Adding of Free fields (features/attributes):
In Exact Globe you have a defined set of variables. Therefor it can be difficult to achieve a functionality that does not naturally occur in Exact Globe. One of those functionalities is variants and their parents.
To facilitate this desired functionality, we offer the following solution. Exact Globe has additional fields that are freely to use for their software users, which do not have specific functionality attached to them. These fields can be re-assigned to serve as indicators for parent/variant structure. The fields are named:
"Class01Code" "Class02Code" "Class03Code" "Class04Code" "Class05Code" "Class06Code" "Class07Code" "Class08Code" "Class09Code" "Class10Code"
"DateFreeField1" "DateFreeField2" "DateFreeField3" "TextFreeField1" "TextFreeField2" "TextFreeField3" "NumberFreeField1" "NumberFreeField2" "NumberFreeField3" "YesNoFreeField1" "YesNoFreeField2" "YesNoFreeField3"
From these free fields at least 3 extra free fields must be defined. One field to indicate whether a product is a parent product and one field to indicate to which configurable product the item belongs to. The third (and fourth, fifth, etcetera) free field is an attribute to which the product is variable. For example, the colour of a shirt, or the size of a shoe.
The first field must be a "YesNoFreeFieldX" or "ClassXXCode" field and the second field must be a "TextFreeFieldX" or "ClassXXCode" field referencing other products. The third field does not have specific requirements, other than that this must be at least one. A configurable product without attributes is not possible.
Filling attributes per product:
With configurable products you have 2 types of products for the creation of products. You have the physical product, for example, the red T-shirt in size 38. And the (what we call) the display product, this display T-shirt does not really exist as a physical product but is actually a container for all colors and sizes of this model . This display T-shirt also has no stock, but for a integration it is essential as an existing product.
The two types have a slightly different approach to filling these products in Exact Globe. The physical product must contain at least 1 filled attribute and a reference to their parent product. The parent product must not contain values for attributes and must have a checkmark indicating this is a parent product. In the example below I show a possible parent product data and a possible variant product data.
For this example I defined the following fields:
"TextFreeField3" --> Reference to main product (Parent)
"YesNoFreeField1" --> Indicator checkmark
"Class01Code" --> Material (Non-variant attribute)
"Class04Code" --> Colour (Variable attribute)
"Class05Code" --> Size (Variable attribute)
Example data for a parent product:
"ItemCode" = "ShirtParent"
"YesNoFreeField1" = "Yes"
"Class01Code" = "Cotton"
Example data for a variant product:
"ItemCode" = "ShirtRedLarge"
"TextFreeField3" = "ShirtParent" (Reference to parent)
"YesNoFreeField1" = "No"
"Class04Code" = "Red"
"Class05Code" = "Large"
Of course there are many types of configurable products, but the essence is always the same, you have 1 container item and 1 physical item. In the example above you first see the container article with the checkmark "YesNoFreeField1" (is product configurable) checked.
And with the second article you will see the reference to the container in the field "TextFreeField3" (reference to main product). And the second article also contains a value for the"Class04Code" field, in this case Colour. Notice also, that the features "Material" ("Class01Code") are only filled out in the main product, since these values are identical for all variants.
Configuring in ApiCenter
When the Exact Globe environment has been fully populated with data described above, it is time to set ApiCenter to the correct configuration, to load in variant products and their parents.
First; you will need to specify which attribute is mapped to which attribute in the secondary application. Remember, an attribute is what makes a product unique, like size and colour for example. Do not include features in this mapping table.
Secondly; you need to define the features of a product. Remember a feature is what all variants of a model share, like the material the product was made from, or the country of manufacture for example
Thirdly; it is very important to set the defining attribute, to specify where the parent product reference can be found. If this setting is not set, ApiCenter will not recognize your product as a parent-variant pairing.
