Setting Up A Custom Mapping File

Article Number: 660 | Rating: Unrated | Last Updated: Mon, Mar 28, 2016 at 10:51 AM

Summary:

This article will show you how you can set up your data for a custom mapping file after the customization has been delivered. If you are interested in ordering the custom mapping file or what it is, you can click HERE to find out more.

1. Item Notes
2. Quick Setup Item Fields

a. Code Profiles and Item Attributes

b. Date, Alphanumeric, Numeric Profiles

3. Populating Data
4. Publishing
5. NRO Attribute Labels
6. Using Attributes in NRO

Item Notes #

To start, we have expanded the item notes field in Counterpoint. Originally you would only have the short-desc field available to pass information. More can be learned about setting the short description up HERE . You now have access to set up item notes GOOGLECAT, METATITLE, METADESC, METAKEY.

The GOOGLECAT (Google Category) can be used to compare your category structure of an item to that of Google and is used in submitting product feeds to Google. More about Google feeds HERE .

The meta fields will be used to provide search engines with necessary information about your products and site.

Quick Se tup Item Fields #

We have also included all of the item fields in Counterpoint under Setup > System > Quick Setup (Items Tab) .

Code Profiles and Item Attributes #
To populate the Code Profiles and the Item Attributes, you must add the values for the fields here. These will serve as a drop down select option on your items tab.

Put a check mark beside the first field you want to use.
Give that field a Display Label. Type is being used in this example.
Select the Codes button to the right of your label and save your changes.
Click the Add(F2) button and give the new selection a code and a description. The description field will be passed up for all Code Profiles and Attribute Codes.
Save your change. Repeat this step until you have added all of your options into these fields that you would like to use.

Date, Alphanumeric, Numeric Profiles #

To populate these fields you will only need to assign them a label. The values for these fields will be added under Inventory > Item and then the specific item number.

Populating Data #

To populate the data now we must move to Inventory > Items > Specific Item Number. Item Attributes will show on the Description tab of the item.

All other fields will show up on the Profiles tab of the item.

To populate the Item Attribute and Profile Codes fields, select the magnifying glass next to the blank field and select the value you want for the item out of the drop-down menu.

Save your choice.

For all the other sections you will type in your values on the item tab.

Publishing #

To move these fields from Counterpoint up to NRO, you will need to run at least an add/replace unfiltered item publish.

WARNING : An update Prices / Quantity publish will not move any data form items other than prices and quantities.

NRO Attribute Labels #

In your NRO admin panel browse to Catalog > Attributes > Manage Attributes .
In the Attributes list, at the top of the table, type "NRO_Custom" and hit enter on your keyboard. This will filter to show you only the attributes that coming over from Counterpoint in your Mapping file.
Your first task will be to change the labels on these so they are easily comparable to Counterpoint. In our example above we used Item Attribute 1 for Type in Counterpoint. In the list we will look for nro_custom_attribute_1 and click on that line.
Now click on the Manage Labels option on the left hand side.
Change the Default Store View and Admin to match Counterpoint. In this example, it will be type.
Save your changes.

Using Attributes in NRO #

While you are still under the Item Attributes area we can look at the different ways you can use attributes in your store.

Move back to the Properties tab on the left hand side.
Scroll down until you can see all of the options under Frontend Properties.

Use the picture above and the descriptions below to determine how you want each attribute. This will need to be set for each attribute you want to use in your store.

Use in Quick Search and Advanced Search - Allows the values of this attribute to be searchable in all instances on the front of the store. Recommend to be set the same.

Comparable on Front-End - These values will be used as compare fields when comparing similar products.

Use in Layered Navigation and Search Results Layered Navigation- This allows these values to be displayed on the left hand side of category pages as filters. Only Item Attribute and Code Profile Fields can be used for this option. We recommend setting these the same for consistency.

Used for Promo Rule Conditions - This allows these values to be used for sorting values in promo rule conditions for Catalog and Shopping Cart Price Rules.

Position - This allows you to adjust the position of where these values show in your layered navigation. Higher numbers will push the value lower in your navigation. All layered navigation values are default to blank which is a zero value. Only available when Layered Navigation is used.

Allow HTML Tags on Frontend - Not Available.

Visible on Product View Page on Front-End - This allows the values to display on the product page under the additional Info tab.

Used in Product Listing - Not Available.

Used for Sorting in Product Listing - This allows your customers to order products on the category page by this value.