NewAttribute

Create / Attach new Attribute

Creating a new attribute is done via the System Attribute Types system admin tool. Attaching a new / existing attribute to an existing Item Type is done via the System Item Types system admin tool.

Create the Attribute

To open the New Attribute Type form, you need to start the System Attribute Types tool, and click the 'New Attribute Type' link.

This form has a lot of details that need to be filled out, and below is a description of each of them, that will hopefully assist you to fill it out successfully. My suggestion however is to find an attribute that does something similiar to what you want, and have it open in a separate browser window. (Click the 'Edit' link beside the chosen attribute)

Attribute Type

An uppercase field identifying the type. It should have NO spaces.

Description

A way to identify the use of the item. The description appears in the Advanced Search screen but otherwise is hardly ever used.

Prompt

The Prompt is used in the Item Input and Item Display as the prompt text field in the table listing all the attributes of an item and their values. The prompt is also used in the listings search box, and for custom attribute listings columns as the header field value.

Attribute Type Indicator

There are currently 4 different attribute type indicators available.

1. Normal - For all text based attributes which have a single value. A good example of a normal attribute is a MOVIE_PLOT.
2. Lookup - For attributes which have a collection of Lookup values attached. A good example of a lookup attribute is AUDIO_LANG.
3. Multi Value - Similiar to Normal, except explicitly can add more than one value to an item. A good example is ACTORS
4. File Resource - A attribute used to handle file uploads / urls. This is used for attributes that will have their url's / file uploads cached.

Input Type

The input type configures the method by which a user populates the value of an attribute in the browser. The list of possible input types has already been filtered based on the Attribute Type Indicator selected previously.

You can hover your mouse over the (?) to get info on how to populate the currently selected input type args.

Input Type Arg 1

Each of the Input Type Arg's is used to further configure the input type selected, as very much dependent on which input type you have chosen.

Input Type Arg 2

As above

Input Type Arg 3

As above

Display type

The display type configures the method by which a application renders the value of an attribute in the browser.

You can hover your mouse over the (?) to get info on how to populate the currently selected display type args.

Display Type Arg 1

Each of the Display Type Arg's is used to further configure the input type selected, as very much dependent on which input type you have chosen.

Display Type Arg 2

As above

Display Type Arg 3

As above

Listing Link Indicator

This indicator is used to include a item listing link when the attribute is rendered in item display and listings. This functionality means that you can click on the attribute value and it will open up the item listings page with all attributes that also have an attribute with this same value. For instance you could see a list of movies that were released in 1998 by clicking on a Year attribute of 1998.

In older versions of the product you achieved this same thing by including a 'list-link' attribute.

Field Type

Generally you can leave this blank. Its used to define special kinds of attributes for new item types.

Site Type

This field is used for site plugin attributes, so you should leave it blank.

After you have populated all the fields you can click the 'Insert' button to save the new attribute.

Attach to Item Type

Start the System Item Types tool. Find the Item Type you want to add your new attribute to, and click the 'Edit' link.

The '{Item Type} System Attributes' (Where {Item Type" is the item type you chose) form where you can link your attribute into the item type. The order of the attributes affects how they will be layed out in the Item Input and Item Display forms but otherwise is of little consequence.

Your first step is to work out at what point you your attribute to be located. You do this by specifying a Order No value. The order no must be numeric, and if you are linking in more than one instance of the same attribute, you need to be sure to specify a unique value for each linkage.

The steps are fairly straightforward...

Order No

Populate the order no field with a numeric number appropriate for where you want the attribute to appear in the item input / item display pages.

Attribute Type

Choose your attribute from the Attribute Type list of values. You can hover your mouse over the (?) to find out a little more info about the selected attribute.

Prompt

If you want to override the prompt you can do this via the text field to the right of the attribute type List of Values. There is usually little reason to do this, but an example of where its appropriate, is if you are defining two IMAGEURL for the Back and Front cover of a DVD.

Instance Ind.

If you want the attribute to be defined as an instance attribute, you should check the Instance Ind. checkbox. This means that each copy attached to an item will have its own copy of the attribute value, and the value can be changed at each instance level. This is useful for attribute's such as ALT_ID, which will be different for each copy.

Compulsory

If you want your attribute to be populated in all cases you can set it to be compulsory.

Indicators

1. Rss Feed - Will be included in RSS feeds
2. Printable - when the Print link is clicked in item display this attribute will be visible.

Once you entered all the relevant information you need to click the 'Update' button to apply it.

Thats it! You should now have a new attribute defined in your selected item type. You can repeat one or both steps to attach new / existing attributes to item types.