Creating Product Variations

Variation attributes can be Local or Shared.

Shared variation attributes are created in the scope of a catalog and can be used by all products of that catalog
Local variation attributes are created for a specific product and can be used only by that product.

Select site > Merchant Tools > Products and Catalogs > Variation Attributes, create shared variation attributes, or use the Variations tab in the Product Editor to create shared and local variation attributes.

Variants automatically inherit all category assignments of the master product.

Select site > Merchant Tools > Products and Catalogs > Products > product link > Variations tab.
If you see unavailable fields, you have read-only permission. You can search for product variations and view details. You can't modify, delete, or create new product variations. If you have mixed permission to access one module (via different roles), the higher level access is granted. See your administrator if you require write access.

Three sections appear: Variation Attributes, Variation Groups, and Variation Products.

The Variation Attributes section enables you to select and maintain the variable attributes of the variation, for example, 'color' or 'size'. The section lists the existing variation attributes with their ID and Name and shows how many variation attribute values are defined.
To select new variation attributes:
1. Lock the product for editing.
  When a product is a variation master, Business Manager automatically locks all of the master's variation products. If a variation product is currently locked by another user, it remains locked for the other user. If you unlock a variation master, all variation products locked by the other user remain locked for the other user.
2. Click the ellipsis (...) to show the Select Attribute Definition window. You can delete existing variation attributes by selecting them and pressing Delete and change the sorting order of the attributes by selecting them and clicking the Move Up or Move Down arrows.
3. Use the checkboxes to select the variation attributes and click Apply. Alternatively, you can click New to create a new local or global (shared) variation attribute.
The Variation Groups section is optional. Variation groups are used to control how variation products appear on your site. See also Variation Groups.
The Variation Products section (shown below) lists the related variation products of the current variation master product. The list shows the ID of the variation products, the values of the variation attributes and the default variation product. You can:
- Preview each variation product on the storefront page (click the View icon).
- Create new variation products (click Add). If no ID has been provided, the ID of the variation master product and a suffix are used as the variation product ID for the newly created variation product. If a product ID has been provided this ID is the ID of the newly created variation product. If a product for the provided ID already exists, this product is assigned as variation product.
- Assign existing products as variation products on the Select Product popup page (click the ellipsis (...)).
- Unassign variation products (select them and click Unassign).
- Delete variation products (select them and click Delete).
- Specify the concrete variation attribute values (select the appropriate value per variation attribute and click Apply).
- Indicate the default variation product (select the variation product and click Apply).
  The default variation product is used to determine the price of the product by the search functionality.
  Note: Variation products with an incomplete variation value set are not shown in the storefront.
- Display localized contents in other languages (select the language and click Apply in the Select Language section).
When creating or editing a Variation Product variations tab in the Product Editor, two sections appear: Master Product and Variant Values.
- The Master Product section shows the Product ID, Name, Manufacturer and Status of the related variation master product. Click the View icon to preview the variation master on the storefront page. Click Unassign to unassign the current variation product from the variation master.
  Note: To make changes, you must lock the product.
- The Variant Values section of the page shows the list of variation values with Attribute ID, Attribute Name and the defined value. To update the values, select the desired values from the drop down list boxes and click Apply.
You can create new local or shared variation attributes, or use any shared variation attributes already defined. To create additional variation attributes (local or shared):
1. Select site > Merchant Tools > Products and Catalogs > Variation Attributes.
  A catalog selection page appears:
2. Select a catalog to open the list view of all defined shared variation attributes of this catalog. If an attribute definition of a shared variation attribute is deleted or if the definition has an invalid type, the list view extends the ID with a suffix (Missing or Invalid).
3. Click New to create a new shared variation attribute and supply values for the following fields:
  Attribute Definition ID: Valid attribute definition ID (type non-localizable string or integer). You can click the ellipsis (...) to open the filtered attribute definition selection window.
  Name: Name of the attribute definition after selection by the ellipsis (...).
  
  ID: ID of the new shared variation attribute; must be unique for the selected catalog.
  
  Custom Display Name: Custom display name of the shared variation attribute. If no custom display name is specified, the name of the attribute definition is used at the storefront.
  
  Slicing Attribute: Select to indicate that the search should group the products according to this attribute value.
Click the Attribute Definition ID ellipsis (...) to open the attribute definition window that lists all defined product attribute definitions of type Non-localizable string and integer. You can search attribute definitions by ID or Name: The edit page of a shared variation attribute lists all defined values of the attribute. You can:
- Search by value or name
- Sort values (select one or more and click the sort buttons)
- Add a new variation attribute (enter a valid value and display value, click Apply)
- Define localizable descriptions for the display values of shared and local variation attributes.
To remove variation products from a master:
- Click Delete to delete the variation product completely from the system.
- Click Unassign to return the variation product to the catalog as a regular product.
- When you delete a Variation Master, the variation products are unassigned into regular products.