Product Attribute Model

Overview

Product Attributes define how product data is structured, validated, and reused within the Product Catalog. Attributes describe products at various levels, ensuring that product data can be consistently imported, validated, exported, and utilized by downstream Mapp services.

The Product Catalog includes a set of predefined attributes. You can also create custom attributes to add product data specific to your needs.

Custom attributes are reusable — once created, they can be added to multiple catalogs. The attribute configuration (name, data format, and settings) is shared across catalogs, but the data stored against each catalog remains fully independent.

Key Characteristics

• Predefined attributes: Each Product Catalog includes a set of predefined attributes that are available by default and cannot be modified.

• Custom attributes: You can create custom attributes to extend product data for business-specific needs and assign them to one or more Product Catalogs.

• Reusable attribute definitions: Custom attributes act as templates and can be reused across multiple catalogs.

• Strong validation model: Attributes follow defined data formats, limits, and character rules to ensure compatibility with exports and integrations.

• State and Status: Each attribute has a State (Mandatory, Mandatory for fashion, or Optional) that controls whether it is required during import, and a Status (Active or Inactive) that controls whether new values can be imported. Inactive attributes remain readable, but new data cannot be written to them.

• Purchasable Product Option: Attributes can be marked as a purchasable Product Option to indicate that they distinguish variants a customer can buy, such as color and size in fashion.

Predefined Attributes

Every Product Catalog includes a fixed set of predefined attributes. These attributes carry the core product information that Mapp Engage, Mapp Intelligence, and downstream services rely on. Predefined attributes cannot be created, renamed, or removed, and their Data format is fixed.

The State of each predefined attribute depends on whether the catalog operates in Standard mode or in Fashion-enabled mode. Switching a catalog to Fashion-enabled mode makes several attributes Mandatory for fashion and makes additional Fashion-specific predefined attributes available. An attribute that is Mandatory for fashion is required only for variants that are imported with the Enrichment Type fashion. Variants with the Enrichment Type none can omit it. For details, see Mixed Catalogs and Enrichment Type below.

If Variant Status is not provided during import, it defaults to ACTIVE for newly created variants. For details on all possible values and how Variant Status affects downstream services, see Variant Status below.

Note

Fashion-enabled mode is activated per catalog and cannot be disabled in the user interface. For details on enabling Fashion mode and the resulting catalog behavior, see How Product Catalogs Work.

Variant Status

The Variant Status predefined attribute records the lifecycle phase of a variant. Its value is consumed by downstream services and determines which variants are eligible for recommendations and personalization.

Variant Status uses the Number data format. The following values are accepted:

Variant Status drives downstream behavior across Mapp Cloud:

• Recommendation widgets in Mapp Intelligence exclude variants with the status DISCONTINUED.

• Mapp Engage personalization scenarios such as Abandoned Cart reminders skip variants with the status DISCONTINUED.

• Mapp Fashion recommendations automatically exclude variants with the status DISCONTINUED.

Configuration and Behavior

Data Formats and Validation

When you create a custom attribute, you select a Data format. The Data format determines which values are accepted, how the attribute is validated, and which additional options become available.

The following Data formats are available for custom attributes:

• Text

• Number

• Boolean

• List

• Localized text

• Localized number

• Localized list

Attributes that include localization are automatically validated against the relevant ISO standards (ISO 639-1 for languages, ISO 3166-1 for countries, ISO 4217 for currencies, and BCP 47 for combined locale codes). For an overview of the supported formats, see Localization Support in Product Catalog. If the defined standard is not met, validation fails.

To support third-party integrations, attribute definitions are subject to strict limits.

Display Type

When you create a custom attribute with a text-based Data format, an additional Display Type selector appears in the create dialog. Display Type controls how the value is rendered in the Catalog view and in downstream services such as Mapp Intelligence reports.

Display Type is available for the following Data formats:

• Text

• List

• Localized list

You can choose one of the following options:

Note

Display Type can only be set when the attribute is created. After an attribute has been saved, the Display Type is no longer visible in the edit view and cannot be changed. Display Type is not available for predefined attributes.

Purchasable Product Option

When you create a custom attribute, you can enable the Is a purchasable Product Option toggle. This flags the attribute as a variant-defining option that a customer can choose when buying the product.

Typical examples in the Fashion industry are color and size: two variants that share the same product but differ in their option values are treated as separately purchasable items.

The toggle is set to off by default and can be enabled per attribute as needed.

Number Attributes and Aggregation

The aggregation settings define how downstream services such as Mapp Intelligence aggregate the attribute's values across events. The Product Catalog itself stores only the current state per variant.

When Number is selected as the Data format, optional aggregation settings become available for analytics use cases.

Available aggregation types:

• Quantity: Counts how often a value is recorded.

• Sum: Adds up recorded values.

• Quantity and Sum: Provides both metrics and is selected by default.

Example

A variant carries a number attribute that appears in two events involving the variant, once with a value of 5 and once with a value of 3:

• Quantity = 2 (the attribute appeared in 2 events)

• Sum = 8 (5 + 3 across both events)

Constant Values

When Constant is enabled, the submitted value remains unchanged, regardless of how often the product is accessed. Only a single metric is created.

Example

A variant has a price of 100 on a number attribute. The variant is purchased ten times:

• Constant enabled → the reported value remains 100 (typical for stable values like a list price)

• Constant disabled with Sum → the reported value becomes 1,000 (summed across all ten purchases)

• Constant disabled with Quantity → the reported value becomes 10 (one count per purchase)

Attribute Deletion

Custom attributes can be deleted from a Product Catalog using the Delete action (trash icon) in the Product Attributes overview. Deletion is permanent and removes both the attribute definition and its data from the catalog. A confirmation prompt is shown before the action is applied.

If you need the attribute back after deletion, recreate it with the same configuration and re-import the data through your usual import process.

Fashion-Extended Predefined Attributes

When a Product Catalog is set to Fashion-enabled mode, the following additional predefined attributes become available alongside the standard predefined attributes. They cover values commonly used by the Fashion industry. These attributes are not visible on catalogs that operate in Standard mode.

Material

The Material predefined attribute carries the fibre composition of a variant. Mapp Fashion uses this value to derive the per-fibre breakdown that drives the Fibres feature category. Because the value is processed by a single parser, it must follow a strict format. If the format is not met, the fibre breakdown may be incomplete or missing.

Provide the value as a comma-separated list of fibre entries. Each entry must follow the pattern <integer>% <fibre name>, for example 95% cotton.

Apply the following rules:

• Write the number and % without a space between them, followed by a single space and the fibre name.

• Use plain English fibre names. Do not use abbreviations or non-English terms.

• Send the outer (main) composition only. Omit lining, trim, padding, and ornament sections.

• Do not include label prefixes such as Composition: or Outer composition:.

• For a single-fibre item, state the full percentage, for example 100% polyester.

Note

Material drives the automatic fibre breakdown in Mapp Fashion. Provide the value in the format described above. If the value does not follow this format, some or all fibres may not be derived automatically. The variant itself remains available in the catalog.

Mixed Catalogs and Enrichment Type

A Fashion-enabled catalog can contain fashion and non-fashion products in the same feed, for example clothing and jewellery. Some attributes that Mapp Fashion needs do not apply to every product. A bracelet, for example, usually has no size.

The Enrichment Type attribute defines per variant which mandatory attributes apply during import. The import groups all variants by their Enrichment Type and validates each group separately.

The following attributes are Mandatory for fashion: Gender, Material, Style ID, Size, Color, Image URL, PDP URL, Product Description, and Brand. All other mandatory attributes, including Categories, are required for every variant, regardless of its Enrichment Type.

Default Behavior

• If a new variant is imported without Enrichment Type, it is treated as fashion.

• When you update an existing variant without Enrichment Type, the variant keeps its stored value.

• Only the values fashion and none are accepted. Other values are rejected.

• Enrichment Type is available only on Fashion-enabled catalogs. A value sent to a catalog in Standard mode is ignored without an error.

• The value always comes from your product data. Mapp does not derive it from other attributes.

Note

If your catalog contains only fashion products, you do not need to do anything. Existing catalogs keep working as before, because all variants without an Enrichment Type are treated as fashion. You only need to provide Enrichment Type if your catalog mixes fashion and non-fashion products.

For how to provide Enrichment Type in an import, see How Catalog Data Flows.

Enriched Attributes

Enriched attributes are additional, Fashion-specific attributes that Mapp generates automatically through the Fashion enrichment process. You do not import enriched attributes through your Source Feed; they appear in the Enriched Feed only after enrichment has run.

Enriched attribute keys follow the fashion_ prefix convention and use British English spelling, for example fashion_colour and fashion_neckline.

Enriched values are read-only from your perspective: they are produced and maintained by the Fashion enrichment service and refreshed as part of the enrichment lifecycle.