Management Center: Overview of migrating attributes to the attribute dictionary

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Overview of migrating attributes to the attribute dictionary

Review this information to understand the requirements for and process of migrating existing attributes to the Management Center attribute dictionary in WebSphere Commerce v7 Feature Pack 2.
With the introduction of the Management Center attribute dictionary in Feature Pack 2, you are no longer required to create, store, and manage attributes for individual catalog entries. After the Management Center attribute dictionary is enabled, you can store and manage attributes in the attribute dictionary and share attributes across multiple catalog entries.
The following table details differences between managing existing attributes within catalog entries and managing attributes using the attribute dictionary.

Manage existing attributes within catalog entries Manage attributes using the attribute dictionary
Replication of attribute information can occur in the catalog. For example, multiple products labelled with the color blue might exist in the clothing category.
When requirements dictate that the color blue used in the clothing category must be changed to navy, change each product separately to update the attribute value.
Only a single copy of the attribute and its values is maintained. Each catalog entry that leverages the attribute contains a reference to the attribute dictionary copy.
Use the attribute dictionary to manage attributes allows you to change the single attribute value blue to navy; all catalog entries that refer to this value are automatically updated to use the changed value.
Manage attributes at the catalog entry level provides no performance or storage benefits since this still prevents the sharing of attributes across multiple catalog entries. Group attributes together for multiple products enables reuse and decreases storage and performance costs.

The WebSphere Commerce catalog contains the following types of attributes:

Allowed value attribute

Business users select an attribute value from a list of allowed values to assign to a catalog entry. All existing defining attributes are allowed value attributes.

Assigned value attribute

Business users specify the attribute value for each catalog entry that the attribute is assigned to. All existing descriptive attributes are assigned value attributes.
Tip: When migrating to the Management Center attribute dictionary, you might want to convert existing assigned values into allowed values so that they can be reused as descriptive or defining attributes.

Migration considerations for attribute groupings

To migrate existing attributes to the Management Center attribute dictionary, ensure that you review the following considerations when deciding how to group the attribute names and values.

Attribute grouping scenario Consideration
Group all attributes with the same name into one common attribute Can result in combined attributes with values that are not applicable to all catalog entries they are associated with. For example, color is a common attribute assigned to products in a category, but its values are often not shared across multiple categories in a store. The colors red, green, and blue are commonly used for clothing products such as T-shirts, but not for electronics products such as televisions.
Group all attributes with the same name from the same category into one common attribute Can result in combined attributes with values that are not applicable to all catalog entries they are associated with.
No grouping of attributes (one-to-one association of attribute dictionary attributes with products) Logically, this grouping scenario is the same as the non-attribute dictionary model:

Does not decrease the cost of database storage for redundant information.

There is no central location to change all instances of an attribute value. For example, when requirements dictate that the color blue used in the clothing category must be changed to navy, change each product separately to update the attribute value.

There might be a performance impact for storefront searching due to additional attribute indexing.

Although the attribute dictionary in Feature Pack 2 does not support attribute groups, you can use a business user name (Code) and storefront name (Name) for attributes in the attribute dictionary.
To sort attributes into groups, add prefixes to the business user names of attributes to create attributes for categories, such as ShirtColor, ShirtSize, and TVColor, TVSize. Leveraging this difference between the business user name and the storefront name allows the business user to see the attributes together, but displays clear and simple information for the shopper on the storefront.

Related tasks

Migrate existing attributes to the Management Center attribute dictionary

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Manage existing attributes within catalog entries	Manage attributes using the attribute dictionary
Replication of attribute information can occur in the catalog. For example, multiple products labelled with the color blue might exist in the clothing category. When requirements dictate that the color blue used in the clothing category must be changed to navy, change each product separately to update the attribute value.	Only a single copy of the attribute and its values is maintained. Each catalog entry that leverages the attribute contains a reference to the attribute dictionary copy. Use the attribute dictionary to manage attributes allows you to change the single attribute value blue to navy; all catalog entries that refer to this value are automatically updated to use the changed value.
Manage attributes at the catalog entry level provides no performance or storage benefits since this still prevents the sharing of attributes across multiple catalog entries.	Group attributes together for multiple products enables reuse and decreases storage and performance costs.