Use product templates in Optimizely Product Information Management (PIM) to define the major data elements that are required or recommended for products within a family of products. This helps enforce data governance before publishing products to your website.
For example, you may create a Faucet product template that contains essential data elements for that type of product, such as finish and handle type. You can set which data is required, recommended or optional. Organize product templates into folders for quick categorization and easy access.
Storefront view
Your customers will not see product templates because they are an organizational tool for you to use within the PIM.
Best practices
Consider what inventory of data you want to collect for a group of similar products. For example, you might set up your product templates under a folder structure of Power Tools with a folder for Saws, which contains templates for Circular Saws and Table Saws. By creating templates that mirror your categories, you can use dynamic category rules to automate product to category assignments.
PIM includes a starter template by default for you to use as a starting point for other templates. When creating a new template, the property groups and properties on the starter template are automatically included. Update your starter template to include all data for products in any template (like brand, product line, and manufacturer number), so that you do not need to add them to each template.
Because the template defines what properties to include for each product, you must assign a template to a product before it is editable. You can assign a product template to products from the product list, the product detail tab or during an import.
Example
Before she imports products, Carrie needs to create product templates using the property groups and properties she created to determine what information is required for similar products.
Carrie goes to Configure > Product Templates to create a Plumbing folder and a Faucet subfolder. She edits the Starter Template to add the Dimension and Brands property groups, since these should be in every product template.
Carrie then creates a Kitchen product template, which already includes the Starter Template property groups by default. She adds the Common Attributes property group into the template and saves it. She also creates a Bathroom product template which includes the Common Attributes property group. She removes the Pull-out Sprayer property that does not apply to bathroom faucets and saves the template.
Product Templates List page
Use the Product Templates List page to search for, filter and select templates for editing, assigning properties, and assigning to categories. This page lists product template folders and their product templates in alphabetical order.
You can sort data by clicking column headers and edit individual templates by clicking on the name.
Product template folder navigation
Type or click add filter – Enter a partial or full product template name to narrow the results.
Expand all and Collapse all – Click to expand or collapse the entire product template tree.
Select folder – Select a folder in the product template tree to apply a parent folder filter. All child product templates of the parent folder display in the product templates list results.
Organize folders – Drag and drop product templates between various template folders.
Product template list navigation
Editing – Click an individual product template record to view and edit its assigned properties.
Search by name – Enter a partial or full product template name to narrow the results across all product template folders.
Pagination – Go to other pages using the pagination controls under the list. By default, 25 products display in the list with options to view 50 or 100 per page.
Organize product template folders
Add product template folders
- Click Configure.
- Select the Product Templates tab.
- Click the Add Product Template Folder icon in the left panel to add a new product template folder.
- Enter a title for your template folder.
- Double click the title to edit it.
- Continue adding folders to this structure as needed.
Delete product template folders
- Hover over the folder and click the Delete icon. If you have any child folders or template within the folder, these items must be moved or deleted before you can delete the top-level folder.
- Verify the folder is deleted.
Organize product templates with Optimizely Commerce
Learn more about organizing product templates in Configured Commerce.
Learn more about organizing product templates in Customized Commerce.
Import product templates
You can import product templates in bulk. Use the provided import template to add new product templates or update details for existing product templates.
The import template provided in PIM has multiple sheets to define the template, assign its properties and assign property values when appropriate. Data defined on the different sheets does not need to be imported together, allowing you to create templates and update them with properties and property values later. Older single-sheet import template files will still be supported.
Formatting data for import
The import template provided in PIM has three sheets: Product Templates, Template Properties and Template Property Values.
An asterisk (*) denotes a required column on the sheets detailed below.
Product templates
You can provide information in the following columns on the Product Templates sheet:
- Template Folder – Name a folder to which this template will be added. Folders are for organizational purposes. The folder is created if it does not already exist.
- Template Name* – Provide the name for each template.
- Require Product Image – Set Yes if products with this template must have an image before they can be published. The default value is No.
- Include Starter Template Properties – Set Yes if the properties that are included on the starter template will be included on the template. If No, only the defined properties and globally required properties will be included. The default value is No.
Template properties
You can provide information in the following columns on the Template Properties sheet:
- Template Name* – Provide the name of the template. Must match a template name established on the Product Templates sheet or the name of a template that was previously created.
- Property* – Provide the name of the property included in the template matching an existing property name.
- Property Requirement Level – Determines if the property is Required, Recommended or Optional for this template. The default is Optional.
Template property values
You can provide information in the following columns on the Template Property Values sheet:
- Template Name* – Provide the name of the template. Must match a Template Name established on the Product Templates sheet or the name of a template that was previously created.
- Property* – Provide the name of the property included in the template matching an existing property name with template-specific values.
- Property Value* – Define the valid values for the specified property for this template.
Product template import procedure
- Click Product Templates on the Imports page or Import on the Product Templates page.
- Click Download Template if you have not already formatted your data according to the template format.
- Click Choose File.
- Locate your product template file and click Open.
- Click Continue. If you receive any validation errors, resolve them before attempting to import again. You can download the provided file to view error messages that are specific to each row.
- View your import progress at the top of the page or click Cancel to stop it. A log of the import displays on the Imports page.
Note: If a template import has validation errors, the tabs/sheets with errors will be red in the generated file.
Export product templates
Click Export on the Product Templates page to export product templates. A popup displays until the download file is ready or you cancel the export. Click Download exported file. The file includes data for all templates in a format that you can use to reimport data.
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