Custom products characteristic

[Gabriele1]

Hi, is it possible to add custom characteristics to products (i.e. for indoor lamps: dimmable yes/no) and, most importantly, import this data from a csv file generated by a pre-existing database?

[eferg]

Yes and Yes.

https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/products/import-export/import-products

What helped me was to manually add a few products with options, then Export my product CSV file.  This allowed me to see exactly how the file is constructed.  Then build a small test file and import it.

[Gabriele1]

Thanks for reply!

How should I add an option that's just 0/1 or yes/no?
I could add it as a "variations", like colors, but it doesn't feel right, as this is not an option the buyer can pick, but a characteristic of the product, like its measures or price.

[PaulNewton]

For properties that do not affect price use product tags, or metafields.

For info that should go into the orders use line item properties, or cart attributes

https://ui-elements-generator.myshopify.com/pages/line-item-property 

Both paths need theme customizations to meet specific business needs.

Some free tuts by shopify to use as starting points https://community.shopify.com/c/Shopify-Design/Product-pages-Get-customization-information-for-produ... 

https://community.shopify.com/c/Shopify-Design/Cart-Use-cart-attributes-to-collect-more-information/... 

These are not natively importable as they are extensible systems, typically you use tags or metafields to control the display of line-item property logic customized into the theme.

There are export\import apps such as excelify,ez-exporter that let you set up these extensible processes.

If you need such a customization contact me paull.newton+shopifyforums@gmail.com with storename,theme, and usecase details for pricing.

[eferg]

I use the Infinite Options app from the Shopify App Store.

It will enable you to use all input types: Text, Radio Buttons, Checkboxes & Drop-Down Menus, etc

However, these options can't and won't change the price of the product.

[Gabriele1]

I don't think Infinite Options is what I'm looking for. I don't need to add options for the buyer to choose from. A lamp is dimmable or it is not, for example. I just need that this characteristic isn't just in the description text, but it is a field that can be used to filter searches or menu items.

[Renars]

Hello @Gabriele1 

Thank you @PaulNewton for suggesting the use of Excelify.

You sure can import both Metafields and Tags with Excelify.

Here we do have a great tutorial on how to bulk manage (create, update and delete) your Shopify Metafields.
The tutorial also explains very basics of how to display Metafields on your Products page, but you could get more details from Shopify published documentation/posts:

-Blog post "Using Metafields in Your Shopify Theme"
-Metafield object theme documentation

It is a whole new world out there when you get into Metafields, but they allow a great deal of customization in your Shopify store and together with using the right apps, it would work also for you.

To bulk import your Product Tags you can look into the Excelify tutorial on bulk managing tags.

But I would suggest starting by looking into what apps/services to use to have the rest of the functionality, such as searching/filtering by tags or metafields, and, as @PaulNewton suggested if needed use Line Item Properties for this data to transfer to the Order.

If you have any questions about using Excelify, let us know directly or in a reply here.

[eferg]

Dimmable vs non-Dimmable

You'll want to add a tag to each light product to signify if it is dimmable or non-dimmable. 

You could set up a separate collection for each of the two types so customers can quickly narrow their choices.  Then have links to each collection.

Or, with some coding you can also have a drop down menu with sub-menus that show results based on the product's tags:

https://community.shopify.com/c/Shopify-Design/Dropdown-Menu-showing-all-Types-or-Tags-of-a-Collecti...

[PaulNewton]

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@eferg wrote:

Dimmable vs non-Dimmable

You'll want to add a tag to each light product to signify if it is dimmable or non-dimmable. 

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@Gabriele1 just note that not having a tag like "non-dimmable" can be the same thing as indicating it's non-dimmable if you set up your tag logic properly.

Though then it wont be useable tag in filtering collections on the storefront.

This is important as there are upper limits on tag usage in a store and only 3 tags can be used to filter collections on the strorefront. 

Tags are part of the products imports CSV https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/products/import-export/using-csv#product-csv-file-format 

[Gabriele1]

I was thinking on using collections, too. 
I know I can create menus with them, but I'm not sure If I can make users filter searches with them, and if they can, if I could be able to decide what collections make available to filter searches, and what to hide from website visitors.