Consider attributes that identify your "product"c
Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2025 4:09 am
Attributes that identify a customer's "product" include "product code," "product name," "JAN code," etc. If there is any information among these that uniquely identifies "one product," then that attribute will be the "unique key." Information that uniquely identifies a "product" managed by PIM is the most important attribute information.
Generally, the "product code" will be the unique key, but in some cases, if there is only a "product code", there may be duplications due to differences in the "product code (unique key at the time of manufacture)", or there may be products that do not have a "product code". For example, if you define that "instructions are charged features of our advertising database and are treated as one product", the instructions may not have a "product code" and may instead have a separate attribute, "document ID".
Also, there are cases where a single attribute alone is not enough to ensure uniqueness. In that case, you can treat it like a "composite primary key" in database terms. Although it is not recommended in the database world, I think composite primary keys are OK in the PIM world.
Speaking of how PIM products work, they manage each product information with a unique key that is issued internally. This unique key is generated using a sequential number or hash value, and is not something that PIM users can use to determine which product it is; it is merely positioned as an internal value of the PIM product. Because of this key, PIM products are designed to be able to register and manage products with the same product code. However, when importing, referencing, or outputting product information to the outside, data manipulation becomes difficult unless uniqueness can be indicated with a value that the user can specify. For this reason, we believe it is necessary to be able to indicate uniqueness even with values of multiple attributes.
As an extreme example, if "Product Code" + "Product Name" is unique, there is no problem in making an attribute value that includes full-width characters, such as "Product Name", into a unique key. (However, you need to be aware of whether this will have an impact on integration with external systems.)
Generally, the "product code" will be the unique key, but in some cases, if there is only a "product code", there may be duplications due to differences in the "product code (unique key at the time of manufacture)", or there may be products that do not have a "product code". For example, if you define that "instructions are charged features of our advertising database and are treated as one product", the instructions may not have a "product code" and may instead have a separate attribute, "document ID".
Also, there are cases where a single attribute alone is not enough to ensure uniqueness. In that case, you can treat it like a "composite primary key" in database terms. Although it is not recommended in the database world, I think composite primary keys are OK in the PIM world.
Speaking of how PIM products work, they manage each product information with a unique key that is issued internally. This unique key is generated using a sequential number or hash value, and is not something that PIM users can use to determine which product it is; it is merely positioned as an internal value of the PIM product. Because of this key, PIM products are designed to be able to register and manage products with the same product code. However, when importing, referencing, or outputting product information to the outside, data manipulation becomes difficult unless uniqueness can be indicated with a value that the user can specify. For this reason, we believe it is necessary to be able to indicate uniqueness even with values of multiple attributes.
As an extreme example, if "Product Code" + "Product Name" is unique, there is no problem in making an attribute value that includes full-width characters, such as "Product Name", into a unique key. (However, you need to be aware of whether this will have an impact on integration with external systems.)