Question Re: Attributes VS Fields in Technology Q&A

Attributes VS Fields

Former Member — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 16:42:57 GMT

Dear MDM gurus,

One question on Category-attributes vs Fields....

say I have a category like automobiles ---> below that

---> sedans

---> SUV etc at the sidling level.

Now if sedan has 4 seats and SUV has 7 seats.

How do we capture the 3 extra seats of SUV.

Should it be attributes ? If so how can I capture the details behuind each of the 3 extra seats like "mad of ..e.g. leather,cloth,wool",dimensions,features( child lock available).

Appreciate your inputs.

Thanks.

Jack

Re: Attributes VS Fields

Former Member — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 04:03:09 GMT

Hello Jack:

Sure, attributes are special for specific characteristics. If your particular case I would recommend actually using a qualified table multivalued, where you can store the registers of type "Seat" and then add them to the main table (automobiles).

I hope that helps

Alejandro

Re: Attributes VS Fields

Former Member — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 04:28:40 GMT

Hi,

Also I would like to add the fundamental difference between Attributes and fields...

In MDM, an attribute is like a field, but one that applies only to a

subset of the records in a table. By contrast, a field is part of every

record in a table. If a particular attribute can be applied to every product

in a repository, then it should be set up as a field in the main table. For

example, every product in a repository probably has an item number;

therefore “Item Number” should be defined in the database as a field,

and not as an attribute.

Hope that helps.

Regards,

Tanveer.

<b>Please mark helpful answers</b>

Re: Attributes VS Fields

Former Member — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 17:11:50 GMT

Hi Tanveer,

but when you are use a Catalog for Products with taxonomies, the categories in the taxonomy can be very dynamic. Once you create a new Category which should not have this common attribute/field your repository will still provide the field to products from the new category.

@Alejandro. The example "Automibles" looks like an example for a taxonomy with attributes. So if you create multivalued qualified lookup table you don't have the possibility for taxonomy search anymore.

@Jack. You could define "Seat" as an Text attribute with thze two predefined values 4 and 7. So the user can choose between both values.

Best regards

Nicolas