Creating individual variants

You can use the Management Center to manually create product variants. You base each variant on one attribute of its parent product.

About this task

When you create a product variant, only one variant can be manually created at a time. Each variant is based upon one attribute. If you want to generate a number of variants at once, use the catalog upload tool.

Note: While product variants behave similarly to products in most respects, there are important differences in how they are created.

You cannot create duplicate variant as you can with a product. For example, having created one variant using the red attribute, you cannot create a second variant based on the red attribute.
For a given product, if there is already a variant defined using a particular attribute, the product cannot be used to create variants using a different attribute. For example, if a shoe has a red color variant, it can be used to create other color variant, such as a black color variant. However, it cannot be used to create a size variant.

Procedure

Open the Catalogs tool.
From the explorer tree, select a catalog.
Find the product for which you want to create a variant.
Right-click the product; then, click Open. The Product Properties view displays.
Click the Create New icon on the toolbar, then click on Variant in the drop-down menu. Alternatively, right-click on the product in the explorer view to the left, then click on New Variant.
The New Variant view displays.

Select the Manage variant tab; then, change the appropriate fields.

Property	Description
Code	Type the product code.
Parent product	The product code of the parent product on which you are basing this variant.This field is automatically populated when you create a variant from an existing product. Alternatively, you can drag and drop a product from the left-hand display column.
Attribute values	A set of defining attribute fields of the parent product that allows you to select the defining attribute value for the variant. Only one attribute and one value can be selected. For example, you can not choose both Color and Size; if choosing Color attribute, only one value (such as Red) can be chosen, not Red and Blue. Each product can only have one type of variant. For example, if a Shirt product has a Color variant, this product can not also have a Size variant. Restriction: Some attributes have a large number of predefined values. If you choose as your defining attribute a predefined value that is not used by an actual product, then the variant will not function, despite potentially being visible in the storefront.
Name	The name of the catalog entry. This field can be edited in multiple languages.
Short description	Type a brief description of the catalog entry.
Long description	Type a detailed description, if applicable. You can enter HTML code in this field. If you choose to specify HTML code, you should receive this source code from your developers. Before you paste HTML code into the field, you must select Source in the editor toolbar. For more information about rich text editors, see Rich text editor (CKEditor).
Keyword	Type one or more keywords, which are separated by a comma and a space that describe the contents of the Web page. Some Internet search engines use these keywords to determine whether your page satisfies a search query. This field can be edited in multiple languages.
Additional description 1	Type a detailed description of the catalog entry, if applicable.
Additional description 2	Type a detailed description of the catalog entry, if applicable.
Manufacturer	Type the name of the manufacturer or vendor.
Manufacturer part number	Type the part number for the catalog entry, uniquely defined by the manufacturer. This number is different from the code that is used to define the object in the system.
Parent category (master catalog)	The category to which an object such as a category, product, or SKU belongs, or the catalog to which a top category belongs. For more information, see Moving a catalog entry.
URL	Type the URL where customers can download the product (in the case of software) or more information about the product. Ensure that the URL does not contain blank spaces.
Recurring order item	Indicate whether the catalog entry is available for a recurring order.
Subscription item	Indicate whether the catalog entry is a subscription item.

Assume that you have created a clothing variant with two attributes: Color, and Available Sizes. In such a case you would provide a value to one of them, for instance Color=Red, with Available Sizes left undefined. This configuration gives you a variant that only includes SKUs with Color=Red, but within that limitation, allows different sizes (S, M, L…).

If you set values for both attributes, the Management Centre will return an error message.

Important: Once a product has a variant with a defining attribute, you can not create a variant with a different defining attribute for it. All variants under a product must have the same defining attribute.

Click Save to create the variant.

(Optional) Expand the Publishing section and add any publishing attributes that you would like to use with this variant.

Property	Description
For purchase	This check box indicates whether customers can purchase this catalog entry. This check box is read-only.
On special	Indicates whether the catalog entry is on special.
Announcement date	Add the year, month, and day that the catalog entry becomes available to customers. Click the calendar icon to select a date. This is an informational field.
Withdrawal date	Add the year, month, and day that the catalog entry is removed from the catalog and is unavailable for customers to purchase. Click the calendar icon to select a date. This is an informational field.
Availability date	Add the year, month, and day that the catalog entry is available to customers for purchase. Click the calendar icon to select a date. This is an informational field.
Last date to order	Add the final year, month, and day that the catalog entry is available for order. Click the calendar icon to select a date. This is the latest date that a customer can order the catalog entry. For example, a manufacturer can discontinue a product, but because stock still exists, it is still available for order for one month.
End of service date	Add the year, month, and day when the catalog entry is no longer in service. For example, this date can be the date that a software manufacturer stops providing upgrades for a version of their product. Click the calendar icon to select a date. This is an informational field.
Discontinued date	Add the year, month, and day when the catalog entry is discontinued. For example, it can be the date that the manufacturer stops producing the product, or the date your store stops selling the product. Click the calendar icon to select a date. It is recommended that this field is used consistently to avoid confusion. This is an informational field.

(Optional) Expand the Display section and add any display attributes that you would like to use with this variant.

Property	Description
Display to customers	Select this check box to indicate that customers can view this category in the storefront.
Thumbnail	All image files must be placed in the store's defined image directory. Determining the correct image directory and whether you need an absolute or relative path depends on your store's configuration. For example, the HCL Commerce starter store images use a relative path that points to the default installation directory under the store name. Use of a relative path is most common. Use of an absolute path is dependent on your initial configuration. Ask a store developer with Site Administrator authority for the correct image directory if you are unsure. This field can be edited in multiple languages.All image files must be placed in the store's defined image directory. Determining the correct image directory and whether you need an absolute or relative path depends on your store's configuration. For example, the HCL Commerce starter store images use a relative path that points to the default installation directory under the store name. Use of a relative path is most common. Use of an absolute path is dependent on your initial configuration. Ask a store developer with Site Administrator authority for the correct image directory if you are unsure. This field can be edited in multiple languages. For the Aurora starter store, this path must be to the 160-pixel-wide thumbnail image of this catalog entry, for example:images/catalog/apparel/women/womens_dresses_160x160/WD_038_a_blue.jpgThis path must have a directory with a name that contains the following character string: `160x160`. The server matches the character string to locate this image and the other catalog entry images in different sizes.
Full image	Type the path to the full-size image and the name of the image, such as images/shirt.jpg. The path can be either a full path, or a relative path from your store directory. For the Aurora starter store, this path must be to the 1000-pixel-wide full image of this catalog entry, for example:images/catalog/apparel/women/womens_dresses_1000x1000/WD_038_a_blue.jpgThis path must have a directory with a name that contains the following character string: `1000x1000`. The server matches the character string to locate other catalog entry images in different sizes. The 1000-pixel-wide full image is not currently used in the Aurora storefront. On the product details page, the 447-pixel-wide image is used as the full image of the product.

(Optional) Expand the Pricing section and add any pricing attributes that you would like to use with this variant. Each variant can have its own list price and offer price. However, if there are no prices specified for variants, variants will inherit the list price or offer price of its parent product. These prices will appear in the search index and storefront.

Property

Description

List Price

An optional field to display the list price. List price is sometimes called MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price). This price is intended for catalog display purposes only; it is not typically used as the actual price customers must pay. A store might display a list price above an offer price to show customers that they are getting a better deal with the offer price. One common use of the list price is to display the MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price). Your site can choose not to use a list price at all.

Offer Price

The price at which the catalog entry is offered for purchase. Click New to add in a new offer price. Type a Minimum Quantity at which the catalog entry can be offered at this price. The maximum quantity is determined by the minimum quantity of the next range. For example, if the minimum quantity of a catalog entry to be sold at $35.00 is one, and the minimum quantity of the same catalog entry to be sold at $25.00 is 10, then the maximum quantity for the catalog entry to be sold at $35.00 is nine.

Note: If you are using the extended sites model, the offer price for the catalog asset store is displayed first. Then, the list price and offer price displays for the extended store.

(Optional) Expand the Custom section, and add any custom attributes that you would like to use with this variant.

Property	Description
Field 1 (Integer)	A customized field for your catalog entry data. The entry must be a whole number.
Field 2 (Integer)	A customized field for your catalog entry data. The entry must be a whole number.
Field 3 (Decimal)	A customized field for your catalog entry data. The entry must be a decimal number.
Field 4 (Text)	A customized field for your catalog entry data. The entry must be text.
Field 5 (Text)	A customized field for your catalog entry data. The entry must be text.

Results

After you save the variant, the variant/Product SKUs relationships are created automatically. Click on the Reload button to display these SKUs.

You cannot update the attribute values once you have created the variant. You cannot delete the defining attribute and parent product directly once a variant that uses them exists. You must first delete the variant.

You can use the Hide in storefront checkbox to control whether or not to show this variant in the store for customers searching and browsing by category. By default, this checkbox is not selected.

What to do next

Click the Descriptive Attributes tab to assign additional attributes to the variant beyond the defining attribute.
Click the Associated Assets tab to add attachments, such as images specific to this variant.