7,000 + Attributes must be a better way....

[azaluski]

Hello,

I am creating a new site from an existing Websphere based site. Each product page has unique specs for the product: Example:

Specifications	683265	683266	683267	683268	683269	683270	683271	683272	683273	683274
Certifications	CE	CE	CE	CE	CE	CE	CE	CE	CE	CE
Model	Spectrafuge 16M	Spectrafuge 16M	Spectrafuge 16M	Spectrafuge 16M	Spectrafuge 16M	Spectrafuge 16M	Spectrafuge 16M	Spectrafuge 16M	Spectrafuge 16M	Spectrafuge 16M
Rotor	18 x 1.5/2.0 ml	18 x 1.5/2.0 ml	18 x 1.5/2.0 ml	18 x 1.5/2.0 ml	18 x 1.5/2.0 ml	18 x 1.5/2.0 ml	18 x 1.5/2.0 ml	18 x 1.5/2.0 ml	18 x 1.5/2.0 ml	18 x 1.5/2.0 ml
Maximum Speed	14,000 rpm	14,000 rpm	14,000 rpm	14,000 rpm	14,000 rpm	14,000 rpm	14,000 rpm	14,000 rpm	14,000 rpm	14,000 rpm
Maximum RCF (g-force)	16,000 x g	16,000 x g	16,000 x g	16,000 x g	16,000 x g	16,000 x g	16,000 x g	16,000 x g	16,000 x g	16,000 x g
Acceleration Time	10 sec	10 sec	10 sec	10 sec	10 sec	10 sec	10 sec	10 sec	10 sec	10 sec
Deceleration Time	9 sec	9 sec	9 sec	9 sec	9 sec	9 sec	9 sec	9 sec	9 sec	9 sec
Maximum Radius for 1.5/2.0 ml	7.3 cm	7.3 cm	7.3 cm	7.3 cm	7.3 cm	7.3 cm	7.3 cm	7.3 cm	7.3 cm	7.3 cm
Timer	1 to 30 Minimum or hold	1 to 30 Minimum or hold	1 to 30 Minimum or hold	1 to 30 Minimum or hold	1 to 30 Minimum or hold	1 to 30 Minimum or hold	1 to 30 Minimum or hold	1 to 30 Minimum or hold	1 to 30 Minimum or hold	1 to 30 Minimum or hold
Noise Level	55 dB (A)	55 dB (A)	55 dB (A)	55 dB (A)	55 dB (A)	55 dB (A)	55 dB (A)	55 dB (A)	55 dB (A)	55 dB (A)
Dimensions, H x W x D, Metric	17.8 x 21 x 22.6 cm	17.8 x 21 x 22.6 cm	17.8 x 21 x 22.6 cm	17.8 x 21 x 22.6 cm	17.8 x 21 x 22.6 cm	17.8 x 21 x 22.6 cm	17.8 x 21 x 22.6 cm	17.8 x 21 x 22.6 cm	17.8 x 21 x 22.6 cm	17.8 x 21 x 22.6 cm
Dimensions, H x W x D, English	7 x 8.25 x 8.9 in	7 x 8.25 x 8.9 in	7 x 8.25 x 8.9 in	7 x 8.25 x 8.9 in	7 x 8.25 x 8.9 in	7 x 8.25 x 8.9 in	7 x 8.25 x 8.9 in	7 x 8.25 x 8.9 in	7 x 8.25 x 8.9 in	7 x 8.25 x 8.9 in
Weight Metric	4.5 kg	4.5 kg	4.5 kg	4.5 kg	4.5 kg	4.5 kg	4.5 kg	4.5 kg	4.5 kg	4.5 kg
Weight English	10 lb	10 lb	10 lb	10 lb	10 lb	10 lb	10 lb	10 lb	10 lb	10 lb
Electrical	120 V, 50/60 Hz (*100 V, 50/60Hz available upon request)	230 V, 50/60 Hz (*100 V, 50/60Hz available upon request)	120 V, 50/60 Hz (*100 V, 50/60Hz available upon request)	230 V, 50/60 Hz (*100 V, 50/60Hz available upon request)	120 V, 50/60 Hz (*100 V, 50/60Hz available upon request)	230 V, 50/60 Hz (*100 V, 50/60Hz available upon request)	120 V, 50/60 Hz (*100 V, 50/60Hz available upon request)	230 V, 50/60 Hz (*100 V, 50/60Hz available upon request)	120 V, 50/60 Hz (*100 V, 50/60Hz available upon request)	230 V, 50/60 Hz (*100 V, 50/60Hz available upon request)
Color	Standard Grey	Standard Grey	Blue Accents	Blue Accents	Teal Accents	Teal Accents	Purple Accents	Purple Accents	Red Accents	Red Accents

There are over 7,000 unique specification or attribute values. The management team here does not like my idea of stuffing each set of specs into a single string delemited by some type of token. Does anyone have any ideas on how to create prodcut specific attributes or any other ides on how to tackle this issue?

Thank you

[kimberelyt]

From the example you've posted I see that there are 12 attributes. Are you saying there are 7,000 attributes or 7,000 possible values / combinations for the attributes?

Magento can definitely handle the 12 attributes with many different values. You can make the attributes text types is best, but if you want them to be filterable on the category page you have to make them drop down values where  you input the acceptable values. I often extend the Magento Data import to add these automatically from an import file so I don't have to deal with entering this manually.

Let me know more about this and I can answer in more detail.

[azaluski]

Thank you for the help but we have over 7,000 potential attributes with tens or maybe hundreds of thousands of values. I can't see creating this large number of attributes. The product edit page would be huge to say the least. It doesnt appear that anyone has a solution. My solution is to stuff the existing name/value pairs in a single attribute which I will parse. The probelm is that there's too much potential for user error updating the values down the road by CMS users.

[GauravMehta04]

Instead of creating 7000 attributes I suggest to used CSV file kind of logic, like wise store CSV for each product attributes And featch its value on frontend for respected product. This solution is useful if you just used attributes for showing product information.

In case if you want to add those attributes options into ATC or order process then CSV is not good idea..

Pl update post if you get better idea for the same.

All the best

[KuafuSoft]

maybe you can map some of your attributes to an attribute set, Im not talking about the catalog attribute set but a custom attribute set, so for some of the attributes that share common fact, you can encapsulate them into an attribute set, and make that set to be an actual attribute in your product

[azaluski]

I opted with creating my own model/database table to store the spec data which displays the spec name/value pairs in the product edit page using a new tab I created. When the product edit page is saved I am using the 'catalog_product_save_before' event to update the model. I need to add a bit of code that will allow add/removing of new specs and also I custom import routine. Hopefully loading colection data against a table that has a few hundred thousand rows performs the way I need it to since the product edit page is a bit slow anyway.

[GauravMehta04]

@azaluski

Are you storing its value into custom table? I'm thinking about the load of database table for 7k fields... Also do you use those fields value for display purpose Or also used into product configuration. ?