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CSM Item Attributes and Attribute Sets

CSM Attributes and CSM Attribute Sets

Most eCommerce platforms contain some sort of functionality that allows for the definition of various product traits or characteristics. The scope of these characteristics can range from basic identification information (such as model number or serial number), physical or visual elements of an item (such as weight, color, and size), to other characteristics (year of manufacture/publication, country of origin, other product-specific categorization considerations, and so forth).  CSM refers to these as “CSM attributes.” You can create CSM attributes for a sales channel from a variety of data sources in Business Central. When a CSM listing is created from an item, CSM will automatically add item values for any CSM attributes that are associated to that item’s configuration.

Note: CSM does not support the automated synchronization of CSM attributes and WooCommerce attributes except when working with configurable items. With the exception of configurable attributes, all CSM item attribute functionality is relevant for future or custom functionality that allows for the sending and retrieval of attribute information between Business Central and WooCommerce. 

Shared Item Attributes

Depending on the eCommerce platform, the overall item attribute structure typically follows either a shared or non- shared model. In a shared environment, a single item attribute is defined as its own record, which can then be assigned to multiple products. In a non-shared scenario, item attributes are defined for each product, independent of any other product’s setup or configuration.

For example, consider a scenario where we have three items: Item A, Item B, and Item C. We want to define an attribute called “Color” for all three of them.

  • In a shared environment, we would set up an attribute record called “Color,” then assign this attribute to Items A, B, and C. Any changes made to the Color attribute would take effect for all three items.
  • In a non-shared environment, we would define a “Color” attribute for Item A, another “Color” attribute for Item B, and a third “Color” attribute for Item C. If we wanted to make changes to the Color attribute, we would need to do this for all three items.

Please note that it is possible to define shared attributes for a CSM sales channel, even if that sales channel does not follow a shared model. For example, we might have a single Business Central item attribute called “Color” from which we build a single CSM channel attribute. This attribute will be added to multiple CSM listings, and when these listings are sent from Business Central to the non-shared environment, unique, item-specific attributes will be created.

WooCommerce follows a shared attribute model. Accordingly, the Use Shared Item Attributes field on the sales channel’s Listing Management FastTab should be set to True. The CSM sales channel wizard should automatically set this value to True as part of the channel creation process, but please double-check to ensure that this is the case before you start the process of setting up CSM item attributes.

CSM Item Attributes

CSM item attributes can be associated to the following sources in Business Central:

  • None: it is possible to define CSM item attributes that are not linked to corresponding Business Central records.  This is generally not recommended, as it will require you to maintain this information directly on your CSM listings.
  • Item Attributes: a CSM item attribute can be linked to a Business Central item attribute.
  • Item Variations: if you are using Suite Engine’s item variations functionality to build configurable items, item variation attributes are set up to represent the variable values in which an item can be made available.
  • Item Fields: a CSM item attribute can be linked to any field that exists in the Item table. 
  • Item Unit of Measure Fields: a CSM item attribute can be linked to any field that exists in the Item Unit of Measure table.

In addition, CSM includes the integration events required to extend this list of options to include other tables or sources. This is useful if you are maintaining your attributes in a custom table.

Creating and Managing CSM Item Attributes

To view, create, and edit a sales channel’s CSM item attributes:

  • Open the CSM sales channel record for which you want to work with attributes.
  • From the Related ribbon, select the Listing menu and choose Channel Item Attributes
  • If you want to view or edit an existing CSM item attribute, you can open its card by selecting it from the list and then choosing the Edit action in the ribbon.

You can manually create any CSM item attribute, but some attribute types can also be automatically created through various processes:

  • CSM attributes based on Business Central item attributes can be automatically created along with CSM channel categories. If you use the CSM category creation wizard for a sales channel to automatically create CSM categories from existing Business Central item categories, you can enable the Create / Sync Sales Channel Attributes field to automatically create CSM item attributes for any item attributes that are assigned to the item
  • CSM attributes based on item variation options can be automatically created when the CSM listing wizard is used to create CSM listings for configurable items.
  • CSM attributes based on item and item unit of measure fields must always be manually

The link between a CSM item attribute and a Business Central record is defined on the Link FastTab of the CSM Attribute Card page. The way these links are established depends on the attribute’s type:

  • Manual: attributes are not linked to Business Central records.
  • Item Attribute: the Business Central attribute is assigned in the Link Value 1 field.
  • Item Variation: the item variation record is assigned in the Link Value 1 field, and the item variation option code is assigned in the Link Value 2 field.
  • Item Field: the item field number is assigned in the Link Value 1 field.
  • Item Unit of Measure Field: the item unit of measure field number is assigned in the Link Value 1 field.

When a CSM item attribute is linked to a Business Central record, CSM will automatically assign it an attribute type. Each CSM attribute type corresponds to one or more data types for standard Business Central fields:

Attributes image
 For most attribute types, no additional setup is required, but for option type attributes, it is also necessary to include that option’s values on the Item Attribute Options FastTab. These options should be automatically assigned from the corresponding Business Central record when the CSM item attribute is initially linked to a Business Central record, but you can manually perform this activity from the CSM Item Attribute Card page by choosing the Actions ribbon, then selecting the Data Sync menu and choosing the Sync Option Values action. You can also use this action to update an attribute if at any point in the future new options are added to the corresponding Business Central record.

CSM Item Attribute Sets

In order to automatically assign CSM attributes to a CSM listing, you must set up and define CSM attribute sets for the sales channel. A CSM attribute set represents a collection of CSM attributes that can be associated to CSM categories, which are in turn associated to Business Central item categories. When a CSM listing is created for an item, these relationships are used to assign an attribute set to the listing. CSM then assigns that attribute set’s CSM item attributes to the listing and attempts to retrieve values for these attributes from their corresponding sources in Business Central.

The concept of an attribute set does not exist in WooCommerce, so there is no requirement to link or associate CSM item attribute sets to a corresponding record type on the WooCommerce platform. Because CSM attribute sets are necessary for the assignment of attributes to CSM listings, however, you still must define them.

You can determine the way in which attribute sets are assigned to a CSM sales channel’s listings by choosing an option in the Attribute Set Behavior field on the CSM sales channel’s Listing Management FastTab:

  • One Per Category: each CSM category will have one and only one corresponding attribute This is useful in scenarios where you want the way in which you group your attributes to perfectly mirror the way in which standard Business Central item attributes are assigned to item categories.
  • Single: a single attribute set will be assigned to all CSM listings that are created for the sales channel. This attribute set is assigned in the Listing Default Attribute Set This configuration is relevant if you have a single grouping of attributes you want to apply to all of your channel items.
  • Multiple Category: it is possible to assign a single attribute set to multiple CSM categories. This would be applicable in situations where a single attribute grouping does not apply to all items, but at the same time the grouping requirements are not unique on a category-by-category basis.

Both models have their advantages and disadvantages. The one-to-one relationship allows the greatest level of flexibility in that we can create a unique set of attributes for every one of our categories. It is also easier to create new attribute sets from new categories, since we can instruct CSM to automatically build a new attribute set for every new category we create. This comes at the cost of additional maintenance considerations; if we want to introduce a new attribute to all of our items, we have to add it to each separate category.

Conversely, the many-to-one relationship doesn’t allow us to be as detailed with our attribute grouping on a category-by-category basis. It also takes longer to initially set up, in that we need to manually associate an attribute set to each category. But from a maintenance perspective, this model can be more convenient, in that we can update a single attribute set and then deploy that change across multiple categories.

Creating and Managing CSM Attribute Sets

To view, create, and edit a sales channel’s CSM item attribute sets:

  • Open the CSM sales channel record for which you want to work with attribute sets
  • Choose the Related ribbon, then select the Listing menu and choose Channel Item Attribute Sets
  • If you want to view or edit an existing CSM item attribute set, you can open its card by selecting it from the list and then choosing the Edit action in the ribbon.

You can manually create any CSM item attribute set, but they can also be automatically created through various processes:

  • If you use the CSM category creation wizard for a sales channel to automatically create CSM categories from existing Business Central item categories, you can instruct CSM to automatically create a CSM item attribute set for each category.  By default this attribute set will be automatically assigned to the newly created CSM category.
  • On the CSM Channel Categories page, you can select a CSM category, choose the Actions ribbon, then select the Data Sync menu and choose Build Attribute Set.

The link between a CSM item attribute and a Business Central item category is defined in the Link Value 1 field on the Link FastTab of the CSM Attribute Set Card page.

After a CSM attribute set is created, it is necessary to assign one or more CSM attributes to it in the CSM Item Attribute Set Attributes FastTab. As part of the automatic attribute set creation process that occurs when using the CSM category creation wizard, it is possible to instruct CSM to automatically assign any CSM attributes that were built from Business Central item attributes to the attribute set. For other attribute types (those created for item or item unit of measure fields, for example), it will be necessary for you to manually assign these attributes to the attribute set.

If you add new Business Central item attributes to an item category at any point in the future and have built corresponding CSM attributes, you can update a CSM attribute set’s list of assigned attributes from the CSM Item Attribute Set Card page by choosing the Actions ribbon, then selecting the Data Sync menu and choosing the Sync Attributes For Set action. CSM will add any new CSM attributes to the attribute set based on item category changes.

Next: CSM Product Listings