Configuring the Product Family feature

You can enable the Product Family feature in the Persona-based UI through this topic.

To configure Product Family feature, proceed as follows.

1. Add Product Family Hierarchy as the secondary hierarchy to the catalog.
   Go to the Design manager > Catalogs page. In the Secondary hierarchy field, click to add a secondary hierarchy. Select Product Family Hierarchy and click Save.
   Note: In the IBM Product Master you can create product families till 3 levels to ensure a structured and manageable hierarchy.
   After you complete the mapping, the Hierarchy list in the Data explorer page also displays Product Family Hierarchy. You can see the following default categories and display names for the Product Family Hierarchy.

   Variant level	Display name
   PFH_Product	Product
   PFH_Variant	Variant
   PFH_SubVariant	SubVariant
   PFH_SubVariant2	SubVariant2

   Note: You can rename these default category names.
2. Add an Entry reference attribute to the secondary spec of the category.
   Go to the Data model manager > Spec console and Attribute collection > Secondary tab. Open this secondary spec, and in the Attribute structure and details section, specify the following.

   1. Specify Entry Reference in the Attribute type field.
   2. Create attribute collections with common attributes or differentiators to be inherited by the Variants as follows.
      • Attribute Collection for Variant - Common attributes to be inherited from the Base item.
      • Attribute Collection for SubVariant - Entry Reference attribute for Variant and first level differentiator attribute.
      • Attribute Collection for SubVariant2 - Entry Reference attribute for SubVariant and second level differentiator attribute.
   3. Specify the attribute collection created in the Step 2b in the Referenced Attribute field.
   4. You can use 3 attributes as differentiators with every level having a unique differentiator.
   If there is no secondary spec is mapped to the category, then first create a secondary spec, then add an Entry Reference attribute to this secondary spec, and then map this secondary spec to the category.
   Note: You should add Entry Reference attribute only to a secondary spec.
3. Add the Product Family Type attribute to the primary spec of the catalog.
   Go to the Data model manager > Spec console and Attribute collection > Primary tab. Open this primary spec and in the Attribute structure and details section, specify the following.

   • Specify Product Family Type in the Name field under the Attribute properties section.
   • Specify the following values in the Enumeration value field under the Attribute type properties section. Click and specify Base, Variant, and Simple in the Add string enumeration details pop-up window.
4. Configure SYS_Product Family Configuration LookUp table for the catalog.
   Go to the Design manager > Lookups > SYS_Product Family Configuration LookUp table. Specify the differentiators for the Variants.

   Example

   Base product category	Primary Hierarchy/T shirts
   Catalog name	Product catalog
   Level 1 Differentiator	Product Spec/Size
   Level 2 Differentiator	Product Spec/Color
   Level 3 Differentiator	Product Spec/Material

5. Optional: Fix Pack 10
   You can manually run the SYS_Product_Family_Verification report. This report executes SYS_Product_Family_Verification script and is responsible to check and verify whether all the Product Family configuration is done correctly.
   Go to the Job manager > Job console > Report jobs > SYS_Product_Family_Verification report.  
6.  Collaboration area  To use Product Family feature, you need to create a collaboration area with the following flag.

   Go to the Design manager > Collaboration areas > Create collab and select Is product family? check box. Specify the Workflow and Container fields as the Catalog on which you are configuring Product Family.