Preparing for Batch Processing Sub-Products

In order to productively use the Sub-Product batch processing feature, you need to take the following steps:

• Attribute codes. As mentioned in the previous section, you can assign codes to option attributes. As these codes are used when generating part numbers for your Sub-Products, make sure you associate meaningful codes with each attribute assigned to the product. If no codes have been assigned, all Sub-Products will have the same SKU, equal to the SKU of the parent product. If codes have been associated with some, but not all attributes, some of the part numbers will be the same. The only scenario in which all part numbers will be unique is when codes have been associated with all attributes used in the batch.

• Attribute images. If you want to show swatches on the product details page, make sure to associate images with all attributes assigned to the first option group (e.g. the first option group assigned to the product is “Color”: assign images to its attributes).

• Sub-Product images. When customers click on a color swatch, ProductCart will automatically swap the product image with the one specified for Sub-Products that use that attribute (i.e. all “Blue” shirts, regardless of the size). In order to take advantage of this feature, make sure to create images for the Sub-Products, and use the naming convention mentioned below. For each Sub-Product, you can have two images: a standard image and a detail view image. The second image is shown when customers click on the zoom icon.

When you use the batch processing feature, ProductCart will generate a number of Sub-Products that is equal to the total number of product variations based on all groups & attributes assigned to the product. For example: 3 colors, 4 sizes, and 2 styles will generate 24 Sub-Products.

TECHNICAL NOTE: In ProductCart version 3.11 performance improvements were made to the product details page to try to handle scenarios in which an Apparel Product has hundreds of Sub-Products. Still, having a high number of Sub-Products will cause the product details page to slow down. Specifically, there might be a delay in the loading of the page and after changing options on the page. You can display a message (Waiting Box) that tells the customer to wait while the options are being updated. Please see “Technical Notes > Advanced Settings for the Product Details Page” for more information on the “Waiting Box”.

To help you speed up the process of populating the product database with information for each of these product variations, ProductCart will automatically pre-fill the following fields as mentioned below.

• Sub-SKU: This is the part number of the Sub-Product, which is generated using the formula: SKU + Code1 + Code2 + Code3 + …, where SKU is the part number of the parent product, Code1 is the code (if any) associated with an attribute from the first option group, Code2 is the code (if any) associated with an attribute from the second option group, etc.

• General Image: This is the image shown when the corresponding Sub-Product is selected on the product details page. The field is not required. If you do not intend to use this image, check the Image is not available check box. The field will not be populated and the parent product's General Image will be used instead, if any. The file name will be built using one of the following naming conventions:

o Sub-product SKU + “suffix” + “extension”

o Product SKU + Option Code + “suffix” + “extension”

Take note of these naming conventions because they can save you a large amount of time when setting up Sub-Products. By using programs such as Adobe® PhotoShop® or Adobe Fireworks® you can batch process larger image files and quickly generate the images in the size and format needed for ProductCart, while automatically naming them in a way that is consistent with the naming convention used by ProductCart.

For example, assume you have an Apparel Product that is available in 6 colors and 5 sizes. That means that ProductCart will generate 30 Sub-Products. Since ProductCart automatically fills the image fields with file names that follow one of the naming conventions mentioned above, if your image file names match them, you will not have to do any data entry, but rather simply FTP your image files to the pc/catalog folder on the Web server. To do this, first rename your source files (e.g. typically large image files from which you will create the general and detail view images) using, for example, the “Product SKU + Option1 Code” naming convention. Assume the Product SKU is “jacket1” and the “Option1 Code” for the 6 colors are “blue1”, “red1”, “yellow1”, etc. Rename the source files to “jacket1blue1”, “jacket1red1”, etc. Then, choose a suffix (e.g. “_sm”).

When you batch process the images in your graphic program, you will generate 6 smaller images named “jacket1blue1_sm.jpg”, “jacket1red1_sm.jpg”, etc. You will repeat the same process with a different suffix (e.g. “_lg”) for the detail view image. ProductCart will fill the image fields for these Sub-Products using the same naming convention, so you will not have to do any manual data entry (otherwise you would have to manually enter the 12 image file names).

• Detail View Image: This is a larger version of the General Image. The field is not required. The file name will be built using the naming conventions mentioned above. If you do not intend to use this image, check the Image is not available check box. The field will not be populated and the parent product's Detail View Image will be used instead, if any.