Variation theme attributes - inconsistent hierarchy for attribute placement among XSD

#1

Hey all,

I’ve been running through variation theme attributes for product variants and am a bit perplexed as to if there’s any consistency into where these attributes are expected to appear.

As an example:

  • Jewelry defines Color as an available Variation Theme, and the Color element is defined as a child of (The top level category element)
<Jewelry>
  <Color>Red</Color>
</Jewelry>
  • Shoes defines Color as an available Variation Theme, and the Color element is defined as a child of 
<Shoes>
  <VariationData>
    <-- But now color is nested under this element? -->
    <Color>Red</Color>
  </VariationData>
</Shoes>

These XSD definitions seem to imply that the attribute for product variations have no consistent location in a product feed, am I understanding this correctly?

In order to allow our customers to submit products under categories, do we essentially have to hand-map these attributes to specific locations on every single category XSD? Or is there something I’m missing that makes the the location of these attributes consistent across categories?

Side note: Some of these variation themes don’t even define related elements for their attributes, i.e. TiresAndWheels has Color as an available theme but does not include a Color element anywhere inside the XSD. What gives with these themes?

#2

Each category has their own way of handling these structures and you will need to map each one of them individually.

#3

Yes you do. These have been built over the years without the consistency of using previous schemas. Some will even have ColorName instead of Color.