New Configurable product - selecting existing simple products manually?

[apiuser]

Feature request from tadhgbowe, posted on GitHub Nov 30, 2015

I am creating a new Configurable product via the Admin Panel (based on color). My simple products (children) already exist via a product import. When I click on "Edit Configurations" it takes me down the path of creating new simple variations. I don't want to do this. I simply want to select the existing products.

Interestingly if I go ahead and generate some simple variations via the "Edit Configurations" after the product save I can see a new link "Add Products Manually" beside "Edit Configurations". That's what I want to see the first time around after I inform it that the new configurable product is based on color.

The "Edit Configurations" wizard needs to allow me to select existing products after I've told it what configurable attributes I'm working with e.g. color or size.

Is this a known issue?

Thanks Tadhg

[oggetto]

This is very upsetting issue

[sidfalco]

Any news on this? I neither need nor want Magento to create simple products with puerile sku's for my simple products.

I want to be able to create (or import) my existing simple products then assign them to a configurable product?

Moreover, the shenanigans involved in adding simple products manually are hit or miss and completely unscaleable.

Not everyone sells tee-shirts and is too lazy to create variations and not everyone wants to sell them on ebay. Get a grip.

[juergenp]

i have 2.1.8 installed now.  creating and assigning configurable from existing still does not work without a work-around.

now  i have written a program which creates me a csv including configurable  stuff out of a article list including any attributes necessary. my current way to import articles is having simple and configurable together in one CSV.  but that's still boring if you need a quick change of a configurable product - adding an additional size for a shirt for example.

furthermore the attribute handling of attributes like SIZE, EAN, COLOR, etc is simply **bleep**.

packing that additional attributes into one simple field for import/eport is really a no-go

try to explain that to a sales person howto import an article list... try to explain why each attribute must be defined and then if you want to import that, you must merge everything to one single field.  i would suggest to use the "oldschool" attribute creation method from M1.x.

[EasyUSA]

Any solution yet? This bug was reported a year ago. Configurable products were always one of the best features of Magento, but it looks as if Magento 2 is going backwards.

The "Add Products Manually" link should be always visiable with no need to add fake products. When clicked you select the correct attribute(s) and then the assignable products.

[JDHover]

I must echo EasyUSA's comment.

The "Add Products Manually" link should be always visiable with no need to add fake products. When clicked you select the correct attribute(s) and then the assignable products.

This is so basic, I'm surprised it has languished for 5 years! I don't want to either delete an existing simple product or create a duplicate of an existing simple product simply to be able to create a configurable product. If all the simple products I need in the configuration already exist, we just need a way to add them.