Use of magento is_in_stock

Question

What exactly is the function of the property is_in_stock in Magento? Whether a product is in stock can be determined on whether qty >= 1?

It seems to automatically adjust to the current stock_level (compared to minimal allowed quantity?) but why then can you modify it manually? I feel like it has no use to modify it, because it will change to whatever it wants itself anyway..

I can't find a lot of information about the functionality of this property via google, so might be a good addition :-).

Answer 1

Many smaller merchants will use Magento to monitor their actual "Warehouse" (spare room) stock levels for products. There may be times where they want to temporarily have an item listed as out of stock on their web-store, but they will sto want the stock number in Magento to reflect the number of items they have on hand for other business reasons.

Put another way, the is_in_stock data member controls how the store displays the product, irrespective of how many items you have on hand.