Product Information

The following chapter is designed for developers (integrators and contributors) and provides all information needed to create quick overview and understanding of how product data is kept in PIM.

Overview

The data model is structured as Entity - Attribute - Value (i.e. Product - Attribute - ProductValue).

The Product entity (Pim\Component\Catalog\Model\Product) has many ProductValues (Pim\Component\Catalog\Model\ProductValue) that are linked to different Attributes and hold value information depending on specific attribute they are related too.

Product

The main entity is the product which,

  • has values;
  • belongs to a family;
  • is positioned in many categories.

Note

For information on how to import/export categories using CSV format see Category data structure.

Note

PIM architecture is very flexible and allows you clear and easy way to customize the catalog structure for your own integration: How to Customize the Catalog Structure

Product value

Each product value is linked to a product, an attribute and some additional entities related to (media, metrics, options, etc). Each product has many product values that represent information about it according to their attribute type.

Note

For information on how to import/export product using CSV format see Product CSV data structure.

Attribute

The attribute determines the data type and properties of a product value according to its type definition.

Attributes are combined in attribute groups.

An attribute with an activated localized property has different values for each locale, eg: French and English

A scoped attribute has different value for each channel, eg: e-commerce and mobile

An attribute can be localized and scoped, and therefore have different values for each combination of locale and channel, eg: e-commerce - French, e-commerce English, etc.

Attribute type

Any attribute belongs to attribute type that determines its definition and product value data type and definition.

Many attributes may refer to the same attribute type.

Each attribute type supports some general and special properties.

Akeneo PIM provides built in set of attribute types:

Code Field Description
pim_catalog_identifier string (!!) Only one attribute of this type is allowed. Product identification attribute: it may be sku, erp product id or any other.
pim_catalog_boolean Yes/No Boolean value: Yes/No i.e. True/False.
pim_catalog_number Number Represents any number value. For example stock quantity.
pim_catalog_price_collection Price Allow to holds collection of numbers according to currency settings.
pim_catalog_metric Metric Extends number and also allows to holds information about metric family and unit.
pim_catalog_text Text Text field. Holds any text/varchar data.
pim_catalog_textarea Text area The same as text but longer and field may be represented as wysiwyg editor.
pim_catalog_file File Extends text and linked to media (FileInfoInterface). Allows to upload file of specific type.
pim_catalog_image Image The same as file. Allows uploading image/png, image/jpg file types, and is represented as image.
pim_catalog_date Date Any date information: expiration date, available on, etc.
pim_catalog_simpleselect Simple-select Select field that holds single user predefined attribute option.
pim_catalog_multiselect Multi-Select Select field that holds multiple user predefined attribute options.

Note

For information on how to import/export product attributes using CSV format see Attribute data structure.

Family and Completeness

The product family represents products prototype (architype, superclass), imposes product information structure and defines the list of attributes for product that belongs to it. These attributes can be mandatory or not. Additional attributes that don’t belong to the family may be added to concrete product as optional.

An attribute may be global or scoped to specific channel. For example attribute may be required for e-commerce but not for mobile channel.

The calculation of the completeness is based on the mandatory attributes of the product family. Each combination channel/locale has its own completeness calculation.

Note

For information on how to import/export families using CSV format see Family data structure.