
//print_r childProducts to test, later do whatever you were originally planning with it.
In the same controller include this:
protected function workThroughAttrMap(&$map,$child,$topLevel) {
$topLevel = array($child->getData($map[sizeof($map)]) => $topLevel);
array_pop($map);
if(sizeof($map) > 0) return workThroughAttrMap($map,$child,$topLevel);
else return $topLevel;
}
I haven't tested this code so there may be a few minor bugs.
There are a few things you could do to make the code a bit cleaner, such as moving the first $topLevel code into the function, making that an optional parameter and initializing it with the price when it doesn't exist. I also haven't included any error checking (if the product isn't configurable, the child product doesn't have its price set, etc).