Product

A Product in Actualog is a canonical master record for an item of supply (equipment, spare part, material, component, assembly) described as structured data, not a document-only description.

A Product is the “single version of truth” you can reuse everywhere:

  • in internal workflows (engineering, procurement, sales),
  • across partners (suppliers, distributors, customers),
  • in catalogs and public product pages (including embedding and syndication).

How a Product relates to other core entities

Category → Product

  • Every product belongs to one Category.
  • The category defines the template: which attributes exist, which are mandatory, which are variant axes, and how values are validated.

Product → Attributes (characteristics)

  • Product specifications are stored as attribute values (typed, validated, measurable when needed).

Product → Company / Brand

  • A product can be associated with companies that manufacture, distribute, or use it (based on your workspace and governance rules).
  • Brand is a normalized entity for consistent publishing and search.

Product → Catalogs

  • Catalogs are curated sets of products for showcase, sales, offers, or procurement.
  • The same product can appear in multiple catalogs without duplication.

Product → Data Assets (documents & media)

  • Datasheets, manuals, certificates, drawings, and images are attached as governed assets.
  • Assets can be reused and updated without “breaking” product consistency.

Product → Facets (optional)

  • Facets provide flexible classification (industry/application/technology tags) to improve search and filtering without changing the category template.

What a Product contains

A complete product record typically includes:

1) Classification

  • Category (product class)
  • Optional community visibility and facet tags (if your workflow uses them)

2) Structured specifications

  • Attribute values according to the category template
  • Correct types, formats, and units of measurement (where applicable)
  • Support for ranges/tolerances where defined by the attribute type

3) Identity & codes

  • Internal SKU / part number
  • Manufacturer part number (MPN) and other identifiers (where used)
  • Company-specific codes (useful for customer/supplier mapping)

4) Content (Product Profile 360°)

  • Description(s)
  • Documents and media (datasheets, manuals, certificates, images)
  • Main image (“avatar”) and gallery images

5) Governance & traceability

  • Who can edit the product (editors / permissions)
  • History of changes (audit trail)
  • Optional lifecycle stage (e.g., idea → prototype → production → end-of-service), where enabled

Creating a product (web interface)

Prerequisites

Before you create a product, ensure:

  • The category is Product-level (otherwise “Create product” is not available).
  • The category has a Product Name Template configured.
  • Mandatory attributes in the category template are realistic and measurable.

Steps

  1. Open the Category you want to use.
  2. Click the Products icon/tab to open the product list for that category.
  3. Click New Product / Create Product.
  4. Fill in:
    • attribute values (especially mandatory ones),
    • brand/manufacturer context (if required by your data policy),
    • description(s),
    • optional custom display name (if your workflow allows it).
  5. Add documents (specifications, manuals, certificates) and images.
  6. Click Save.

Tips:

  • Use tooltips/validation messages for allowed ranges, decimal precision, and character limits.
  • Prefer controlled lists and measured values over free text whenever possible.

Product name and product identity

A Product Name Template generates a consistent, readable name from governed product data. The name helps people recognize and compare products, but it does not determine whether two records are the same product.

Exact product identity is determined by the category's active identity policy and the structured values marked as identity components. Actualog normalizes those components and stores deterministic Group, Variant, and Product checksums. The Product checksum is the key used for exact duplicate prevention; variant checksums distinguish concrete variants inside a shared group.

If identity is missing or stale, correct the identity-relevant structured data or policy and run Recalculate identity. If two products produce the same complete Product checksum, Actualog marks an identity conflict for duplicate resolution. Do not weaken the Product Name Template merely to make duplicate records display different names.

Learn how Product Identity Hash works Learn how Product Name Template works

Variants (product families)

If a category defines variant axes (attributes marked as variants), Actualog can represent a product family as multiple variant records driven by unique combinations of those values.

Use variants when:

  • multiple SKUs share the same base definition,
  • differences are systematic (size, voltage, connection type, etc.),
  • you want clean comparison and catalog export without duplicated “almost the same” products.

Documents, images, and the Data Assets layer

Industrial products are incomplete without documentation. Actualog supports attaching and managing:

  • datasheets and technical паспорта,
  • manuals and installation instructions,
  • certificates and compliance documents,
  • drawings, diagrams, and media.

You can:

  • add descriptions/metadata to assets,
  • choose a main image for the product card,
  • maintain a gallery for richer product pages.

Publishing and embedding product pages

Actualog can publish product pages as part of a marketplace-style experience and also support embedding into external resources.

  • Use the Embed option to generate an embeddable snippet (where enabled).
  • Configure Who can embed (e.g., nobody / editors / everyone — depending on your governance).
  • Configure who can edit the product content to protect trusted data.

This allows you to share an always-up-to-date “source of truth” product page without copying content into multiple sites.

Creating products via import and API

Products can be created and maintained via:

  • the web UI,
  • the shared Data Load workflow for uploaded product data,
  • API for integration scenarios (ERP/MDM/eProcurement, supplier feeds, channel syndication).

Best practice: align imports to category templates (attribute names, units, controlled values) to reduce mapping effort and validation failures.

Modern improvements (roadmap-style capabilities)

Actualog’s product model is designed to scale toward enterprise-grade PIM/MDM workflows, including:

  • AI-assisted enrichment (suggest missing attributes, normalize values, accelerate descriptions and translations)
  • staged import pipelines (candidates → validation → uniqueness checks → promotion to canonical products)
  • richer identifier management (multiple identifier types with governance and crosswalks)
  • sustainability and compliance readiness (supporting structured product documentation patterns needed for initiatives like digital product passports)

Common mistakes to avoid

  • Creating products in non–product-level categories.
  • Using free-text instead of controlled values or measurable attributes.
  • Ignoring units of measurement (numbers without units are not comparable).
  • Naming products manually instead of improving the name template.
  • Duplicating products instead of modeling variants.
  • Uploading documentation without linking it to the right product record and lifecycle context.