Create Product Specifications
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Create a product specification in Product Designer.
- Define a product’s general properties.
- Define attributes by setting their values and behavior at the product level.
Get Going
In this unit, we follow Devi Jacob, as he uses Product Designer to create an offer for the new Infiwatch product—Infiwatch 5. As he wants to follow the TM Forum Shared Information-Data (SID) model, he first creates a product specification (spec) and then uses it to create a sellable offer. If you aren’t using specs, you create a standard product directly from an object type without any spec type or subtype.
New Product Properties
We start by looking at the basic properties of a Shared Catalog product. Whether you create a spec or a sellable offer, you must fill in the fields inherited from the Product2 object. It’s important to have a solid understanding of how these fields work, as they hold important functionality.
Here’s how the New Product page appears.
Take a moment to explore the fields, and their purpose under General Properties.
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
Name |
Enter a unique name for your new product spec. In your training playground, we’ve added a PS suffix for product specs. |
Product Code |
Enter a product code. This value is required and visible only at design time for product specs. In your training playground, we’ve added a PS suffix to this code for all product specs. |
Product Description |
Enter any additional information about the product. |
Product Family |
Use product families as an optional way to group products in the catalog. For example, an energy company specifies whether a product relates to gas or electricity. |
Object Type |
Select the object type for the product so it inherits its layout of fields and attributes. |
Specification Type |
Select the specification type of the product. To create a product spec, select Product. |
Specification Sub Type |
Set the subtype of the product spec. Select Bundle only for parent products of a bundle. |
Product Spec |
Assign a product spec when you’re creating offers. |
Status |
Set this field to Active to apply a product spec to offers. For offers, select this field to make them visible and sellable in the Cart. |
Orderable |
Select this checkbox to make a product visible and sellable in the Cart. |
Not Assetizable |
Select this checkbox to hide the product in the asset list for a customer. |
Help Text |
Enter helpful product-related information that displays at run time. |
There’s also an Effectivity section, which controls the dates the product can be sold and fulfilled.
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
Active |
Select this checkbox for a product spec to apply it to offers. For an offer, select this field to make it visible and sellable in the Cart. |
Selling Start Date |
Set the date when a commercial product becomes orderable in the Cart. |
Selling End Date |
Set the last day a product is orderable in the Cart. Usually, you don’t set selling end dates for product specs. |
Fulfillment Start Date |
Set the date when a commercial product is ready for fulfillment. Typically, you don’t set fulfillment dates for product specs. |
End of Life Date |
Set the date when fulfillment ends for the product. |
Now that Devi understands how each of these properties define a product, he’s ready to create a product spec or offer. In the next steps, he first creates a product spec for the Infiwatch product, which he can then use to create an offer.
Create a Product Specification
Here’s the workflow that Devi follows to create a product specification (spec).
- Create a product spec.
- Assign an object type, and define the product spec’s general properties and effectivity.
- Set the values and the behavior of design-time attributes.
- Control the behavior of run-time attributes.
Create a Product Spec
To begin, click Products from the Product Designer drop-down menu 
. Here, you see a list of the existing products, services, and resources in the catalog. Click Create New Product to open the New Product page.
On the New Product page, fill in the properties of the product spec.
In this screenshot, notice that the Specification Type is set to Product, and the Specification Sub Type is set to Simple. Also, notice that the Object Type is set to Smartwatch. As a result, the product inherits the layout and attributes from the Smartwatch object type.
Set Design-Time Attributes
After you’ve configured and created the new product, scroll to the Design Time Attributes section, under the Details tab, to see the attributes from the Smartwatch object type. Click the Brand attribute, review its metadata, and make adjustments, such as setting a default value for the attribute or excluding certain picklist values.
As with object types, you can populate the values or change the behavior of attributes at the product level.
We’ve included the Design Time Attributes and Run Time Attributes sections shown here as part of the object types in the training playground to help you understand the intended use of each attribute. These sections don’t come out of the box and don’t have any special functionality, but sometimes it is useful to configure your object type similarly.
Set Value to Infiwave so it’s the default value for the smartwatch’s Brand attribute.
In the Overridable Behavior section, notice that you can control certain functionality of the attribute, while the metadata values shown in the Non-Overridable Behavior section aren’t editable.
Select Read Only so this picklist value cannot be changed.
Notice that in the Details tab, the Brand attribute is now set to Infiwave, and Read Only.
Now, change the values for the Size, Capacity, and Mobile OS attributes and set them to Read Only.
Configure Run-Time Attributes
In the Run Time Attributes section, notice that the Band Type, Connectivity, and Color attributes are set to Required because Devi configured this behavior at the object type level.
These are run-time configurables, so the customer or sales rep sets these values in the Cart.
Success! Devi now has a fully operational Infiwatch product spec that he can use to configure one or several sellable offers. In the next unit, he gets the product to market by creating an Infiwatch offer.
Resources
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Salesforce Help: Picklists and Attributes in EPC
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Salesforce Help: Product Specifications and Characteristics for Product Designer
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Salesforce Help: Create Product Specifications in Product Designer