Manage option types and prototypes when the free-text variant feature is enabled

This topic only applies to the marketplaces that use the free-text variant feature. 

Creating variants of features

Important notes: 

• Enabling the free-text variant feature is a breaking change. Discuss this change with your Customer Success Manager before you enable the feature because you need to manage the impact on your marketplace, sellers, and channel managers. 
• If you are not using the free-text variant feature, refer to the instructions in these articles:
  • Create variants or features
  • Fields in setting up new option types
  • Add option values to variants or features
  • Create a prototype
  • Add a prototype to a category

While you are in the process of setting up and organising your categories, you should also consider which advert and variant option types are important to each category. 

Option types are the attributes of a product (advert) or variant. They are usually physical, for example, colour, size, and material. Most categories have advert and variant option types that are specific to the type of products (adverts) within that category. The values of these option types may differ between different adverts. 

For example, every couch will be made of some material and will be at least one colour. In this example, the material is a product (advert) option type, and the colour is a variant option type. This information is relevant to all the products (adverts) listed in the 'couch' category and should be available for all adverts listed within it. 

Aside from enhancing the customer experience on your website by ensuring all relevant information is included in a product (advert), listing products (adverts) with option types also allows customers to refine the search results so that the products (adverts) that are displayed have the attributes that are important to the customer. 

To ensure that this information is available across all of one category, you must first set up the relevant option types and apply these to a category. After setting up the option type to a category, sellers creating products (adverts) in that particular category can enter information for the specified option types. 

This article contains the following sections.

• Enable the free-text variant feature
• Create a new option type
• Add option values
• Create prototypes 

Enable the free-text variant feature

Important Note: Enabling this feature is a breaking change. When you enable this setting and a free-text variant is created, the breaking changes are triggered and you cannot turn this setting off. Discuss this change with your Customer Success Manager if you have not already. If this option is already enabled, you can skip this step.

1. Log in to the operator portal.
2. Go to Configuration > Advert Settings.
3. Select the Enable free-text variant option type checkbox.
4. Select Submit.

Create a new option type

1. Sign into the operator portal.
2. Go to CATEGORISATION > Option Types.
3. Click Create New Option Type.
4. Enter all the necessary information for the option type.
   
   This table shows the fields when creating a new option type with their corresponding descriptions and examples: 
   

   Field	Description	Example
   Name	The value you specify in this field is only visible to the admin users. The name is displayed when you are selecting an option type to add to a category. We highly recommend that you be descriptive.	dog kennel material.  dog kennel size.
   Presentation	The value you specify in this field is the name of the option type displayed to the sellers in the product (advert) creation form and the refine search box on the front-end of the site.  Because it has the category as context, you do not have to be as descriptive.	Name: Dog kennel material Presentation: Material
   Kind	Select what the option type represents: Colour Size Other.
   Optional	When you toggle on this field, the option type is optional. The sellers are not required to fill out optional option types to list their product (advert).  Note: This is only applicable if you are not using the Marketplacer front-end. Learn more about how to manage this setting.
   Description	The description appears under the option type when a seller is creating a product (advert).  If your option type is not self-explanatory, you can include an explanation in this field.
   Applies to	This defines whether the option type is applied at the product (advert) level or the variant level.  The easiest way to distinguish whether an option type should be created for a product (advert) or a variant is to think about how the product is advertised and sold.  You can also set up products (adverts) so that there are multiple products (adverts) and or variant option types per category. For example, material, size and colour can all be option types for kennels. We recommend being conservative with the number of required option types that are assigned to a category, as a seller will need to make a selection to publish their products (adverts) if the option types are required.	In the dog kennel example, it is likely that kennels made of different materials will be listed as separate products (adverts); however, within a single product (advert), you may offer different sizes.  In this case 'material' is a product (advert) option type, because the customer might want to refine their search results by the kennel material, but will not have to select a specific material when they add the advert to their cart.  'size' would be a variant option type, because different sizes of kennels are listed within the one advert and must be selected when adding the advert to their cart.
   Input	The input defines how the operator and sellers interact with the option type. Dropdown - single: the seller makes a single selection from a dropdown list of option values that are maintained by the marketplace operator (see below: Adding Option Values). This input method is typically going to be the most common, particularly for variant option types, where the variations of a product (advert) will be by colour or size. As the operator controls which values are available, dropdown option types ensure high data quality standards. However, operators have to provide comprehensive value coverage to prevent blocking sellers from listing products (adverts). Dropdown - multi: the seller can make multiple selections from a dropdown list of values that are maintained by the marketplacer operator (see below: Adding Option Values). This input method is typically used to help with product discoverability. For example, in an electronics category, the compatibility of a given product would likely have multiple selections. As the operator controls which values are available, dropdown option types ensure high data quality standards. However, operators have to provide comprehensive value coverage to prevent blocking sellers from listing adverts. Free-text allows the seller to provide their text instead of selecting values from a dropdown list predefined by the marketplace operator. If using free text, we recommend ensuring that you are vetting product (advert) listings to prevent abuse and ensure that sellers are providing data that meets your quality standards. Integer: The seller can enter any whole number, positive, negative, or zero, without decimal points. This input type is commonly used for fields where quantity or count matters, such as defining the number settings of an electric appliance or the number of items included in a product.  Decimal: The seller can enter both whole numbers and numbers with decimal points. This input type is typically used where more precision is needed, such as for dimensions or weight.

5. Select Create.
6. If the option type you have created has an Input of Dropdown - single or Dropdown - multi, the option to Add Option Value displays at the bottom of the page when the option type is saved. You can now proceed to add option values.

Add option values

Option values are the values that sellers can select from when creating a product (advert) or variant. For example, the option values for Dog Kennel Materials could be Timber, Metal, and Plastic.

If a seller has a value for an option type which is not available from the dropdown when creating a product (advert) or variant, this option must be added as an option value by the operator before the seller can progress with listing their product (advert). 

For example, if the size for the t-shirt they are listing is XS but the option type only contains the values S, M or L, the operator must add XS as an option value to the size option type.

To add an option value

1. Enter a Name.
2. Enter a Presentation.
3. Select Update to save the option values to the option type.
   Note: You can click and drag to update the order of the option values. This affects how the order they are listed on the front end, as well as in the dropdown menu during product (advert) creation.

After the option value is created, you can view, edit, or add option values to the existing option types.

1. Go to CATEGORISATION > Option Types.
   You can use the Field type column to quickly identify which option types have option values (Dropdown-single or Dropdown-multi).
   
2. Select the option type (name) from the list.
   The edit page for the selected option type will display. 
3. Make any required changes and save the option type.

Create prototypes

To add the option types to a category, you must first create a prototype, which is then added to the relevant category. Prototypes are attribute sets that group some option types into a category.

To create a new prototype

1. Sign in to the operator portal.
2. Go to CATEGORISATION > Prototypes.
3. Select Create Prototype. 
4. Enter the prototype name.
5. Click Create Prototype.
6. After the prototype is created, you can select from the list of previously created option types to add to the prototype. These options must all be related to the category you plan to add the prototype to. 
   Using Dog Kennels as an example, this would be 'Kennel Colour', 'Kennel Size', 'Kennel Material', and 'Kennel Windows'.
7. You view each input of the option typed to help with visibility when there are multiple option types with the same or similar names. When you have selected the option types, click Save"

Once you've set up your prototype with the necessary option types, the final step is adding the prototype to the appropriate category. 

1. Go to CATEGORISATION > Categories. 
2. Select the category to add the prototype to.
3. Select the appropriate prototype from the drop-down menu under Prototype.
4. Save the changes.

Now, when an advert is created in that category in a seller’s account, the seller can add the option values that exist within that category's prototype.

You can find more information on setting up your categories here.