Table of Contents

Publish Items

Certification of data

Certification should be part of your process so you can keep data under control and prevent future mistakes. Usually, data is certified when work on a product is finished. Certification can also create tasks for other team members and move the workflow forward once data is well defined.

System status

The System Status field indicates data completeness and its connection to quality management. Users can also filter publication data based on System Status.

Channel

A channel defines how data is published and to which output. Examples of channels include B2B-WEB, B2C-WEB, and printed documents.

System Status and the quality check

Users can define their own checklists, which are sets of conditions that entities must fulfill to pass the data quality check. Once entities have assigned checklists, the System Status field shows the current data state.

Data flow and available options

Usually System Status has these options:

  • New – the entity was created, no checklist assigned.
  • Under Development or Process - the checklist has been assigned to the entity, but the entity has not yet been checked by the Certify function, or it did not pass the rules defined in the checklist. In that case, review the Certification Log on the checked entity.
  • Certified – the entity has passed the quality check defined in the certified checklist
  • Archive – the entity in the structure will not be used anymore and has been archived. This option is available in entities where it makes sense.
Note

For more information about checklists and their use, see Checklist.

Certify an item

  1. Choose the Search icon (or use Alt + Q), enter Items (Product Information/Items), and then choose the related link.
  2. Open the Item Card.
  3. On the Pimics - General FastTab, specify a checklist number in the Checklist Number field.
  4. Select Certify in Related under Quality Management.
  5. The field System Status shows the current state of the data.
  6. If System Status is not Certified, you can see output from the certification in Certification Log in Related under Quality Management.

Output of certification

The output from the certification process is a list of tasks. These tasks can generally be assigned to a user or a user group.

See my tasks

  1. In the Pimics role center, select Certification Log under Quality Management.
  2. Select action Show My Outstanding Entries to see your tasks.
  3. See the importance of the task in Notification Type and description of the issue in Long Text.
  4. Select a line and action Card.
  5. It opens a card with the details and you can fix the issue.

Publication and following processes

The state of the data affects the following processes. Usually, it plays an important role in generating publications. Based on your processes, you can define whether certified data is required for specific channels. For example, when you prepare a brochure with hundreds of pages, it can take a couple of weeks to produce, even if you use a custom template. In that case, you may send raw data to your graphic team so they can prepare the layouts. By contrast, you might want to publish only approved data to your e-shop.

System Status and Publication

The user can define if the publication should include only entities that pass the quality check and have System Status = Certified, or the publication can include all data.

This control can be activated or deactivated on the publication group by using the Insert Only Certified checkbox. For more information about publications and publication groups, see also:

Update Item in Publications

It is possible to update a publication directly from items or categories. This means you do not need to wait for the job queue or a full refresh of the publication.

  1. Choose the Search icon (or use Alt + Q), enter PIM Items, then choose the related link.
  2. Select an item to update in publications.
  3. Select Reorganize Publications... in Home.
  4. When the list of publications appears, select one or more publications where you want to update the item, and then select OK.
  5. A process dialog appears. When it closes, the process is finished.
  6. You can verify the results by selecting Navigate in PIM in Product Details.
  7. This shows where the item is used in Pimics. Select a line with the type Publication Line.
  8. Select Publication Tree to open the publication and verify the item data there.