In this blog post, I would like to share a pretty interesting and not obvious solution on how to join some additional details to cart item block on checkout cart page.

Let’s say we need to add the “Brand” custom product attribute and show its value within a specific block on the product view page and checkout cart page. It’s very simple in the scope of the product page, but how to deal with number cart items on checkout cart page. There are a couple of issues which you may face with. We will cover them further.

Magento developers frequently encounter problems accessing custom attributes during product collection loading. For example, when you try to get a product from a quote or a wishlist item. As a result, we’ve identified intriguing workarounds to circumvent this issue, such as repeatedly loading the product. However, there is a proper way to make these attributes accessible. We would like to tell you more about it.

Custom resource models in Magento are crucial for optimizing data retrieval, particularly from product flat tables. These models allow for more efficient data access, reducing load times and enhancing user experience on eCommerce platforms. By implementing custom resource models, businesses can address specific data retrieval challenges unique to their operations, leading to improved performance and scalability.

Atwix, with its extensive expertise in Magento, is well-positioned to develop these custom solutions. Their deep understanding of Magento’s architecture and best practices ensures that custom resource models are not only effective but also seamlessly integrated with the overall Magento ecosystem, providing a robust and optimized eCommerce experience.

In this article we will try to explain how to create your own resource model for getting data from the product flat tables. First of all you need to know why we should do this. It’s simple.

Understanding Magento Product Flat Tables

Magento’s Entity-Attribute-Value (EAV) structure is designed for flexible data storage, allowing for the dynamic addition of attributes to entities like products without altering database tables. However, this flexibility can lead to performance issues due to the complex queries required to retrieve data.

Product flat tables, a feature in Magento, address this by consolidating data into a single, flat structure, enhancing query efficiency and site performance. While this improves speed, especially for product listing and filtering, it can limit the dynamic nature of attribute management and increase database size, potentially impacting other areas of performance. This trade-off is important to consider when optimizing Magento stores.

For example, you have a category page with configurable products and you need to get all attribute values on this page.