Variant Manager

What are Catalog Item Variants?

An Item's variants are simply the full set of configuration permutations for that Product. This means that if an item has two attributes, and each attribute has a total of 10 options, then the Item will have a total of 100 (10 * 10) variants.

The advantage of the variant manager is three-fold:

1. We can have a unique ID and label associated with each variant, making it easier to connect the Threekit catalog to external ecommerce applications like Shopify.

2. We can store additional information on a per-variant basis, such as unique labels, pricing, or uploaded files (for AR purposes or external renders).

3. We can directly disable invalid combinations without the need for a rules system.

Variant List Management

The Variant Listing page is available by clicking on the Variant Manager button when viewing the details for a selected item. The Variant Listing is unique for each item, as it only shows the variant set for the selected item.

The listing columns may be expanded or contracted as desired.

Generating the Variants

The Item Variants can be generated by clicking on the Generate Variants button at the top right of the Variant Manager page.

This will create the full set of permutations for all the attribute options present on the selected Item.

Once the variants have been generated, you can enter each variant to edits its details manually, or through the API.

Regenerating the Variants

Once changes are made to the item configuration, the variants will need to be re-generated.

To do that, you will need to click the Regenerate Variants button at the top right of the Variants listing page.

Follow the prompt instructions to trigger the generation process.

Custom data on individual variants will be retained during the regeneration process as long as that configuration combination continues to exist on the given Item.

Filtering Through the Variants

If you wish to search for specific variants, then you would need to use the filtering options available on the left hand side of the Variant Manager page.

The options here include the following:

1. Search by Custom ID - find a specific variant with a given Custom ID.

2. Status - filter the list to show only variants with the status shown in this box.

3. Variant Attributes - filter the list to show only the variants associated with the specific configuration options listed here.

Generate the Vector Data

The Variant Vector Data is used exclusively by the AI Discovery feature. It is necessary for the AI agent to perform the search effectively through the list of Variants.

The Vector data needs to be generated each time the Variants are re-generated.

The button to generate the vector data is available on the top right of the Variants listing page.

Editing the Variant Details

Each individual variant entry can be edited to store additional details and data.

Click to select the variant in the Variant Manager listing page, and a quick edit panel will slide in from the right side of the screen.

Variant Title/Custom ID

The title/custom ID of each variant gets generated automatically during the variant generation process, but can be edited afterwards. It is displayed as the name of the variant on the variant listing page, as well as at the top of the quick edit panel for the variant details, where it is editable.

• You can edit the title/custom ID with your own unique identifier such as a SKU.

• Each title/custom ID must be unique, and can be referenced to pull up the variant data instead of using the Threekit ID.

• By default, each title/custom id includes a listing of the item name and attribute-option pairs to fully identify the variant. An additional hash id is also appended as a suffix.

• Each attribute-option pair is separated by an underscore, while the the attribute and its option are separated by a dash.

• It is possible to edit and rename the title/custom ID of each variant. This change will persist with each regeneration of the variants as long as the combination of attribute-option pairs will continue to exist for the item.

• The title is parsed by the AI Agent during AI Discovery queries.

Variant Information

This section provides access to basic information about the variant, such as the Threekit ID and Configuration info. The only elements that are editable on this page are the Label and Status.

Threekit ID

Unique ID used by the Threekit platform to identify each variant in the database.

Label

Enter your own custom Label to identify the variant. This can be used either for front-end UI purposes. For example, the AI Agent for the AI Discovery feature will make use of the Label to display the results. If the variant has no label, then it will use the title/custom ID instead.

Status

Set the status of the Variant to either Active, Deactivated, or Invalid. These states define whether the Variant should be used in the front-end UI, or whether it is a valid combination of options altogether.

Configuration

This section lists the full configuration that defines the variant. This is the information used during the vector generation to power the AI-based search in AI Discovery.

Metadata

This feature is currently unavailable.

Pricing

Each variant can have its own pricing information, in multiple currencies. This tab allows access to the pricing information and provides the ability to edit this information.

The Add Currency button allows users to add the price of a variant in a given currency from a predefined list of international currencies.

The page will then list all of the price entries in the various currencies. Using the checkboxes to select entries will enable the Delete button at the top of the list. This is how entries could be removed.

Clicking inside the Value cell beside a currency entry will allow the user to edit the price amount in that currency.

Content

The content section allows the user to upload files that need to be associated with a specific variant. The main use case here would be for storing custom thumbnail images or pre-rendered images representing the product variant.

Uploading Content

Click on the Upload Files button to open the file upload dialog that allows you to choose a local file to upload. Once uploaded, the files will appear in the Content listing page.

Updating the Content

If you wish to update an uploaded file, simply attempt to upload it again with the exact same filename as it currently has in the Content Listing page. A popup dialog will confirm that the file already exists and would be overwritten.

Downloading the Content

If you wish to download a file from the list of contents, simply click on its name in the Content list, and a File Save dialog will pop up allowing you to choose a local folder on your machine where the file will be downloaded.

Deleting the Content

A file would first need to be selected through its checkbox, in order to enable the Delete button at the top of the Content listing page. Clicking the Delete button will then remove the list of selected files.