Question

I have a multi-store setup – StoreA, StoreB and StoreC. And within a controller (using the StoreA url) I’m editing a product as follows:

$_product = new Mage_Catalog_Model_Product();
$_product->load($productId);
$_product->setData('attribute1','somevalue');
$_product->save();

If I then go to the Admin / Edit Product for that particular product, I find that attribute1 has been correctly set BUT I also find that if I select StoreA in the “Choose Shop View” I find that all the “Use Default Value” check-boxes (for StoreA) have been set to false.

Questions:

1. How do I modify the code above so the “Use Default Value”
   check-boxes for StoreA remain true
2. Once that the above code has been executed (and the “Use Default
   Value” for StoreA set to false), how do I revert the “Use Default
   Value” values back to true for StoreA?

Edit:

Added screenshot:

Answer 1

I’m not entirely clear on the ‘Use Default Value’ check-boxes you are seeing, but there are two things I noticed.

Using The Factory Pattern

Your code:

$_product = new Mage_Catalog_Model_Product();

Use the factory pattern, which is standard in Magento:

$_product = Mage::getModel('catalog/product');

That in itself isn’t the problem, but it’s something to keep in mind.

Updating Only The Product Attribute

Next, if you are only saving a specific attribute it would be quicker (and potentially avoid your problem) if you update only that attribute. Like so:

$attribute = array('attribute_code' => 'attribute_value');

Mage::getSingleton('catalog/product_action')
            ->updateAttributes($_product->getId(), $attribute, 0);

Reference for the updateAttributes() method. My reasoning here is that it’s possible default values are being added by saving the entire product, and not just a specific attribute.

If that doesn’t help, perhaps a screenshot of what you are seeing could better help me visualize the issue.