Picture of Connect: printIQ Custom Quoting | CI_printIQ_011b

Connect: printIQ Custom Quoting | CI_printIQ_011b

In this tutorial, we demonstrate how to configure custom quoting between Infigo and printIQ. The video covers eliminating the need for individual SKUs by allowing detailed mappings between Infigo products and printIQ components. It explains three linking methods—print on demand, stock, and custom—showing how to use the custom-built user interface to map product categories, define section specifications, and add job operations for accurate quotes. The tutorial also discusses the hierarchy of configuration fields, ensuring users can easily manage and retrieve precise quotes from printIQ based on their product specifications in Infigo.

Tutorial Video Transcript

A transcript of our tutorial video, ensuring you can find exactly what you need, when you need it.

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  • 00:00:05:15 - 00:00:07:21
    In this tutorial, we'll take a look
    at how to configure

    00:00:07:21 - 00:00:11:13
    custom quoting between Infigo and printIQ.

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    Until this point, in order
    to create an estimate and retrieve

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    live pricing from printIQ,
    it required you to create individual

    00:00:18:08 - 00:00:23:11
    SKUs for each combination of product
    you wanted to offer to your customers.

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    So if you had five fixed sizes,

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    so say two stocks and two finishes,

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    it meant that you need to create
    20 SKUs in printIQ.

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    With this functionality, it removes
    the need to create these products upfront

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    and instead allows you
    to build up a detailed

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    mapping between your Infigo product
    and its printIQ equivalent

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    using various component
    parts of that product.

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    This works by building of a base
    specification on an Infigo product level

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    and then overwriting certain parts
    of that specification on an Infigo,

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    product attribute or Infigo product
    attribute combination level.

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    This allows your customers
    to build up a more complex quote.

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    we will discover how to configure
    both of these levels during this tutorial.

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    We'll begin by
    taking a quick look at the various means

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    by which we can map
    Infigo products to printIQ products.

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    So where I'm starting off
    here is by just creating

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    or navigating to a product
    which we wish to connect with.

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    printIQ,

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    when I go to my product, variant settings

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    and then if we have our connection
    with printIQ enabled,

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    we have the ability on the product variant
    to click on Connect

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    link.

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    Now we can add many of the link details

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    at this product level

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    should you need to link details on an
    attribute or attribute combination level.

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    This can also be done
    and we will see this later on

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    so we can get the three different product
    type options here.

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    So the three different ways
    by which we can link the Infigo product

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    to the printIQ specification.

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    We'll start off
    with the print on demand method.

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    This method is the one
    which our existing connect

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    printIQ customers will be most familiar
    with.

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    This method consists of directly
    inputting an external ID

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    which links to an entry
    within printIQ itself.

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    This eliminates the need for custom
    specification if it isn't required.

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    You'll notice underneath here

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    that we do have this
    get price quoting API.

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    JSON.

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    So this is where the manual approach
    to custom quoting

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    has been able to be carried out and Infigo
    for some time.

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    However, it was for much more specialized
    users with a certain skill set,

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    you'll be able to configure the JSON
    to link

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    the Infigo products
    with various specifications from printIQ.

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    This tutorial focuses
    primarily on the method of accomplishing

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    this same feat
    using a custom made user interface.

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    So next down we have the stock method.

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    Once this has loaded,
    a dropdown list is populated with a list

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    of all of the available stock products
    from within your printIQ instance.

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    So you see, this is taking some time
    because it might be drawing

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    in a vast amount of data.

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    We now have a list of available products
    which I can select between

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    if I click on available stock product
    info.

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    Details on all of the available stock
    products are shown within this list

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    and provide you with relevant information
    about them.

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    scroll down a bit further on here.

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    You can see that again,
    the JSON can manually be configured

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    within this setting as well.

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    Now I'm going to switch to custom

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    selecting custom from the product type
    dropdown

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    will activate the custom
    built user interface

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    and this allows you to easily
    utilize our custom quoting capabilities.

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    As a reminder,

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    configuring options within the custom
    UI is essentially configuring the JSON

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    which is sent to printIQ
    without having to manually construct it,

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    which as we mentioned
    before, might require specialist skills.

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    So we'll start off
    with the product category selection.

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    So this is the name of the product
    category that is passed into Prince

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    IQ for the custom product. Quote notes.

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    This is a list of printIQ categories,
    not Infigo categories,

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    and this will ensure the correct
    information is drawn into Infigo

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    in his subsequent selections on this page,
    such as sections and job operations.

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    So I'm

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    going to go ahead and pick a category.

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    Now, scrolling down a bit further,
    you'll see that we start off

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    with a empty sections area,
    so it's defined sections for this product.

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    We can click on
    Add new item under the sections heading.

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    Now please do note
    that sections is a printIQ term

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    we are drawing information into Infigo
    from that area

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    within your printIQ instance,

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    please do note as well
    that you can have multiple sections

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    in each of these products so you can click
    the add new item button multiple times,

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    make multiple specifications
    if you need to.

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    So within these options

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    that appear, we can define the section
    specification of the product.

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    So this includes a lot of information
    such as the stock you want to utilize,

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    how many pages, whether there's
    a finished size and much, much more.

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    So many of the dropdowns here

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    are populated with

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    items drawn from your printIQ instance.

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    This allows you to really focus
    on the detailed specification

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    for this product
    and this will result in accurate quotes.

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    Still, within that same section
    you'll see we have a section

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    operations area
    with another add new items, but it

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    now you can define one or more section
    operations in a single section

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    just by clicking that add a new item one

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    or more types.

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    You see that
    we have a few additional options.

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    Again, please note that section
    operations is again a printIQ term

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    and we're drawing information
    from that area within printIQ.

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    You can see here
    we have some populated lists.

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    Scrolling down a bit further,

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    you'll see we have the ability
    to specify the finished size information.

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    You have the option of defining a custom
    finish size.

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    If this is set to custom,
    where you can put a width and a depth

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    or selecting from a pre-populated list of
    relevant sizes from your printIQ instance

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    to define job operations for this product,
    click add

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    new item under the job operation headings
    so you can see by default.

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    Yet again, this is empty.

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    A note

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    yet again
    the job operations is a printIQ term.

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    So we are drawing information
    from this area of your printIQ instance.

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    So complete
    the job operations specification.

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    These allow you to provide
    a full definition of the product, giving

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    you fine control over information
    sent to printIQ in order to retrieve

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    a accurate quotation.

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    Additional configuration of the JSON

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    can still be applied
    using the custom specification option.

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    However, in most cases
    this should no longer be required.

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    As a reminder, the options
    you are completing on this screen

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    are customizing the JSON
    through the purpose built UI.

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    Once you're finished, click

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    on Save external references
    and close down that window.

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    So the

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    next thing we're going to do
    is go back to product variance,

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    but then navigate within our product
    variance itself.

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    So what we're going to do
    is take a look at overriding certain

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    parts of the custom
    quote specification where it's required.

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    So this could be used for example,
    if a change in product attributes changes

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    a specification so that a different quote
    is required from printIQ.

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    So if I go over to my attributes tab,

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    I'm going to do here
    is a sign in attribute

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    and corresponding attribute values
    to the product.

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    Once an attribute value has been defined,
    which requires a different printIQ

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    quote from the base product, we can click
    on the Green Connect Link button.

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    so I've added an attribute
    and an attribute value

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    to that particular product.

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    You can see now I have the connect link
    button for that attribute value.

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    I'm just going to click on there,

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    So what we see

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    on the pop up window
    for the actual attribute value

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    is that a lot of the available
    options are,

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    or can be set to inherit it.

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    Now, inherited basically means

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    that it's going to take the value

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    from a higher level in that specification.

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    And for more information on this,
    there is a note

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    that has been added
    to the top of this particular page.

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    So let's go through this.

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    The inherited value
    allows properties within each entity

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    to inherit values
    from the previous configuration level.

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    Now there is a hierarchy to this.

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    There's several different areas
    where we can use the custom

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    quoting specification.

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    So we've had to specify
    a hierarchy of where this can be used

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    and which one gets priority.

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    So the highest priority
    is going to be the actual product

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    variant settings themselves.

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    This is where we're not on
    any of the specific attributes.

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    I'm looking at the actual
    product variants option.

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    And then we're going to connect link here.

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    So this is actually going to show us what
    is essentially our base configuration.

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    Next option down in our hierarchy

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    is our product
    variant attribute combinations.

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    So there isn't any set up
    on this particular product

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    that I'm utilizing at the moment.

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    But we can get to those by going
    into our product variant settings.

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    Go into attributes and then we have
    our attribute combinations.

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    If you don't know what these are,
    there are other resources on the academy

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    that can detail those for you.

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    Next down

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    in our hierarchy
    is our product variant attributes.

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    So that's
    what's on this particular tab here.

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    So this is access

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    by directly
    selecting the connect link option here.

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    And then lowest down in our hierarchy
    is the product attribute value.

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    So these are the ones that are accessed
    by clicking

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    these edit values next to our attributes.

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    Then the resulting
    connect link options here.

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    Now a few little bits of explanation

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    for this hierarchy
    and how it it's utilized.

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    Each configuration field within an entity

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    inherits values
    from the previous configuration level.

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    So whatever is above it in the hierarchy.

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    So for instance,
    if a configuration field on the product

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    variant attribute combination level.

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    Is set to inherit it,

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    then it will retrieve its value
    from the corresponding

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    field in the product variant level.

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    So whatever is one
    above it in that hierarchy.

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    Within the same entity.

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    So for example, if we're just looking
    at attributes or attribute values.

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    Configuration fields can override
    each other based on their display order.

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    Do you see

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    for example in our attributes here
    we have different display order values.

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    This means that configuration fields
    in attributes and attribute values

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    with higher display orders will override
    those with lower display orders.

     

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