Configurable product created programmatically doesn't show in search – Magento 1.9

I have a script that creates a configurable product and the simple products associated to it. After the creation, in the backend, all of them seems fine (stock, website, status, visibility and association between the simple products and the configurable are ok). The problem is when I try to search for the configurable product or add it to a category, it doesn’t display.

All products (configurable and simple) are firstly created with this method:

private function createBaseProduct($sku)
    {
        $_product = Mage::getModel('catalog/product');
        $_product->setSku($sku);
        $_product->setAttributeSetId(4);
        $_product->setTypeId('simple');
        $_product->setWebsiteIDs(array(1));
        $_product->setVisibility(Mage_Catalog_Model_Product_Visibility::VISIBILITY_BOTH);
        $_product->setStatus(1);
        $_product->setTaxClassId(0);
        $_product->setStockData(array(
            'use_config_manage_stock' => 0,
            'manage_stock' => 1,
            'is_in_stock' => 1,
            'qty' => 100
        ));
        return $_product;
    }

In case the product is configurable, it then goes to this method:

private function setData($configurable)
    {
        $configurable->setTypeId('configurable');
        $configurable->setStockData(array(
            'use_config_manage_stock' => 0,
            'manage_stock' => 0,
            'is_in_stock' => 1,
            'qty' => 0,
        ));
    --> $configurable = $this->setAssociativeAttributes($configurable); 
        $configurableAttributesData = $configurable->getTypeInstance()->getConfigurableAttributesAsArray();
        $configurable->setCanSaveConfigurableAttributes(true);
        $configurable->setConfigurableAttributesData($configurableAttributesData);
        return $configurable;
    }

Where the method setAssociateAttributes() set the attributes IDs of the configurable product being created:

 private function setAssociativeAttributes()
    {
        $configurable->getTypeInstance()->setUsedProductAttributeIds($this->configurableAttrsIds);
        return $configurable;
    }

After that, the configurable product returned in setData() is saved using $product->save(). Then, the simple product’s are created (using the createBaseProduct() method), saved, and assigned to the configurable product using this method:

public function associateChildProduct($configurableId, $childProduct)
    {
        $configurable = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load($configurableId); 
        $childProducts = $configurable->getTypeInstance()->getUsedProducts();
        array_push($childProducts, $childProduct);
        $childProductsIds = array();
        foreach($childProducts as $product) {
            array_push($childProductsIds, $product->getId());
        }
        Mage::getResourceSingleton('catalog/product_type_configurable')
            ->saveProducts($configurable, $childProductsIds);
    }

And all seems good, products are created and correctly assigned to configurable. But in the frontend the configurable product isn’t displayed (only if I access it via URL it opens correctly, with the variations and all).
Obs.: simple products are displayed in search correctly, only the configurable is missing.

I believe there’s something wrong in the configurable’s data, but I can’t figure it out 🙁

—– EDIT —–

So I debugged it a little more and seems that the problem is actually in the attribute used to create the configurable product (I’m also creating this attribute programmatically). If I save the attribute created programatically again, in my admin panel, the link between simple products and their configurable disapear (they don’t show linked in the admin panel anymore).The attribute is created before the configurable product using class "CustomAttribute":

public function __construct($attrCode)
{   
    $attrData = array(
            'group'             => '',
            'type'              => 'varchar',
            'backend'           => '',
            'frontend'          => '',
            'label'             => ucfirst($attrCode),
            'input'             => 'select',
            'class'             => '',
            'source'            => '',
            'global'            => Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Eav_Attribute::SCOPE_GLOBAL,
            'visible'           => true,
            'required'          => false,
            'user_defined'      => true,
            'default'           => '0',
            'searchable'        => false,
            'filterable'        => false,
            'comparable'        => false,
            'visible_on_front'  => false,
            'is_configurable'   => true,
            'unique'            => false,
        );
        $installer = new Mage_Eav_Model_Entity_Setup('core_setup');
        $installer->startSetup();
        $installer->addAttribute(Mage_Catalog_Model_Product::ENTITY, $attrCode, $attributeData);
        $this->addAttributeToDefaultSet();
        $installer->endSetup();
}

And this attribute is set to child products (during their creation) using the following method:

private function setCustomAttribute($chidlProduct, $attrCode, $optionLabel)
{
    $customAttribute = new CustomAttribute($attrCode);
    $customAttribute->addOptionIfNotExists($optionLabel, $attrCode);
    $optionId = $customAttribute->getOptionId($optionLabel);
    $product->setData($attrCode, $optionId);
}

Where the method $customAttribute->addOptionIfNotExists() creates the attribute’s option if not already created:

public function addOptionIfNotExists($optionLabel, $attrCode)
    {
        $value['option'] = array($optionLabel);
        $order['option'] = 0;
        $optionData = array(
            'value' => $value,
            'order' => $order
        );
        $attribute = Mage::getSingleton('eav/config')
            ->getAttribute(Mage_Catalog_Model_Product::ENTITY, $attrCode);
        $attribute->setData('option', $optionData);
        $attribute->save();
    }

And after added the method associateChildProduct() is called to associate simple products to their configurable.

Obs.: configurable product is displayed correctly via URL, even the attribute variations are shown.
Obs2.: if I save the attribute via admin panel, delete simple products and create new ones using "Quick create" (with the same values) the configurable product is displayed in search and categories.