Magento module setup/installer script

Question

I'm trying to setup attribute-sets and attributes automatically via a setup script. The script is working and all attributes are added to the sets, no problem with that... however, when I look at the attributes the visible_on_front, the used_in_product_listing and the global are not set properly. This is what I have:

$installer->addAttribute('catalog_product', '<attribute_code>', array(
    'group'         =>  'General',
    'input'         =>  'date',
    'type'          =>  'datetime',
    'label'         =>  '<some_label>',
    'backend'       =>  'eav/entity_attribute_backend_datetime',
    'is_global'     =>  0,
    'global'        =>  Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Eav_Attribute::SCOPE_WEBSITE,
    'is_visible_on_front'       => 1,
    'visible_on_front'          => 1,
    'used_in_product_listing'   => 1,
));

Anyone know how I can fix this so it works?

Answer 1

The trick here is to make sure that you are using the correct Setup object. The default Setup object is Mage_Eav_Model_Entity_Setup which will add your attribute into eav_attribute table but it is not aware of the extra fields in catalog_eav_attribute such as used_in_product_listing (or customer_eav_attribute and it's fields for that matter).

So, add this at the top of the install script:

$installer = new Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Eav_Mysql4_Setup('core_setup');
$installer->startSetup();

That should make the difference.

FYI, you can use Mage_Customer_Model_Entity_Setup to achieve the same end for customer attributes.