Items Variant Setup

Depending on your business, you may include configurable items as part of your product portfolio. 

For example, companies that sells apparel may offer t-shirts in three colors (red, blue, and yellow) and three sizes (small, medium, and large), resulting in nine possible configurations. While we need to account for these nine variants in some manner, from a listing perspective we want to list just the top-level t-shirt item, then allow buyers to select their preferred color and size from the listing page.

There are different ways in which these configurable products can be set up in Business Central:

• Items: a separate item record is set up for each product configuration
• Variants: a single item record is set up for the top-level item, which then has separate variant records

Regardless of which method your company chooses the process of creating separate records for configurable product variations can be time-consuming: if we make our t-shirt item available in eight different colors and 10 different sizes, there would be 80 different variations to define.

To assist in the process of setting up configurable item structures, CSM contains an item variations module. This functionality allows you to set up the criteria you want to use for defining an item’s many configurations, then generate Business Central items or variants based on these criteria.

Note: while the item variations module is included in CSM to assist with the creation of configurable CSM listings, it is not strictly tied to CSM listing functionality. You can use this feature to create item variations for any of your Business Central items, regardless of whether they are involved in your eCommerce activities.

Setup

Item Attribute Setup

If you intend to create CSM listings based on a configurable item’s variations, it recommended that you set up Business Central item attributes that correspond to the configurable attributes you want to assign to items. When creating an item variation, it is possible to link that variation’s attributes to existing item attributes in Business Central. Although not required, it is highly recommended you link your item variation attributes to Business Central item attributes, due to WooCommerce’s shared attribute structure.

You must also set up two default item attributes that represent non-variable item variation characteristics before you can create item variations:

• Brand: an item attribute that represents an item’s brand.
• Common Item: an item attribute with an item-specific value that can be used to establish a clear link between a top-level “parent” item and the separate “children” items that represent that item’s different product configurations. For example, if an item with a common item attribute value of 1234 has a number of children items representing different product configurations, each of these child items’ unique identification number would begin with 1234.

These item attributes represent static characteristics of an item’s variations, meaning that an assigned value is shared across an item’s product configurations. For example, if an item has a brand of Suite Engine, that Suite Engine brand remains the same for all of that item’s variations.

These item attributes are set up in the same manner as any item attribute in Business Central. It is recommended that they be set up as text type attributes.

Once you have set up these item attributes, you must indicate that they will be assigned to new item variations:

• Search Business Central for Variations Setup, and then choose the related link
• On the Variations Setup page, assign the item attributes you want to use for default brand and common item information for item variations.
• Enable the Confirm After Create Item Variation field, if desired. Enabling this option will instruct the system to present a notification message to users whenever an item variation is created for an item.

The Variation Option Limit field presents the maximum number of variation options that can be assigned to an item variation. The item variations module supports a maximum of three variation options per item variation, and by default this field is set to three. To prevent inadvertent changes to this functionality, this field cannot be edited. If you wish to adjust your variation option limit, please contact your Suite Engine partner for assistance.

Item Variation Templates

An item variation contains the setup and configuration options that instruct the system on how an item’s variation SKUs will be built. An item variation is also where you define the item’s configurable item variation options and item variation option values:

• Item variation options: the variable characteristics or attributes that comprise different product configurations. 
• Item variation option values: the different values that a given characteristic can take. 

For example, if we offered a product in multiple colors and were setting up an item variation to reflect this variable characteristic, we would create an item variation option called Color. This variation option would then have option values such as Red, Blue, and Yellow.

Each item in Business Central can have a single corresponding item variation.

You can streamline the process of item variation creation by defining item variation templates. When you create a new item variation for an item, you can choose to copy it from an existing template. You can then make any item-specific adjustments as needed.

To create a new item variation template:

• Search Business Central for Variation Templates, and then choose the related link
• On the Item Variation Templates page, choose the New action in the ribbon.  A new item variation template card opens.
• Fill in the Template Code field to identify the item variation template as a unique record in the System.
• The remaining values have corresponding fields on the Item Variation Card page. 

Note: the one unique field on the item variation template that does not have a corresponding value on the Item Variation Card page is Common Item Attribute Value Max Length. An item variation’s common item attribute is an item attribute with an item-specific value that can be used to establish a clear link between a top-level “parent” item and the separate “children” items that represent that item’s different product configurations. For example, if an item with a common item attribute value of 1234 has a number of children items representing different product configurations, each of these child items’ unique identification number would begin with 1234. Because an item variation template is not associated to a specific item record, it is not possible to enter an item-specific value for this common item attribute. It is still necessary to specify the maximum number of allowable characters, however, to ensure that the generated identification numbers for child items does not exceed maximum field lengths.

You can also copy an existing item variation template and use it as the basis for a new one:

• Search Business Central for Item Variation Templates, and then choose the related link
• Open the item variation template you want to copy.
• From the Actions ribbon, choose Copy Template
• In the New Template Code field, enter a unique code for the new item variation template you want to create. 
• Choose OK

The system will create a new item variation template based on the one from which you executed the copy function. You can now make any adjustments to this new template as needed.

Next: Creating Item Variants