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Product Documentation PIM Configure PIM Product Maintenance PIM Workflow Setting Up Product Data for Workflow

Setting Up Your Product Data for the PIM Workflow

Now that you have heard about the Kodaris PIM Workflow, how can it be set up to work with your product data? If your products are syncing to the Kodaris Portal from your ERP, there is a bit of prep work that needs to be done – but once it is implemented and you are maintaining data in the PIM Portal, it is easy to take care of while working on product data.

Once your product data has been synced and you have also updated the PIM Setting values that you would like to use, the next step is to export product data from the portal.

Using the export and import functions for this process can be helpful when updating products for a site launch or when updating large amounts of product data regularly. You can also update all workflow statuses directly in the product data grid at any time.

Exporting Products for PIM Workflow

  • Navigate to “Products” from the PIM section in the Portal
  • Select the “Data” tab

To update the needed PIM Settings, select to view the below columns in the data grid:

  • Code – this is a required column as the product code is needed for the import
  • Name – can be helpful when assigning values and PIM categories
  • PIM Status – this outlines the flow of updating individual product data
  • PIM Categories – internal product categories
  • PIM Attribute Status – this could outline the flow of updating product attributes
  • PIM Category Status – this outlines the flow of updating product categories
  • PIM Reasons – a high level list of values that refer to why a product has moved to a specific status
  • Go to “File”
  • Select “Export”
  • “Save as” dialogue box will appear
  • Rename the filename if needed, then click “Save” to export the file

This export will pull all of the products that have been synced to the Kodaris portal – you can see the product count at the lower right of the grid screen. If the product count seems to be off, the product syncing may not be complete, and you will want to wait and export after the products have finished syncing.

Note: It may take a little time to complete the export if you are exporting a large amount of data. The file will download and save to your computer.

Below is an example of exported product data from the data grid screen. As you can see, the export includes the columns selected in the data grid.

Now that your spreadsheet is set, you are ready to update the status columns and pimCategory. If needed, the pimReasons column can be updated at this time.

Updating the PIM Workflow

Enter the needed values in the pimStatus, pimCategory, pimAttributeStatus, pimCategoryStatus, and pimReason columns.

  • Pim Status – update with either UPDATE or DO NOT UPDATE
  • Pim Category – update with the needed pim category value – the pim category is not required if the product has been updated as "DO NOT UPDATE."
  • Pim Attribute Status – if pim status = update, enter UPDATE
  • Pim Attribute Status – if pim status = update, enter UPDATE
  • Pim Reasons – dependent on set values, enter as needed or leave blank

Once you have entered the needed values, the sheet must be imported into the portal. The import matches on the product code, and all product codes will be updated with the values in the spreadsheet.

Note: The values entered in the spreadsheet will need to match the values that you created for pim settings.

Important! The name column was only included in the export for product reference. Since we are not updating the name information during this process, we do not want to import the names back into the portal. The information in the portal may have changed between running the export and importing the new information. The information that is imported will overwrite any changes that have been made.

To skip importing the name column, remove the column from the spreadsheet or enter a character after the header name (i.e., name- ) before importing.

Save and export the completed spreadsheet as a .csv file.

Note: If any cells in the spreadsheet are left blank, the value will be blank after the import – which is fine if it is intentional.

Working with the PIM Workflow

Going back to the data grid in the PIM portal, your team can easily filter and sort by pim status and pim category to find products that should be updated. As products are updated, the PIM Status will need to be updated to the next level of QA1 at the same time.

When the next team takes over and works through QA1, the PIM Status will need to be updated to QA2 and so on, thus working through the PIM Workflow while products are being updated.

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