Design your model

Reference entities

Turn manufacturers, materials, norms and certificates into real records instead of repeated free text.

When hundreds of products point at the same thing (a manufacturer, a material, a norm) that thing deserves to be a record with its own fields, not a string retyped on every product.

Why this matters

Free text: manufacturer: "Bosch Rexroth" on 1,400 products. Also "Bosch-Rexroth" on 60 and "Bosch Rexroth AG" on 12. You cannot filter reliably, you cannot show a logo, and correcting the spelling is a bulk edit.

Reference entity: one Manufacturer record with a code, labels, a logo, a website and a description. 1,476 products point at it. Change it once, every product reflects it, and the filter has exactly one entry.

Good candidates

  • Manufacturer / brand: the classic case; gets a logo and a landing page.
  • Material: with a description and technical properties of its own.
  • Norm / standard: DIN, ISO, EN, with a title and a link.
  • Certificate: with an issuer, a validity date, and the PDF.
  • Series / product line: where a family of articles shares a story.

The test: does this thing have properties of its own? A manufacturer has a logo and a website, so it is a reference entity. A colour that is only a label is fine as a select option.

Create a reference entity

  1. Go to PIM › References.
  2. Select New entity.
  3. Enter a Code (permanent) and the Labels (i18n).
  4. Optionally set an Image for the entity type.
  5. Save.

Give it attributes

A reference entity has its own attribute set, defined with the same attribute engine products use. The difference is one field on the attribute.

  1. Go to PIM › Data model › Attributes and select New attribute.
  2. Set Entity type to Reference entity and Entity ref to the entity's code, for example manufacturer.
  3. Create the attributes the record should carry. For a manufacturer: logo (asset), website (text), description (localizable textarea), country (single-select).

These attributes are what make the entity worth having. An entity with only a label is barely better than a select option.

Add records

  1. Open the reference entity and go to Records.
  2. Select New record.
  3. Enter a Code and the Name per language, then fill its attributes.

A record is one manufacturer, one material, one norm.

Point products at it

  1. Create an attribute of type Reference on your products (reference_entity for one record, reference_entity_collection for several) and set its Reference entity to this entity (see Attributes).
  2. Assign it to the relevant families.
  3. On each product, pick the record.

In bulk, set it in the import file using the record Code.

What you get downstream

WhereWhat changes
FiltersOne entry per manufacturer, always. The stored value is the record code, so spelling cannot drift.
Manufacturer and brand pagesThe storefront can render the entity's own description and logo, with its products listed beneath, without scraping product text.
CorrectionsRebranding is one record edit. Every product that points at the record shows the new name.
ExportsPunchout and BMEcat exports carry a consistent manufacturer name, which matters because procurement systems match on it.
Rule-based categories"Manufacturer X" is a one-line rule on the reference attribute; see Categories.

Next

Categories

Build the tree buyers browse, assign products to it, and let rule-based categories fill themselves.

Assets

Manage images, datasheets and drawings as structured records rather than files attached to one product at a time.