Defining Attributes

An Attribute represents a property of a product, such as its name, image, SKU, color manufacturer and so on.  They are one of the most powerful concepts in Magento Go and provide an almost limitless ability to control the products.  Attributes are crucial for making your store easy to use for customers.  Attributes are assigned by you to the products of your choice in order to enable your customers and search engines to find them more easily.
To create an attribute, do the following:

1. In the Admin Panel, choose Catalog> Attributes> Manage Attributes.
   
2. Click the [Add New Attribute] button to view the Attribute Properties page shown below.
   
   
   
3. In the Attribute Code field, specify a unique identifier for this Attribute. Do not use spaces or special characters. However, you can use hyphens or underscores.
   
4. In the Scope field, select Global. This parameter determines the level at which the values of this attribute are shared. When creating a product, you will be able to see the Scope to the right of each attribute. You can choose to make any attribute shared Globally, at the Website Level, or at the Store View Level. Global means that the value of this attribute for a given product must be the same throughout your website. Website means that the value of this attribute for a given product can differ on different websites, however it cannot differ between store views contained under the same website. Store View means the value of this attribute for a given product can differ on all websites and all store views. For example, if you were creating an attribute called Color, with a Store View scope, you would be able to set the color of a product to green in one store view, and blue in another store view. Note: Currently, Magento go only supports one Website with multiple Store Views depending on your plan.
   
5. In the Catalog Input Type for Store Owner field, select the input type. See the table below for a description of the available input types.
   
6. Optional: In the Default Value field, specify the value that this attribute should have by default. This setting can simplify data entry if you have a large number of products that have the same value for a given attribute.
   
7. Optional: For Unique Value, specify whether each value of this attribute must be unique across all products. This setting would typically be used for attributes such as catalog numbers.
   
8. Optional: For Values Required, specify whether this attribute has to be populated for all products; if you select No, this attribute can have a blank value for some or all products.
   
9. For Input Validation for Store Owner field, specify the type of check that Magento go places on the values entered for this attribute for each product. If you select None, you can enter any type of information as the value for this attribute. If you select Email, for example, Magento go will make sure that the value entered for each product resembles an email address. If it does not, you will receive a warning message.
   
10. Choose the product types you would like this Attribute to apply in Apply To dropdown list by selecting Selected Product Types. Alternatively, you can select All Product Types if you would like this attribute to apply to all.
    
11. Select the Manage Label/Option tab on the top left in the Attribute Information panel to display the Manage Titles Page.
    
12. In the Admin field, enter a title that will be representative to the attribute in your store. If you are managing multiple Store Views, enter a title for each different language. If you leave the other Store View fields blank, the title entered in the Admin will be used.
    
13. If you selected the Dropdown or Multiple Select input types, the Manage Options section enables you to define the choices that are available. Click Add Option for each choice that you want to add (for example, “Small,” “Medium,” and “Large”). If you are managing multiple Store Views, specify the choices in each language.
    
14. Click Save Attribute.

Next steps: After you have defined all the attributes for one or more product types, you can assign attributes to attribute sets.

Input Types

Text Field - A one-line input field that a user can enter text into. For example, an Attribute for Model type.

Text Area - Similar to a Text Field but offers the option to input more content in paragraph format versus on a single line.

Date - A date (for example, release date for CDs).

Yes/No - A check box that can be either selected or cleared.

Dropdown - A drop-down list with pre-selected values that you can define in Manage Label/Option tab.

Multiple Select - Similar to Dropdown input type but enables you to select more than one option.

Price - Enables you to add an attribute to define a pricing option that is not already available in Magento go by default. Price, Special Price, Tier Price and Cost are pre-defined price attributes.

Fixed Product Tax - If the country that you will be selling imposes fixed product tax (FPT), this attribute option enables you to define FPT based on country and state/province.