How to Add a Property Definition

  • Article

This topic describes how to add a property definition. Property definitions describe specific properties in your catalog. One property definition can be used by multiple category definitions, product definitions, and the metadata, and can be shared across catalogs.

Note

The Catalog and Inventory Manager does not run concurrency checking. Therefore, if two users are working in the Catalog and Inventory Manager on two different computers, and the users both add new properties to the same catalog definition, only the new properties of the user who saved the properties last will be saved to the system. The properties added by the first user are discarded.

To add a property definition

  1. Click Start, point to Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 , and then click Catalog and Inventory Schema Manager.

  2. In the Catalog and Inventory Schema Manager, in the Views pane, click Property Definitions.

  3. In the Task pane, click Create New Property.

  4. In the New Property Definition dialog box, select the property type that you want to use to create the new property definition.

  5. In the New Property screen, on the Basic Properties tab, do the following:

    Note

    The properties that appear on the Basic Properties tab depend on the type of property definition you select.

    Use this

    For property type

    To do this

    Property Name

    All

    Type the name for the property.

    Data Type

    All

    You select the data type in the New Property Definition dialog box that appears before this screen.

    You cannot edit this box.

    Multilingual

    Text, File Name, Multiple Choice, Long Text

    Select this check box if the property will have different values in different languages.

    Display On Site

    All

    Select this check box to display the property to customers on the Web site.

    Specification Searchable

    All

    Select this check box to use in specification searches.

    Free Text Searchable

    Text, File Name, Multiple Choice, Long Text

    Select this check box so that free text searching on the catalog will apply to values stored in this property.

    When you select Free Text Searchable, Commerce Server 2009 adds the property definition to the full-text index for the catalog. You must update the full-text index after changing items in the catalogs that are marked as searchable.

    Minimum Length

    Text

    Type the number that defines the minimum length of the value for this property type.

    Maximum Length

    Text

    Type the number that defines the maximum length of the value for this property type.

    Minimum Value

    Number, Big Number, Decimal, Date, Time, Date-Time, Money/Currency

    Type the number that defines the minimum value for this property type.

    Dd452508.alert_note(en-US,CS.90).gifNote:
    Commerce Server 2009 cannot accurately sort the Minimum Value column when the column has multiple data types. Sorting on this column may produce unexpected results

    Maximum Value

    Number, Big Number, Decimal, Date, Time, Date-Time, Money/Currency

    Type the number that defines the maximum value for this property type.

    For example, to add a property for money, enter a number that includes the decimal point and any fractional amount that could handle the greatest monetary value to apply to a product.

    Dd452508.alert_note(en-US,CS.90).gifNote:
    Commerce Server 2009 cannot accurately sort the Maximum Value column when the column has multiple data types. Sorting on this column may produce unexpected results.

    Assign to All Product Types

    All

    Select this check box to assign the property to all product definitions.

    For example, you might want to select this check box for generic product properties, such as name, description, or weight.

    Dd452508.alert_note(en-US,CS.90).gifNote:
    If you select this check box, any product definitions you create automatically inherit this property.

    Store For Data Analysis

    All

    Select this check box to export the property to the Data Warehouse.

    Exporting data to the Data Warehouse makes data available for reporting purposes.

    Display In Products List

    All

    Select this check box to display this property in the Column Chooser dialog box.

    Is Required

    All

    Select this check box if this property must contain a value.

    Currency

    Money/Currency

    Select the currency for this property from the drop-down list.

    Default Value

    Number, Big Number, Decimal, Boolean, Text, Date, Time, Date-Time, Money/Currency, File Name

    Type the default value for the property type.

    The format varies depending on the property type you add.

    Display As Base Property

    All

    Select this check box to display the property definition as a base property in the Catalog Manager.

  6. To save the property definition, click Save and close on the toolbar.

To add a multilingual property definition

  1. Click Start, point to Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 , and then click Catalog and Inventory Schema Manager.

  2. In the Catalog and Inventory Schema Manager, in the Views pane, click Property Definitions.

  3. In the Task pane, click Create New Property.

  4. In the New Property Definition dialog box, select the property data type that you want to use to create the new property definition.

  5. In the New Property screen, on the Basic Properties tab, type the values for the corresponding properties.

  6. On the Display Names tab, in the Display Name section, type a value that you support.

  7. If you selected the Multilingual check box on the Basic Properties tab, on the Default Values tab, in the Default Value section, type a value for each language that you support.

  8. To save the property definition, click Save and close on the toolbar.

See Also

Other Resources

Managing Catalog and Inventory Schema

How to Add a Product Definition

How to Add a Category Definition

How to Rename a Product Definition

How to Rename a Category Definition

What is a Property Definition?