With our Virtual Variants plugin, you have the ability to link your products by column name, custom field, or reference number, allowing you to display different color variants, sizes, flavors, or versions as variants. The display itself is limited to images or dropdown lists.
With a free trial version, you can test the plugin and find out whether this is the right solution for your scenarios.
Automatic Product Linking
By Column
You can automatically link products by entering DB column names from the product and product_translation tables (e.g. product_translation.name or simply name) in the plugin configuration for variant groups.
By Custom Field (from v2.2.4)
It is also possible to link products through their custom fields.
In the plugin configuration, enter the technical name of the custom field with ":" at the beginning as the column name (e.g. ':name' refers to a custom field, 'name' refers to a column).
So that the product can be linked simultaneously for all languages of the shop, the custom field must be filled in for the language that is selected as the default for the shop (under Settings → Shop → Languages). This allows the plugin to link the products accordingly in other languages as well, even if no separate entry has been provided for those languages yet.
Automatic product linking has higher priority than manual linking via reference numbers.
Manual Product Linking
In the detail view of individual products, you will find a field labeled Reference Number under Virtual Variants. Enter the reference numbers here that should unite the different products. This must be identical for all related products. For example, you can use the manufacturer article number or a freely chosen character string.
To combine products directly in the database, use the custom field fgits_variantmatcher_reference_number in the product_translation table for products you want to combine.
The reference number must be identical for all related products.