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How to import Product Features

Author: Pimics Team, Modified On:

Product features can be created in bulk starting from Excel files and using BC configuration packages. More often than not, companies need to do this when first creating their product catalogue in Pimics. However, because of several conflicts between UI and how configuration packages work, you need to keep the below considerations in mind.

Following, we assume you already know how to work with configuration packages in Business Central. If that is not the case, please read the Microsoft documentation about this here.

Initial import features using configuration packages

When you need to initially import data to Pimics (to create product data), please observe these rules:

These fields are required and need to be on every line of the import file:

  • Source Type (for example Item)
  • Source No. (for example 1896-S)
  • Line Type (usually Feature)
  • Identification of line:
    • Number (for example INT100001)
    • OR Group System Number (usually INTERNAL) and Description (For example Color)

If using Number (feature number) as an identification of the line, the feature must already exist in the system. This field must contain the Number of an existing feature.

Usual additional fields:

  • Value (the feature value, for example Red or Red|Blue for polyvalent or 1..3 for ranges)
  • Unit Id (ID for the unit of measure, if it is not already defined on the feature)

Normally, the following fields should be empty:

  • Source Id - because it will be calculated based on Source Type and Source No.
  • Id - because a new number will be assigned automatically

Features are imported in the order they are defined in the Excel file. The order of the feature within its parent entity is defined by the field Element.

Importing Feature Type

It is not possible to import new product features and specifiy the type at the same time (Numeric, Logical, etc.).

Importing product features essentially means assigning them to particular items or other entities (item group, etc.). These product features will have their type set to Alphanumeric by default. If you want to specify a data type other than Alphanumeric, you must create the feature definition first. After the feature defintion is created (in the Features table), you can link features to specific entities by importing them as product features in table Product Features.

Import feature definitions:

  1. From Configuration Packages, export the Feature table template to Excel
  2. Specify the field Group System Number (required)
  3. Specify Field Type Enum (Logical, Numeric, etc.). You can fill up also other fields that will help define the properties of the feature card
  4. Import to Pimics - new feature definitions are created
  5. Export table Product Feature to Excel and fill in the required values
  6. Import product features

Importing polyvalent features

It is not possible to import new product features and specify polyvalent values at the same time.

Before importing polyvalent features, the feature definitions must be created. This needs to be done in several steps and it is important to follow the order:

Import feature definitions:

  1. From Configuration Packages, export the Feature table template to Excel
  2. Specify the field Group System Number (required) - other fields are optional
  3. Set Field Type to Alphanumeric (default) - polyvalent features cannot be of specific types (Logical, Numeric, etc.)
  4. Import to Pimics - new feature cards will be created

Define feature values:

  1. From Configuration Packages, export the Feature Value table template to Excel
  2. Specify fields Feature ID, Value ID, Group System Number (all required)
  3. Import to Pimics - values will be defined on features

Define feature type as polyvalent:

  1. From Configuration Packages, export the Feature table template to Excel again
  2. Set field Polyvalent to true or 1 (true/false or 1/0 are allowed values)
  3. Import to Pimics - features will be set to polyvalent.

Define product features:

  1. From Configuration Packages, export the Product Feature table template to Excel
  2. Create new record lines and fill up polyvalent values (e.g. Red|Blue|Green)
  3. Import to Pimics

Inheritance

Direct importing of inherited features is not supported in Pimics, but it can be done respecting the steps below

  1. Make sure the product structure is created
  2. Switch on the Inheritance setting on the required sub-categories
  3. Import the necessary features to the selected top category (children will automatically inherit these features)
  4. From Configuration Packages, export the Product Feature table template to Excel
  5. Fill up the values for inherited lines
  6. Import to Pimics again

Importing titles

To better categorize nested features, it is a good idea to add titles to the features list.

  1. The title line needs to have
    1. Source Type (for example Item)
    2. Source Code (for example 1896-S)
    3. Line Type = Title
    4. Indentation = 0 (or empty)
  2. Features nested to the title need to have
    1. Line Type = Feature
    2. Indentation = 1
    3. Source Type and Source Code if imported for the first time (see link)
  3. The next feature or title should have again Indentation = 0 (or empty).

Importing feature groups

Pimics doesn't support importing of Feature Groups together with Features.

This needs to be done in several steps:

  1. Import feature groups to Pimics (table Feature Group)
  2. Import features into individual feature groups (table Feature Group Line)
  3. Export table Product Feature to Excel
  4. Create new records and fill up the values
  5. Import to Pimics again
Title: How to import Product Features, Author: Pimics Team