magento 2.2.2 text swatch switches product image even if attribute feature is disabled

[LouNik1984]

Preconditions

magento 2.2.2 with one website and two store views
php 7.0 on ubuntu 16.04 with nginx

Steps to reproduce

• change attribute size to text swatch with Update Product Preview Image set to NO
• create configurable product with some variations for size
• add image to configurable product
• add image to associated simple products

Expected result

When I load the frontend product page, the image shown is the configurable image.
When I click on a size/variation (since the Update Product Preview Image set to NO in attribute size) I still expect to see the configurable image

Actual result

When I load the frontend product page, the image shown is the configurable image. That is correct.
When I click on a size/variation, the image is changed to the simple product image. This is wrong.

Other Notes

If I remove the image from the associated simple product, then go to the frontend product page and click on the size, the image shown is still the configurable image. However, the image is still being reloaded everytime I click on a size/variation, making the page glitch for a moment. This should be avoided.

[magento-engcom-team]

Hi @LouNik1984. Thank you for your report.
To help us process this issue please make sure that you provided the following information:

• Summary of the issue
• Information on your environment
• Steps to reproduce
• Expected and actual results

Please make sure that the issue is reproducible on the vanilla Magento instance following Steps to reproduce. To deploy vanilla Magento instance on our environment, please, add a comment to the issue:

@magento-engcom-team give me {$VERSION} instance

where {$VERSION} is version tags (starting from 2.2.0+) or develop branches (2.2-develop +).
For more details, please, review the Magento Contributor Assistant documentation.

@LouNik1984 do you confirm that you was able to reproduce the issue on vanilla Magento instance following steps to reproduce?

• yes
• no

[LouNik1984]

@magento-engcom-team give me 2.2.2 instance

[magento-engcom-team]

Hi @LouNik1984. Thank you for your request. I'm working on Magento 2.2.2 instance for you

[magento-engcom-team]

Hi @LouNik1984, here is your Magento instance.
Admin access: https://i-16446-2-2-2.engcom.dev.magento.com/admin
Login: admin Password: 123123q
Instance will be terminated in up to 3 hours.

[LouNik1984]

I confirm I can reproduce the issue on the vanilla Magento instance you provided me.

What I did on the vanilla instance

• I created a new category to have a link to the product on the frontend
• I created an attribute called size with attribute code size, type = text swatch and option "Update Product Preview Image" se to NO
• I edited the Default attribute set to add the new size attribute
• I created a configurable product with 3 size variations (small, medium, large)
• I added an image to all the products, both the configurable and the associated simple products

Result

If you go to the frontend product page https://i-16446-2-2-2.engcom.dev.magento.com/test-product.html and click on the different configurations/text swatches, you can see that the image is loaded every time you click on a variation even if the attribute size is set to "Update Product Preview Image" = NO

Hello @LouNik1984, thank you for your report.
We've acknowledged the issue and added to our backlog.