Combination
A combination is PrestaShop’s word for one version of a product, such as a red T-shirt in size M, made by picking one value from each attribute.
- PrestaShop combination
What it means
In PrestaShop, a product that comes in sizes or colours is set up as a “Product with combinations”, and each version of it is a combination. PrestaShop explains the name: the versions “are simply its attributes combined in specific ways”, such as red with 2 GB.1 Its documentation also calls them product variations, so a combination is PrestaShop’s word for a variant.2
Combinations are built from attributes, which are set up first for the whole shop, under Catalog, in Attributes & Features. Almost anything can be an attribute: PrestaShop says “anything that varies between versions of the same product, except the price”.2
Each combination has its own quantity and its own references, such as an EAN, and any difference in price is entered as an impact on the product’s price, such as -2 for a version that costs 2 less. One combination is the default: the one “your customers see when they arrive on the product sheet”.1
Only one type of product can have them. PrestaShop says “you cannot add combinations to a standard product”, and they “cannot be created for packs of products or virtual products”.1
Think of it like this
It is like the code on a bike lock with three wheels: one number from each wheel, such as 3, 7 and 1. Turn any one wheel and you have a different code. A combination is one value from each attribute, such as Red and M, and changing either gives another.
For example
A supplier sends a Hollinsby T-shirt as one row, with Red/Navy in its Colour cell and S/M/L in its Size cell. In PrestaShop it becomes one product with six combinations, Red S through to Navy L, each with its own quantity and EAN. In the combinations import, the row for Red M gives the product’s ID, then Colour:color:0, Size:select:1 as its attributes and Red:0, M:1 as its values, in the Name:Type:Position and Value:Position forms of PrestaShop’s sample file.4
Why it matters
A supplier that sends each size as a separate product leaves you with what PrestaShop advises against: its documentation says to create combinations for the versions of one product “rather than duplicate it X times”.1 Combinations also travel separately: PrestaShop imports them as their own type of data, and each row starts with the ID of the product it belongs to.34
Not to be confused with
Sources
- PrestaShop 9 documentation. Managing Products.
- PrestaShop 9 documentation. Managing Product Attributes.
- PrestaShop 9 documentation. Import.
- PrestaShop on GitHub. Sample combinations import file (combinations_import.csv), version 9.2.0.