Attribute management

In Release 8.5, the item attribute functionality in the Catalog Management module has been replaced by the new Attribute Management functionality. The new functionality provides master definitions of attributes which can be assigned to entities, such as categories, classifications, and items.

How it affects you

In Release 8.5, attributes and attribute groups must be defined prior to assigning attributes to categories and classifications. Additionally, Sterling Selling and Fulfillment Foundation continues to allow users to override defined attribute groups in category assignments. In earlier releases, users could reorganize the attribute sequence within the same attribute group for each category. However, in Release 8.5, users can no longer reorganize the attribute sequence in an attribute group that is assigned to a category.

Migration strategy

This section describes the automated and manual migration processes for the Attribute Management functionality.

Automated migration processes

The Attribute Management functionality has the following automated processes:

  1. An attribute domain with ATTRIBUTE_DOMAIN_ID = "ItemAttribute" will be created for each catalog organization.
  2. A single YFS_ATTRIBUTE_GROUP record will be created for each attribute domain, as defined in Step 1.
  3. A record is inserted into YFS_ATTRIBUTE for each record in YFS_COMMON_CODE with CODE_TYPE="ITEM_ADDNL_ATTR" or CODE_TYPE="ITEM_ALIAS_TYPE".
  4. A record is inserted in YFS_ATTRIBUTE for each column in YFS_ITEM, except fields.

    A YFS_ATTRIBUTE_REFERENCE record will be created for each of the YFS_ATTRIBUTE records created for the common code with CODE_TYPE="ITEM_ALIAS_TYPE" and for each column in YFS_ITEM.

    These attribute records will be assigned to the appropriate attribute domain, as defined in step 1, based on the catalog organization. These attribute records will be assigned to the appropriate attribute group, as defined in step 2.
  5. No YFS_ATTR_ALLOWED_VALUE record is created for the attributes defined in the previous steps. These attributes are treated as free-form text.
  6. All the records in YFS_ITEM_ATTR will have the CATEGORY_KEY and ITEM_ATTR_GROUP_TYPE populated based on their corresponding YFS_ITEM_ATTR_GROUP records.
  7. Additionally, new YFS_ITEM_ATTR records will be inserted for each of the existing YFS_ITEM_ATTR records for each child category as defined by the category hierarchy. The
    YFS_ITEM_ATTR.IS_INHERITED is populated as Y.
  8. For each record in the YFS_ITEM_ATTR_GROUP table, the column YFS_ITEM_ATTR_GROUP.SEQUENCE_NO is populated based on its corresponding record in the YFS_ITEM_ATTR_GROUP_SEQ table. The YFS_ITEM_ATTR_GROUP_SEQ table will be removed.

Manual migration processes

None.