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Hi all,

I’m a little confused about why template item variants are not configurable at the item level. Take, for example 2 shirts made by different manufacturers. Yes, the sizes will probably be the same (S, M, L), but the colors may be wildly different. So far as I can tell, I’m left with 3 options.

  1. Have a single COLOR attribute and add every color for every shirt we encounter.
  2. Create an item class for every distinct set of colors.
  3. Create an attribute for every distinct set of colors and add all of those attributes to a single SHIRTS item class.

I don’t like any of these as it seems like it’ll lead to a lot of clutter on the screens. Are there alternative solutions here? Ideally, I’d be able to decide at the item level which attributes to include with the item but alas...

Whoops, title should be “Is there a way to manage template item attributes directly rather than though the item class?”

@joshatsbp By ‘manage template item attributes directly’ do you mean via the ‘Template Items’ screen, or via the ‘Stock Item’ screen?

Hi there,

 

I mean manage the attributes for template items directly rather than through the item class. Similarly, I’d love if I could manage Stock and Non-Stock Item attributes directly rather than through the item class.

Have you specified the attributes that have  the Variant attribute category (which indicates that the attribute is used to generate matrix items) and the Combo control type; you will use these variables to generate matrix items based on the template item.  

For each template item, you specify the following settings in addition to the item class (from which other settings are inherited):

Suppose that matrix items are used for a T-shirt of various sizes, colors, and materials. You want sizes to be displayed by default in the rows, and colors to be displayed by default in the columns. For a material, you select a particular value (such as cotton). In the matrix table, you select combinations of particular sizes and colors for the selected material.

  • The attribute whose values will be displayed in the matrix columns by default, and the attribute whose values will be displayed in the matrix rows by default when you generate the matrix items on the Item Creation tab of the Template Items form. For other attributes of the Variant category (if there are any), you select the particular value when creating matrix items.
  • The settings that determine the identifiers of the matrix items that will be generated by using the template item. The identifiers of matrix items can be segmented and are generated automatically. To compose the segments, you can use attribute values and captions, the template ID and description, constants, automatically generated numbers, and spaces.
  • The settings to be used for the descriptions of matrix items. Descriptions are generated automatically when you create matrix items. These descriptions can be segmented, and the segments can be composed based on the same entities as the segments of item identifiers can.

Hey Eric,

I”m sorry, but I don’t see how your response relates to my question. I was wondering if there’s a way to attach attributes directly to a template item rather than to its class.

You have to add the attribute type to the Item Class which will carry over to the stock items.  They don’t necessarily have to have a value for each attribute but you do have to add the attribute type to the Item Class.

 

Thanks Eric, yes, that’s how I understood it. Was wondering if there was another way. I guess not.

While this thread is a year old, I find myself needing to set up Template Items and the Attributes are definitely a problem. I set up one template item, assigned the variant attributes, created the matrix items - looks great! I move on to the next template item, but when I attempt to add a new variant attribute, it will not save, saying that the matrix items will all need to be removed, before I can add another variant attribute! 

I could go ahead and set up all variant attributes for all items on our Shopify site, then create the Templates and the Matrix items; HOWEVER, it seems that if ONE additional variant attribute is suddenly needed for this item class, we would have to delete all matrix items that have been created using this item class, before we could add another variant attribute, then recreate all matrix items again? What if sales are already attached? What if there are orders in the system already for these Matrix Items? 

Seems my alternative is only to create separate item classes for each Template Item? I could potentially combine SOME template items, but this limitation seems very burdensome.

Is there another way that I’m not seeing? It let me create separate Attributes, but as soon as I categorized them as Variant, it wouldn’t save and requires Matrix Items to be deleted. 

Hope I’m missing something. 

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