Product category attributes example use

To capture all the attributes required by different products, the Product category attributes feature can be used to define the product attributes based on how each product is categorized into category hierarchies.

An electronics retailer carries a wide range of products, from high definition television sets to microwaves. They require different sets of product attributes for different kinds of products. For example, product dimensions and product warranty might be common attributes across all electronic products, but high definition television sets require additional attributes such as AspectRatio and DisplayResolution, while microwaves have attributes such as OvenCapacity and TurntableType.

First, a category hierarchy is created with the relevant product categories. Using the preceding example, the electronics retailer could define a category hierarchy that includes a category called High Definition Televisions and another category called Microwaves. Then, the various product specs are defined as required, added to InfoSphere® MDM, and associated with categories in the category hierarchy.

For example, the spec for high definition television sets that is associated with the High Definition Televisions category might look like this:

HDTVSpec

AspectRatio		String	Enum (“16:9”, “4:3”)
DisplayResolution	String
InputCapabilities	String
Picture-In-Picture	String	Enum (“Yes”, “No”)

The spec for microwaves that is associated with the Microwaves category might look like this:

MicrowaveSpec

OvenCapacity (Cu. Ft.)	Long
TurntableType		String
KitchenTimer		String	Enum (“Yes”, “No”)

When you associate the spec with a category, you can also indicate whether the spec is to cascade down to all subcategories, so that even products categorized into an n-level deep subcategory can also access the spec.

Next, products are associated with the categories, as appropriate. Finally, based on the product category associations, the attributes defined in the specs can be added, updated or retrieved for all of the products associated with the category. For instance, any product associated with the High Definition Televisions category has access to the attributes in HDTVSpec, while any product associated with the Microwaves category has access to the attributes in MicrowaveSpec.