Product Type Properties

Overview

You can view a list of product type properties in the product type properties section. Product type properties are used to define different attributes of a product type. For instance, a customer might want to choose a product type such as "Electronic" or "Manual" from the list of products. Product type properties would define the additional attributes of the manual or electronic product that aren't already part of the existing product details.

Requirements

The following prerequisites will be necessary to accomplish the goals of this article:

• Have access to your Hotcakes store administration
• Understand and be familiar with product types

Getting Started

There are no prerequisites to follow along with this article.

Product Type Properties

You'll find product type properties in the catalog menu of the control panel.

Initially, the grid that displays the product type properties will be empty.  You'll need to add a product type property.  You can do that using the control in the left panel.  Simply choose the type of this property, and click the "Add New Property" button.

In the property types below, we'll discuss the individual settings that are unique to each.  When you're done making your updates to the product type property, click the "Save Changes" button to save the updates you've made.  It will return you to the main listing view.

Common Settings for All Product Types

These are the settings you'll see repeated, regardless to the type of property you choose.

Setting	Description
Property Name	You can think of this as a system name.  Regardless of the language you or your customers are using, this value will always be the same reference name.  Your developers might be using this name in their integration code.
Display Name	This is the language- and human-friendly version of the property name above.  Your customers will potentially see this label in many places, including on the product page, in the search results or drill down views, and in receipts.
Display on Site	This is checked by default.  When checked, this value will be shown on the product page, if the product type properties are listed.
Display to Drop Shipper	If you're using drop shipping and your drop shipper needs to know this information, check this checkbox.  Doing so will allow them to see this value in their drop shipping notification e-mail.
Display on Search	If you wish for this property to be shown to customers when they view search results or the drill down category view, check this checkbox.  This will not only allow them to see it, but it will also allow them to filter the products they're looking for using this value.

When you add a choice to the product type property, you'll be prompted to confirm it's language-friendly version of the text.  It looks like the image below.

Setting	Description
Choice Name	This is a system name like the product type property itself has.  You'll use this value to reference this choice in the administration, and your developers might use this value too.
Display Name	This is the human-friendly version of the choice name, which will also be language-friendly as well.  Your customers will see this value.

Property Type:  Text

When you use this type, it will add a textbox to the product, allowing you to enter free-form text.  This type should be used sparingly when used with the category drill down view.  It will perform more poorly compared to other product type properties.  This is most often used for integration, such as the ID of the product in your ERP.

Setting	Description
Is Localizable	If your customers will potentially see this value, check this checkbox.  It will allow a different version of this value to be specified for each language you support.
Default Value	If there is a common value that this property will have, you should enter it here to save your merchants time when they're managing the catalog.  It's okay to leave this blank though.

Property Type:  Multiple Choice

This is the most common and useful type to use.  It allows you to define a preset selection of properties for a merchant to choose from.  This avoids typos and it's much better to use for performance in drill down views.

In order to add a new choice, enter a name in the textbox you see below, then click the "New Choice" button.

Column	Description
[no name]	You can use this column to sort the order that customers and merchants will see these choices displayed to them.  Simply click here, hold your mouse, then drag the choice item to your desired location.
Default	This column will show you which choice item is the default choice.  If you don't have any default, the first one will automatically be the default.  You can simply check the checkbox for your desired default right here.
Choice Name	This is the system name you gave the choice item before.
Display Name	This is the language-friendly name you defined when creating the choice item.
[no name]	This is an editing column that allows you to either edit or permanently delete the choice item.  The first icon opens the choice item edit popup, and the second icon performs the delete action.

Property Type:  Currency

The currency type will allow you to add a textbox to the product details, but it will require a valid currency value to be input.

Setting	Description
Currency Symbol	Choose the locale-specific currency type for this property.  This will define what the format the value should be.  This can be different from your store's default currency setting, and it usually is.
Default Value	If you wish to have a default value automatically assigned when a product is created, enter that value here.  In most cases, this value will be empty, requiring your team to add the value to the product each time.

Property Type:  Date

If you need to specify a date as one of the properties, use this type.  This is very useful for things like a begin or end date for events.  The value your merchants input must be in a valid date format.

Setting	Description
Default Value	This is a required field.  You must enter or select a date to always be added as the default.  The date format will follow the formatting of your site and server settings.

Product Type Properties Grid

Once you have at least one product type property added, the grid will begin to fill.  An example of that is seen below.

Column	Description
Property Name	This is the system name you gave to the product type property.
Display Name	The language-friendly name that you assigned to this product type property is seen here.
Type	This column will identify what the type of the property is, as defined above.
[no name]	This is an action column, allow you to either edit or delete the product type property.  The first icon allows you to go to the edit view and change how the product type property works.  The second icon will allow you to permanently delete the product type property.