Magento saving a product option for an attribute with a dropdown type

I have written code that automatically imports products basically something like:

$product->setName('my name');
$product->save();

This is fine for free fill text boxes, but how would I go about setting say manufacturer, which is a drop down menu? Is there also a way that if the o开发者_开发百科ption doesnt exist, then it will automagically add it?

Thanks

This is tested in 1.5.0.1, you just need to target the correct attribute ID. As @B00MER stated, the attribute will not be created that you are targetting but if the attribute exist, this will create the options.

$eav_entity_setup = new Mage_Eav_Model_Entity_Setup('core_setup');

$new_option['attribute_id'] = $id;
$new_option['value']['_custom_'.$value][0] = $value;
$eav_entity_setup->addAttributeOption($new_option);

Documentation about addAttributeOption can be found here. http://freegento.com/doc/d0/d7b/_eav_2_model_2_entity_2_setup_8php-source.html#l00603

You will need to create the functionality yourself unfortunately. And by default Magento will not 'automagically' create a option if one doesn't pre-exist.

To simply set the ID of the value you want (Say Sony was ID 12) you can do:

$product->setData('mfr', '12');

However you may find a lot more insight here on steps to do what your looking for:

http://www.arscommunity.com/wiki/magento/configurable-products-creation-code