Step 1: GPS - Cloning the SKU
What is the GPS and what does it do?
GPS (Global Print System) holds all the physical attributes of the products that can be fulfilled by Print-Service-Providers (PSPs)on our print network. It codifies how our renderer should render any print-ready PDFs to fit the physical calibrations, specifications, limitations and capabilities of the target PSP. It also tells the app what this product requires in terms of which screens to use, what type of previews to show (eg: Mugs have a different preview screen than flat objects like wall decor). In many cases the you are your own PSP. But we also have clients who sells products fulfilled by multiple PSPs, for geographic, price or simply capability reasons.
At this point, a base product will already have been set up by our team, in collaboration with the team at the PSP side. We will cover a few common scenarios here:
Same type, same SKU, different designs: An example will be we have set up a basic white mug with SKU code of “MUG95MM-White” and you want to create “clones” of these same white mugs, but present them as difference products (“Mother’s Day Mug with Flowers bundle” vs “Photo mug” and “Give Boss a Mug Day” )
Same type, different SKU, different dimensions: We have set up a basic wall canvas of 30x30cm with SKU=”Canvas-30×30″. You now want to set up the 50cm square version of this. All other specs of the product is the same, except the SKU code (now its maybe “Canvas-50×50” , and its physical Width/Height dimensions has to be updated. Bleeds may change, but almost everything else remains the same.
Multiple different designs targeting same SKU: This will be where we create 10 different designs of collages (MPSS) which are all sized for a particular wall decor SKU (say the 30cm Square Canvas above). Then all physical specs of this SKU are copied across, but the target_rect array will be different.
So the first step is always to copy the entire row of the base product you want to start from, then paste them however many times needed. Then you go about updating the values in the individual columns. Here are some key ones to take note of. Most of column headings attributes are self-explanatory.
Some GPS Attributes you need to know about
printType this very important property mainly controls the Product Edit views, decides whether an “Arrange” screen will be shown, and also what type of Preview should be used to show off the finished product. See below some examples of products in each printType.
Step 2: Set up the soft attributes of product
The OC Products sheet is the place where all the “logical” aspects of your product are codified. The App (iOS and Android) only talks to OC. OC then talks to GPS if it has to. So OC will tell your app everything it needs to know about how to present each product, each option, each selectable attributes. What it should say, what images it should show, and how it should be priced. Whether taxes are added differently for shipping costs or not and whether the currency symbol appears in front or behind the number.
