How to Add a Property Definition

This topic describes how to add a property definition. Property definitions describe specific properties in your catalog. One property definition can be used by multiple category definitions, product definitions, and the metadata, and can be shared across catalogs.

Note

The Catalog and Inventory Manager does not run concurrency checking. Therefore, if two users are working in the Catalog and Inventory Manager on two different computers, and the users both add new properties to the same catalog definition, only the new properties of the user who saved the properties last will be saved to the system. The properties added by the first user are discarded.

To add a property definition

1. Click Start, point to Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 , and then click Catalog and Inventory Schema Manager.

2. In the Catalog and Inventory Schema Manager, in the Views pane, click Property Definitions.

3. In the Task pane, click Create New Property.

4. In the New Property Definition dialog box, select the property type that you want to use to create the new property definition.

5. In the New Property screen, on the Basic Properties tab, do the following:

   Note

   The properties that appear on the Basic Properties tab depend on the type of property definition you select.

   Use this	For property type	To do this
   Property Name	All	Type the name for the property.
   Data Type	All	You select the data type in the New Property Definition dialog box that appears before this screen. You cannot edit this box.
   Multilingual	Text, File Name, Multiple Choice, Long Text	Select this check box if the property will have different values in different languages.
   Display On Site	All	Select this check box to display the property to customers on the Web site.
   Specification Searchable	All	Select this check box to use in specification searches.
   Free Text Searchable	Text, File Name, Multiple Choice, Long Text	Select this check box so that free text searching on the catalog will apply to values stored in this property. When you select Free Text Searchable, Commerce Server 2009 adds the property definition to the full-text index for the catalog. You must update the full-text index after changing items in the catalogs that are marked as searchable.
   Minimum Length	Text	Type the number that defines the minimum length of the value for this property type.
   Maximum Length	Text	Type the number that defines the maximum length of the value for this property type.
   Minimum Value	Number, Big Number, Decimal, Date, Time, Date-Time, Money/Currency	Type the number that defines the minimum value for this property type. Note: Commerce Server 2009 cannot accurately sort the Minimum Value column when the column has multiple data types. Sorting on this column may produce unexpected results
   Maximum Value	Number, Big Number, Decimal, Date, Time, Date-Time, Money/Currency	Type the number that defines the maximum value for this property type. For example, to add a property for money, enter a number that includes the decimal point and any fractional amount that could handle the greatest monetary value to apply to a product. Note: Commerce Server 2009 cannot accurately sort the Maximum Value column when the column has multiple data types. Sorting on this column may produce unexpected results.
   Assign to All Product Types	All	Select this check box to assign the property to all product definitions. For example, you might want to select this check box for generic product properties, such as name, description, or weight. Note: If you select this check box, any product definitions you create automatically inherit this property.
   Store For Data Analysis	All	Select this check box to export the property to the Data Warehouse. Exporting data to the Data Warehouse makes data available for reporting purposes.
   Display In Products List	All	Select this check box to display this property in the Column Chooser dialog box.
   Is Required	All	Select this check box if this property must contain a value.
   Currency	Money/Currency	Select the currency for this property from the drop-down list.
   Default Value	Number, Big Number, Decimal, Boolean, Text, Date, Time, Date-Time, Money/Currency, File Name	Type the default value for the property type. The format varies depending on the property type you add.
   Display As Base Property	All	Select this check box to display the property definition as a base property in the Catalog Manager.

6. To save the property definition, click Save and close on the toolbar.

To add a multilingual property definition

1. Click Start, point to Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 , and then click Catalog and Inventory Schema Manager.

2. In the Catalog and Inventory Schema Manager, in the Views pane, click Property Definitions.

3. In the Task pane, click Create New Property.

4. In the New Property Definition dialog box, select the property data type that you want to use to create the new property definition.

5. In the New Property screen, on the Basic Properties tab, type the values for the corresponding properties.

6. On the Display Names tab, in the Display Name section, type a value that you support.

7. If you selected the Multilingual check box on the Basic Properties tab, on the Default Values tab, in the Default Value section, type a value for each language that you support.

8. To save the property definition, click Save and close on the toolbar.

See Also

Other Resources

Managing Catalog and Inventory Schema

How to Add a Product Definition

How to Add a Category Definition

How to Rename a Product Definition

How to Rename a Category Definition

What is a Property Definition?