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.
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.