An important part of your catalog
One of the key PIM features is the item attribute system. Item attributes can be used for every additional piece of information you want to add to your items. No matter what kind of products you have. Whether its wooden furniture, where attributes like ‘type of wood’, ‘color’ and ‘size’ are important or laptops where you want to use attributes like ‘CPU speed’, ‘screen size’ and ‘HDD type’. Just define your attributes and attribute sets, and apply them to your items.
Create new attributes
To create a new attribute go to NAVcommerce > Attributes and click on the New button in the ribbon bar. After you have given the attribute a code, data type and front-end label, you probably want to at least check Visible on Front, before you release it. The release button in the ribbon bar has an important function. It will remind you of the fact that the code and data type cannot be changed once it is set and released. So, double check those before releasing. All other fields and settings can be changed as often as you wish.
Creating attribute sets
After you have created one or more attributes, you can start to define attribute sets. Simply create a new set by giving it a code and name. The code is what the web developers will use, the name is what customers will see. Then add one or more attributes and release the set. Just as with attribute, the release switch is here because you cannot change the code field afterward. The name or the attributes within the set can be changed whenever you want. (see next topic)
Adding attributes to existing attribute sets
Adding a new attribute to an existing attribute set is as simple as opening the attribute set card and selecting the new attribute.
The only thing to be aware of is that these new attributes are not automatically applied/created on items which already used the attribute set. If you want this to happen, to you have to click on the button Update Items.
Attribute mapping
Mapped attributes are just as normal attributes, but they automatically get their values from existing fields within NAV.
A good example is if you want to publish data that comes from bespoke fields on the standard NAV item card, or from another table which is related to an item like the Item Unit of Measure table.
To create a mapped attribute, go to NAVcommerce > Attributes > Attributes and click on New.
Provide an attribute code, data type and front-end label, as you always do.
Then go to the Value Mapping tab and fill in the following fields:
Table: The table (number) which holds the value you want to use.
Item No. Field: The field that contains the Item No. – This field has to exist in order for system to know how this table relates to the current item.
Value Field: The field (number) which holds the value you want to publish.
Filter: An optional filter string which helps to search for the correct row, in case there is more than one row from which the system could take a value.
Below is an example that shows how to create an attribute that maps to the GTIN/EAN field in the Item table.
Below is an example of how to map the length field from the Item Unit of Measure table, for the records that holds the PCS values.
You could create 2 of these to publish both the length of a single item (PCS) and the length of the box or pallet which contains multiple items.
