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Specification attributes
Specification attributes are similar to product attributes, however, they are only used for information purposes (visible on the product details page) and for filtering products on the category details page. They don't define a product price as well as can't be used for the inventory tracking.
Example
Let's say you are running an online computer store. What helps a customer to make a decision?
Provide a customer full and descriptive information about your products. Despite you fill the short and full description of the certain computer, allow the customer to see the product's characteristic where reflected it's most important details:
This table can be displayed on the product details page if you select the Show on product page field when adding a specification attribute to a product.
Allow your customers to search computers using the filter functionality. Let's say we can search in your store by CPU type and memory. Then the category page will look the following way:
Select the Allow filtering field when adding a specification attribute to a product to allow filtering by this attribute for the certain product.
Include the "Compare products" functionality in your store. This feature is also uses specification attributes. For your computer store the "Compare products" page will look the following way:
To enable the "Compare products" functionality go to Configuration → Settings → Catalog settings. In the Compare products panel tick the 'Compare products' enabled checkbox.
The next section describes how to create specification attributes. Note that after creating a list of specification attributes you will need to add the specification attributes to the products one by one. Learn how add specification attributes to products in the Add products - Specification attributes section.
Create a specification attribute group
Note
All specification attributes which don't belong to any group are under the Default group (non-grouped specification attributes).
To see and edit a list of specification attributes and their groups, go to Catalog → Attributes → Specification attributes.
Click Add group to add a new group. The Add a new specification attribute group window is displayed, as follows:
In the Attribute group info panel, enter:
- The Name of the specification attribute group.
- The Display order number.
Then save the changes.
Create a specification attribute
Note
By default, there are no specification attributes pre-created in nopCommerce.
To see and edit a list of specification attributes, go to Catalog → Attributes → Specification attributes.
On this page you can delete specification attributes by selecting them and then clicking the Delete(selected) button.
Click Add attribute to add a new attribute. The Add a new specification attribute window is displayed, as follows:
In the Attribute info panel, enter:
- The Name of the specification attribute.
- The Display order number.
Click Save and continue edit to proceed to the Options editing panel.
Add a new option
Click the Add a new option button in the Options panel to create a new specification attribute option. The Add a new option window will be displayed, as follows:
Define the following option settings:
- The Name of the specification attribute option.
- Tick the Specify color checkbox to choose color to be used instead of an option text name (it'll be displayed as a "color square").
- Choose the RGB color which will be displayed to customers.
- The Display order number.
Click Save to save the option details.
The following screenshot shows the already added options:
Used by products
If you applied the specification attribute to products you can see the list of these products in the Used by products panel:
