Product Master Extensions

In this section you can set up new Product Extensions and their structure.

1. Click the Add button to add a new extension.

2. Enter a Name – You will use this name later in the calculation logic to identify, in which table you want to search data.

3. Set a Label – This is what users will see in the Master Data > Product Extensions > Category drop-down menu.

4. Select the Size, which is the number of attribute columns (3, 6, 8, 10, 20, 30 or 50) available in the table. Make your selection wisely to optimize the database size – i.e., do not create a table with 30 columns, if you only plan to use 2.

5. In the Allow Search column, set whether this extension's attributes should be available in the advanced Product filter (on the Products page).

6. Allow Analytics Search – If enabled, you can make this extension's attributes available in the Product input filter when the datamartProductGroupEntry() method is called. The returned product group object can be used in a Datamart query as soon as you create corresponding Data Sources and propagate the Product Extension's attributes as fields into a Datamart – use the Template that is created automatically when you create a Product Extension. This feature is intended above all for Agreements & Promotions and Rebates.

7. Set view/edit permissions determining which groups of people can see/edit this table.

8. Click OK and select the new extension from the list.

9. On the right-hand side panel, choose which column(s) is used as the Business Key. The system checks if the combination of business key values is unique and avoids duplicates. If duplicated rows are loaded, the system will update the existing records with whatever comes last.

   • You should always set up the Business Key, so that it is clear, which combination of columns forms the unique key.

   • It is recommended to use the first attributes (attribute1, attribute2, attribute3, ...) as the Business Key to achieve better performance. If needed, a single database index (attribute1, attribute2, attribute3, ...) can then be created for all product extensions (this requires discussion with the Support team). Product SKU can also be selected, it will however always be part of the Business Key.

   • If Last Update Date column is selected as the Business Key, this column is not included in the file when the Product Extension is exported. This means that this file cannot be used for data update as it will fail on header validation.

When an extension is selected, the structure is visible in the right-hand side panel as a grid without data (even if the extension contains some).

If you need to rename the Product ID field, you need to do that in the Product master. This way the change is propagated to all Product Extensions and the data is kept consistent. The only exception when you can rename the Product ID field is when the Product Extension is decoupled from the Product record.