When managing a large number of products with custom fields in StoreAutomator, it's essential to optimize your workflow to ensure efficient and accurate data management. One feature that can significantly enhance your operation is the ability to inherit data from parent products or custom field default values when you bulk export your data. After enabling this feature, you ensure that your exported data contains not just individually entered values but also inherits data from the parent product or custom field default value. This can save you valuable time and help minimize errors in your product data.
How Data Inheritance Works in Bulk Exports:
With data inheritance enabled, StoreAutomator will include data from parent products or custom field default values during bulk exports. This means that if a child product does not have a specific value for a custom field, it will inherit that value from the parent product or custom field default. If a child product has its own specific value for a custom field, that value will be included in the export.
How to Enable Data Inheritance for Custom Field Bulk Exports:
Data Inheritance typically is enabled by default - it can be found and switched on or off b navigating to Custom Export Field Selector as shown below.
For instance, let's say our product group contains Blue T-Shirts and the 'fabric' custom field in the parent product is set to 'Cotton'.
Now, let's export the 'fabric' custom field for all products in this group with the 'Use Inherited Values' option selected.
As a result, StoreAutomator will inherit the parent's value for the 'fabric' custom field, even when the child products have no specific data.
However, conversely, when the 'Use Inherited Values' option is not selected, the child products will not inherit the parent's value.
This custom field will be exported as empty for child products.
By enabling data inheritance in StoreAutomator, you can streamline your product data management process, enhance accuracy, and ultimately improve your workflow. This feature is particularly valuable when managing extensive product catalogs with numerous custom fields.