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Getting Started with Product Families Iteration 2

A how-to guide on structuring your data in Plytix to make the best use of the Product Families Iteration 2 update

After implementing Product Families Iteration 2 for your account, you can take advantage of the new data structure by using the resources provided below to create and manage products. This article explains the changes in our software with the implementation of the second version of Product Families.

 

  ⚠️ Disclaimer: This feature is not available for use in all accounts yet.

 

Product Families Iteration 2: Automatic Inheritance

Family and Family Model

Assigning Products to Families and Models

Editing Inherited Attributes and Resyncing Attributes

Enhancements to Product Overview and User Interface

 

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Product Families Iteration 2: Automatic Inheritance


The first version of Product Families gave you the ability to group attributes by product type. Product Families Iteration 2 aims to give users the ability to choose which attributes variant products inherit from parents. You’ll now be able to have true parent-variant relationships with the automatic inheritance of the attribute values you choose.

Product families 2 uses the concepts of families and models to achieve automatic inheritance from parents to variants.

 


Family


From now on, the creation of variant-level attributes within product families will provide the structure between parents and variants. You can think of it as a set of preferences about attribute inheritance that can be saved for each subset of parent-variant products under a Family. Configuring variant-level attributes allows users to decide which attributes are inherited from parents, and which attributes are solely relevant for variants.

Family models are a way to save preferences about inheritance of particular attributes between parents and variants.

 


 

Assigning Products to Families 


To select which products follow a inheritance, you need to first configure it within your Product Family. Configuring your inheritance means deciding which attributes are managed on a parent level and which attributes are managed on individual variant products. Variants have two sections for attributes: variant-level attributes and inherited attributes. 

After you set up your inheritance, you can choose which products to link to it. As for variant products, you can view the Family a variant product belongs to, but you cannot edit it within the variant. 

After you create a family and model, you can choose which products to assign to them..

 


 

Editing Inherited Attributes and Resyncing Attributes

After parents products and linked variants have been assigned an inheritance structure, variants will inherit parent attributes by default. However, you can make exceptions by choosing to edit inherited attribute values on variant products. Editing inherited attributes will create “overwritten” attributes, meaning that they will not inherit values from the parent product. However, you can always resync these overwritten attributes to re-inherit the value of the parent product.

Editing inherited attributes will create “overwritten” attributes, meaning that they will not inherit values from the parent product.

 


Enhancements to the Product Overview and User Interface

With these changes, the Product Overview now features a dropdown for product display options. We’ve updated the user interface to make it easier to view and edit attributes, and group products in different ways. You can view “Variants grouped,” which shows parents and single products together; or “Variants ungrouped,” which shows variants and single products together. 

This makes it easier for you to manage products when viewing parents and variants in the product overview because you can simultaneously view either parents (with a number that represents their variants) and single products;

With Product Families 2, you can view either parents and single products together, or variants and single products together in the product overview.
OR variant products (with a variant icon to the left of the SKU) and single products.

With Product Families 2, you can view either parents and single products together, or variants and single products together in the product overview. Additionally, selecting "Unassigned" from the product family dropdown in the product overview now shows only single products because all parents and variants must be assigned a Family.
Selecting "Unassigned" from the Family selector will show only single products because parents and variants must be assigned to both a Family an a Model.
In summary, Product Families 2 introduces automatic inheritance, enabling more specific subdivisions of products and more streamlined attribute management. 

 


 

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