Magento product variations (configurable products)

Question

I have seen many different plugins and ways to configure Magento product variations, but I wasn't able to find a way to do the following out of the box or using some plugin (doesn't matter if its free or paid):

Have a look at the following Amazon URL: http://www.amazon.ca/Seagate-Expansion-Desktop-External-STBV2000100/dp/B00834SJS0/

I would like when I select one of the options to go to the product variation selected (instead via AJAX like in the Amazon case, but same concept).

I would also like all the product variations listed in the store and search and have the ability to choose another variation from every other option: For example im in the 1 gig product, I will still see 2gig and 4gig with ability to switch and vice-versa.

Lastly I would like to hide the "base" product from everywhere, so I also have the final options displaying in the store, the base product can still be present in the backend as a pivot, but should be hidden from everywhere else.

Do you have a clue if there is something that does that out of the box or with very little modifications?

Answer 1

Good news for you :)

Look at this free module: Easylife_Switcher

https://github.com/tzyganu/Switcher

It also supports graying out options not in stock.

Answer 2

I use Simple Configurable Products on my store: http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/simple-configurable-products.html .

Development seems to have stopped but there seem to be lots of users and you can find help on google. For example, the latest version doesn't work out of the box on CE 1.8 but there is a fix available.