Introduction

In order to understand adding and managing attributes on your store, kindly check the video below: 

In order to know how to manage attributes on your store, you have to go through two main steps:

• Adding new attributes.
• Managing attribute sets.

1. Adding new attributes To add a new attribute, kindly follow the steps below:

• From your admin panel, go to “Catalog”> “Attributes”> “Manage Attributes”.
• Click on “Add New Attributes” button on the top right of the page.
• “Properties” > “Attribute Properties” complete the following:
  • “Attribute Code”: Is the name of the attribute which is used for you to know the attribute when adding a new product. It has to be in lowercase letters.
  • “Scope”: to choose where this attribute appears; you can restrict it to the store view (English or Arabic store view), to the website (All store views) or make it global in order for it to appear in Search Engines.  
  • “Catalog Input Type for Store Owner”: This shows us how the attribute choices are displayed when adding a product from the back-end (admin panel). You can choose any type you want based on your preferences but in this case, we will choose Dropdown.
  • “Unique Value”: If you want the attribute to be unique for each product (e.g. SKU) select Yes. In this case, we are choosing Size so we will keep it to No.
  • “Values Required”: this makes the attribute to be required or optional while creating the product. “Yes”: to make it required to add an attribute, this will prevent you from forgetting to add the choice of the attribute. “No”: to make it optional.
  • “Apply To”: We can select to which types of products the attribute is to be applied. Click on Selected Product Types and choose the product types that you want to add the attribute choices to.
  • “Use To Create Configurable Product”: Make sure to always Select Yes; this way while creating a configurable product the attribute choices will appear under associated products tab (this is explained more under the configurable products section).

OB 3.4.1

• “Properties” > “Frontend Properties” complete the following fields:
  • “Use in Quick Search” and “Use in Advanced Search”: Select Yes so your customers can use the attribute as a keyword to find products on your store; for example if a customer is looking for the size Large, he/she can type it in the search box on your store to get all products with that size.
  • “Comparable on Front-End”: This is used for the purpose of comparing products on the front end. Selecting Yes allows the attribute to appear when comparing products.
  • “Use in Layered Navigation”: Layered navigation is the menu on the left side of a category page on your store. “Selecting Filterable with Results”: In order to display attribute sets that were used in products.
  • “Visible on Product View Page on Front-end”: set this option to yes if you would like to show this attribute on the product page under the additional information tab.

OB 3.4.2

• “Manage Label/ Options”: This displays the attribute options that will appear both on the front and back end.  
• “Manage Titles (Size, color etc.)”
  • On the Admin field type in Size or whatever choice you want, as it’s just for your internal use. On the English and Arabic fields, type in the name you want to show on the product page.
• “Manage Options (Values of the attribute)”
  • Click on “Add Option” fill in the Admin field by typing in the size option, i.e “Large”.
  • Fill in the English and Arabic fields (if you have two store views (English and Arabic)).
  • Add another option and write “Medium”… etc.

OB 3.4.3

• Once you finish click on “Save Attribute” button.

2. Manage the attribute setsAfter successfully adding the new attribute, you have to assign it to an attribute set. In order to do that, kindly follow the steps below:

• From your admin panel go to Catalog > Attributes > Manage Attribute Sets.
• Click on “Default”.

OB 3.4.4

• Drag the new added attribute from the “Unassigned Attributes” column and drop it under the “Groups” column.
• Once you finish click on the “Save Attribute Set” button.
• 
  

Outcome

At the end of this article, you should be able to add new attributes and manage them. 

What’s next?

Kindly feel free to start working on adding products to your store.