Product attributes
Apples to: Version 4 - tsAdministrator
This article assumes the reader is familiar with the concept of products as used in tsAdministrator. If this is not the case the reader should consult the article Entering products into tsAdminstrator.
The following attributes can be set when entering products into tsAdministrator
Code
A unique code for the product, often a short abbreviation of the product's name. Although the product code can be same as the unique template key used for templates created in NeoPack/Professional, PackBuilder and OutPost it does not need to be. A maximum of 256 alpha numeric characters are allowed although codes are normally just a few characters.
The product code is compulsory and must be unique from product to product.
Description
A more detailed and literal description of the product. The description could be the plain wording name of the product for example. A maximum of 256 alpha numeric characters is allowed.
Although not compulsory the description is strongly recommended.
Type
The type of product.
- Portrait - products created in NeoPack/Professional, PackBuilder or OutPost
- Portrait for family - as above but will use the image matched to the Family in it's image holes
- Portrait for folder - as above but will use the image matched to the Folder in it's image holes
- Composite - products produced in NeoComposite or CompositeBuilder
- Group - products produced in NeoGroup or GroupBuilder
- Image - a product for online digital download
Template Key
The template key is the key given to a template in the Template Designer (Design Mode). Currently this is only available for Pack Layout templates from NeoPack/Professional, PackBuilder and OutPost and therefore only applies to product type 'Portrait'.
Strictly speaking the Template Key is not compulsory although without it the software cannot make use of automatic order processing through "Build from Order".
Specialize
This field will allows the user to 'specialize' a particular product. Additional functionality will be added as the need arises. The reason it was created highlights a typical (and currently only) use:
A customer offers copies of traditional group products at two sizes. Let's assume the normal product is 10"x12" and the larger size is 12"x14". The normal group product is defined as a group product in tsAdmin as normal. The larger group product is also similarly defined however in the 'specialize' field you specify this:
0:30480:36560
The larger size product is 12"x14" which is 304.8mm x 365.6mm. The dimensions in the 'specialize' field is specified in 1/100ths of a mm.
Now, to all intents and purposes you have an independent (larger) product based on the normal group product.
Note: all this also applies to composite products. You can, for example, create a product for poster size composite page.
Admittedly, calculating and setting the 'specialize' contents is a manual process. Eventually there will be a user interface to use.
Printer
A product may be assigned to a particular printer. The printer must first be defined in the 'Printers' object of tsAdministrator. At time of writing, setting a printer for a product will have the effect of building a separate print queue for all (portrait-type) products in a job assigned to that printer. The operator may then send all pages in the print queue to the appropriate printer. Future automatic printing solutions will also make use of the printers attribute by automatically sending productss to the correct printer.
Note a printer does not need to be a real printer. A printer may be defined as 'Outsourced work' or 'For export'.
Printer Family
Instead of assigning a product to an indvidual printer, a product may be assigned to a family of 'like' printers such as "Zeta Bank" or "Frontiers". Future printing solutions will be avilable to select an available printer from the family when printing.
Notes
Use the Notes attribute to enter any additional information about a product.
End of article