Working with Attributes

Attributes are used to describe Products and Categories. The following attribute types are available in Orchestration Console:

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Base Attributes are an integral part of Orchestration Console and can neither be deleted nor modified. You may be required to supply values for some of them, such as Product Name, while others, like Last Modified Date, are populated by the system. You cannot modify which Base Attributes are included in product and category definitions as this is built-in information that is required by Orckestra Commerce Cloud.

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Custom Attributes are created and defined a Product Information administrator. The Custom Attributes available in a Product or Category are dependent on the Product Definition selected when the Product or Category was created. A Product Definition includes Custom Attributes and/or Attribute Groups.

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Variant Attributes are created and defined by a Product Information administrator. A variant attribute can be either a Base or Custom Attribute. Variant Attributes available in a Product are dependent on the Product Definition selected when the Product was created. The Product Definition includes Variant Attributes and/or Key Variant Attributes.

Base Attributes

Default Attributes exist within the system and cannot be altered or deleted. However, you can decide which Default Attributes to include in a Category or Product Definition and specify certain settings.

The Default Attributes are:

Default Attribute	Description	Displayed in product Details	Editable value ?
Active	Whether the product or catalog is currently active.	Yes	Yes
AllowVariantActivationSchedule	Indicates whether it is allowed to override the activation schedule at the variant level.	No	Yes
Brand	Indicates product brand.	Yes	Yes
Created	Minimum and maximum creation dates.	Yes	No
CreatedBy	Person or system that created the item.	Yes	No
DefinitionName	Definition name that sets the parameters for this type of product.	Yes	No
Description	Product description.	Yes	Yes
DisplayName	Display name of the product.	Yes	Yes
HiddenInScope	Used only for back-end products in imports.	No	No
IncludeInSearch	Used to exclude product from search results.	No	No
ItemFormat	Specifies number of items for a particular format. Example: sold in kilograms.	Yes	Yes
LastModified	Date that the product was last modified.	Yes	No
LastModifiedBy	Last person to modify this description.	Yes	No
LastPublishedDate	Date of the last publishing.	Yes	No
NewProductDate	Specifies date that a product is considered new in a catalog.	No	No
PrimaryParentCategoryID	Parent Category to which the item belongs.	No, see Category Associations	Yes, in Category Associations
Quantity	Number of items.
ScheduledActivation	Date at which the product will automatically be activated.	No	Yes
ScheduledDeactivation	Date at which the product will automatically be deactivated.	No	Yes
SellingMethod	Defines how the item is sold: by unit, weight, length, etc.	Yes	Yes
SequenceNumber	Sequence number of the item.	No	No
SKU	Stock Keeping Unit number. This information usually comes from your internal ERP.	Yes	Yes
TaxCategory	Tax category used by the product. For example, the product can be exempt from tax, or the product has a deposit fee but the deposit fee is not taxable.	No	No
UnitOfMeasure	Indicates the unit of measure to define the product as one unit.	Yes	Yes
Weight	Indicates product weight.	No	No
WeightUOM	Indicates the unit of measure for the product weight.	No	No

Custom Attributes

Custom Attributes are characteristics of a product that you can define in the Orchestration Console.They can be used in product definitions and category definitions.

Custom Attributes types:

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Base Attribute: including Yes/No Choice, Date/Calendar, and so on (see the Custom Attributes table below).

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Lookup: includes all defined Lookups.

You can define the following parameters for each custom attribute type:

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Group: this functionality allows you to group attributes into specific categories.

Best practice: When grouped, attributes are easier to find in the product definition of a product.

Note: You must create groups first and then assign attributes to an attribute group in the custom attributes parameters.

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Is required: Yes/No - Defines if the attribute value is required when creating a product. When an attribute is required, you will not be able to save the product draft unless you enter a value for this attribute.

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Assign to All Product Definitions: Yes/No

Best practice: When product definitions already exist and you need to add new attributes, you can use this functionality to add new attributes to all products definitions instead of modifying existing product definitions one at a time.

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Assign to All Category Definitions: Yes/No

Best practice: When category definitions already exist and you need to add new attributes, you can use this functionality to add new attributes to all category definitions instead of modifying existing category definitions one by one.

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Assign to All Variant Definitions: Yes/No

Best practice: When product definitions already exist and you need to add new variant attributes, you can use this functionality to add new attributes to all product definitions that have variants instead of modifying existing product variant definitions one by one.

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Allow multiple selections (for Lookups), Yes/No. If No is selected, you can pick a selection from a list. If Yes is selected, you can select multiple selections.

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Hide this attribute in the Orchestration Console: Yes/No.

Important: When adding attributes to existing product definitions or category definitions, the process can take a moment but it may slow down system performance. However, this does not impact your published website.

Custom Attributes include:

Attribute Category	Attribute Type	Settings
Base	Yes/No Choice	Option selected by default.
	Date Calendar	Minimum and Maximum Date fields with Calendar pickers.
	Decimal Number	Minimum, Maximum, and Default Values.
	Currency	Minimum, Maximum, and Default Values.
	Whole Number	Minimum, Maximum, and Default Values.
	Rich Text	No minimal text, WYSIWYG editor (HTML5) and Multilingual Yes/No.
	Text	Minimum, Maximum Length, and Multilingual Yes/No.
Lookup	Defined Lookups	Default Selection, and Allow Multiple Selections.

Variant Attributes

You can use product attributes as variant attributes or key variant attributes for a particular product definition.

When adding product attributes as variant attributes in a product definition the following message is displayed at the top of the attribute list:

You have selected x attributes to use at the variant level.(maximum y)

This message is updated dynamically with the number of attributes flagged as variants.

Note: by default, you can only add a maximum of 10 custom attributes as variant attributes for a product. This limit does not include attributes used for all product definitions or key variant attributes. The number of attributes that can be configured as variant attributes can be modified as required.

Your ability to view and modify attributes depends on your security permissions, as defined by your Security Administrator.

REFERENCES

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Understanding Unit Attributes