2021 Optimizely Product Information Management release notes
31 min
The following is a cumulative list of enhancements and major bug fixes in each Optimizely Product Information Management (PIM) release.
December 16, 2021
Bug Fix
- Fixed an issue where the product filter did not work on text field or text area properties when the filter value was only alphabetical.
Multi-language
- Added the ability to export properties, property values, categories, assets, and product information for translation.
- Added the ability to import translated files back into PIM.
- Added additional columns and translation fields that display when a non-default language is selected for Properties, Categories, Assets, and Product list and detail pages.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue on the Product list page where filters for Is Empty and Is Not Empty on multi-select properties would sometimes not work properly.
- Fixed an issue that prevented creating dynamic categories with the Included in List rule.
- Fixed an issue where the AM/PM selector did not work for Date/Time Picker properties.
- Fixed an issue where the product import advanced option for setting a default value was not working for boolean properties.
- Fixed an issue where the Product list page filter for whether a product has an image did not work properly in conjunction with category filters.
- Fixed an issue where users signed in with SSO with the application open in multiple tabs would encounter issues with exports and imports appearing to stall.
Performance
- Optimized handling of product imports with errors to significantly improve performance of imports that encounter large numbers of validation issues.
November 18, 2021
Bug Fix
- Fixed an issue where the product filter did not work on text field or text area properties when the filter value was only alphabetical.
November 12, 2021
Enhancements
- Added the option to delete multiple properties when more than one property is selected on the property list.
- Updated the options for properties mapped as attributes to disallow setting properties as filterable unless they are searchable. This eliminates an invalid configuration that would not work properly in commerce.
- Updated the validation of variant imports to have clearer messaging in cases where a child product's template does not have a variant property required by the parent product.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where clicking the link to a parent product from the product list did not work for certain child products.
- Fixed an issue where exports that included products with no template assigned did not include the appropriate properties.
- Fixed an issue where filtering for products did not return results when using multi-select properties and values that included certain special characters.
- Fixed an issue where product imports that failed would sometimes display with status of "Success" with -1 records imported.
- Fixed an issue with imports of large numbers of properties where not all property mappings defined in the import file were saved.
- Fixed an issue with the product asset assignment import where sometimes, when multiple images were assigned to the same product, multiple images would be set as the primary image, which resulted in only one of the images being passed to commerce via integration.
Performance
- Improved performance and mitigated issues with browser freezing when bulk editing hundreds of products on the product list.
September 29, 2021
Enhancements
- Added the ability to export categories, properties, asset to product assignments and product to category assignments.
- Updated the import list page to allow initiating every type of import from this page.
- Updated the import list to include logs of all template based imports (all imports other than asset file uploads will be logged).
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where product number case mismatches would unnecessarily trigger validation errors when assigning child products via import.
- Fixed an issue where product percent complete was not properly being recalculated when importing globally required properties.
- Fixed an issue where sometimes the checkboxes in the product list column selector could not be selected or deselected.
September 17, 2021
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where changes to attribute options for properties mapped as attributes were not saving properly.
- Fixed an issue where image uploads would sometimes stall indefinitely.
- Fixed an issue where product exports would include columns for every property in PIM, rather than every property for the exported products when the "all properties" option was selected.
- Fixed an issue with importing categories, where if multiple categories share the same name, but have different parents, certain child categories would not be imported.
- Fixed an issue where the "Starts with" filter option on the product list functioned as a "contains" filter.
August 18, 2021
Enhancements
Variants
- To prevent scenarios where child products end up with duplicate values or are missing required data for variant properties:
- Added additional validation when updating child products via import.
- Restricted changing templates of child products.
- Restricted deletion and certain editing options for properties that are used as variant properties.
Miscellaneous
- Enabled editing the property group and display name of system properties.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug where the image size settings were ignored when uploading images.
- Fixed a performance issue that would cause property imports with large sets of data to stall and display the wrong validation message.
- Fixed a performance issue with large numbers of properties that would cause the mapping step of product import to be slow and sometimes not display all property mapping options.
- Fixed a bug where you could not proceed with an import after selecting a file when column headers were the same after removing special characters.
August 11, 2021
Enhancements
Externally Managed Properties
- Added the option to flag properties as externally managed.
- You must map these properties, but you cannot map them as attributes or specifications.
- Made externally managed properties read-only within PIM and Configured Commerce pushes the data for them via a recurring job.
- Update your Configured Commerce version to 5.0.14 in order to use this feature.
Properties
- Added a sort order column to the property value list so you can enter sort orders more easily by adjusting the order for multiple pages of values.
- Added pagination options to the property value list.
Integration
- Added the ability to build a custom integration that pulls data from PIM via read-only access to PIM APIs.
Miscellaneous
- Added the option to filter for specific properties when editing a product template.
- Added a column to the category list to allow filtering or sorting for dynamic categories.
Bug fixes
- Fixed a bug where product imports stalled when using the name/value pairs option if a single product had duplicate properties within multiple name columns.
- Fixed an issue where the version history did not load for certain products.
- Fixed an issue where exports of very large amounts of product data stalled or failed.
July 9, 2021
Enhancements
User Management
- Admin users now have access to invite users and edit user permissions by clicking team members within the Configure section of PIM.
- Admins can assign users the following roles:
- Admin - Gives have full access to all areas of PIM
- Manager - Gives permission to edit and approve products assigned to them and manage templates and properties
- Merchandiser - Gives permission to edit products assigned to them
- Product Importer - Grants a manager or merchandiser permission to import products
- Asset Manager - Grants a manager or merchandiser access to the Assets section of PIM
- Products assigned to managers or merchandisers are based on the "Property used for product assignment" setting. Options for this setting are Product Template and any globally-required property that uses a list of values.
Product List
- Updated the category filter to support selection of multiple categories. Selecting a parent category now automatically includes all child categories.
- Added the option to add a "Last updated on" column to the product list to filter/sort based on when a product was edited.
Categories
- Added the ability to sorted category attributes alphabetically.
- Updated category attributes to show the property display name (customer facing value) rather than the property name (internal only).
Miscellaneous
- Improved the usability of side panels on various pages (category filter, category tree, asset folders) by:
- Adding a drag handle icon for easier resizing to some side panels
- Expanding the side panel max width to better accommodate deep folder/tree structures
- Retaining the adjusted width when navigating away and returning to the page with the side panel
- Added validation to prevent updating system properties via property import.
- Added the option to add a "Template specific values" column to the property list to easily find properties that use template-specific values.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where the mapping step of property import was not always including all the valid mapping options for each property
- Fixed an issue where changes to property value cases were not saved
- Fixed an issue where case mismatches of the product number or asset name would erroneously trigger validation issues on the asset to product assignment import
- Fixed an issue where editing a variant to change the variant property order would cause extraneous characters to be added in front of special characters for some properties
- Fixed an issue where an error prevented a product import from starting if a source field was mapped to the product number and another property
- Fixed an issue where column resizing was not working properly on the import list or import details pages
- Fixed an issue where property imports were failing due to unnecessary validation in the case of data and control types
- Fixed an issue where template-specific value selections would clear when deselecting and reselecting an already assigned property that used template-specific values while editing a template
- Fixed an issue where image thumbnails on the product list would be stretched
- Fixed an issue where the max character length of product titles was not enforced when editing products
- Fixed an issue with in-grid editing where URL segment uniqueness was not enforced
June 9, 2021
Enhancements
- Product List
- Updated the product list category filter to allow filtering for products not assigned to any categories.
- Updated the product list category filter with options to expand and collapse the full category tree and to adjust the width of the panel.
- Updated the product list to allow adding properties that use text areas as columns. Previously these properties did not appear in the column selector.
- Product Imports
- Added a field for URL Segments as they will be imported to the preview step of product imports, as well as indicators when values differ from the source data.
- Updated product imports to ignore empty rows in import files, which prevents imports from stalling.
- Properties
- Updated property import logic to allow importing radio button, drop-down and multi select properties with no values. This makes it easier to create properties that allow adhoc values, which you can then populate via product imports.
- Updated the values tab for properties that use radio button control types to make it easier to set a default value.
- Performance
- Improved the performance of category imports.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue with category filtering on the product list where the full list of categories did not load in certain cases if there were large numbers of categories.
- Fixed an issue on the product list where selecting the "Show All" option caused additional filters to behave unexpectedly.
- Fixed an issue where exporting products based on the currently filtered list used the previously-applied filter after changing or clearing the filter.
- Fixed an issue on certain pages where the footer bar and buttons jumped when either the browser or operating system had zoom set at more than 100%.
- Fixed an issue where adjusting the order of variant properties caused a "\\" to appear in front of special characters in HTML properties.
- Fixed an issue where certain special characters in asset file names caused images to improperly process or resize.
- Fixed an issue where products had inconsistent casing for property values when the properties allowed adhoc values and values with multiple cases were imported.
- Fixed an issue where the sort order of products was sometimes inconsistent between pages.
- Fixed an issue where multiple assets could be created with the same name, but different case.
- Fixed an issue with template-specific property values where a product could have a value that is invalid for a template if a new template is assigned to the product that has the property but not the value.
- Fixed an issue where users could not edit products in certain product templates using in-grid editing on the product list.
May 21, 2021
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an integration issue where products published to Configured Commerce sometimes lost their data relationships, like assignments to categories.
- Fixed an issue where the storefront sometimes did not update after an import or export completed in the backend, causing the process to appear stalled, even if it finished successfully.
May 13, 2021
Enhancements
- Products
- Added filtering by category to the product list. Clicking the new category icon on the top right of the product list will open a side panel with the category tree. Selecting a category will filter for products assigned to that category.
- Properties
- Added filtering by mapping to commerce to the property list page. This is accessible via the standard filter icon on the property list and functions similar to the existing column header filters.
- Updated the behavior on the template assignments tab of properties so making a change in the header row with a filter applied will only apply the change to the currently filtered list of properties.
- Product Templates
- Improved the UI for editing template specific property values on the template detail page. Selected values for the template will always display at the top of the list and the list is now filterable to easily find and assign or unassign specific values.
- Imports
- Updated the logic for converting spaces in category & product URL segments to use a dash(-) instead of an underscore(_). This will ensure consistency of URL segments between PIM and Commerce.
- Performance
- Improved the performance of recalculating the percent complete of large numbers of products when their template is updated with new required or recommended properties.
- Improved the performance of bulk editing.
- Improved the performance of asset deletion.
- Fixed an issue where dynamic category rules were unnecessarily evaluated for each batch while publishing data to commerce which caused integration to be slow and inefficient for customers with many dynamic categories.
Bug Fixes
- Miscellaneous
- Fixed a bug where child products of the same parent could end up with duplicate values when importing data for variant properties that allow adhoc values.
- Fixed an issue with inconsistent enforcement of product number length. Product numbers must be 50 characters of length when importing or editing products within PIM.
- Fixed a bug that caused a generic error on the preview step of product import if any column headers were longer than 63 characters.
- Fixed a bug with importing externally hosted assets, where if a folder is listed in the file that doesn't exist in PIM, there would be an erroneous validation message about the column headers being incorrect.
- Fixed a bug where adding a value to a property that allows template specific values on the template detail screen would cause the property to become unmapped.
April 16, 2021
Enhancements
- Performance
- Improved the performance of assigning properties to templates and recalculating percent complete of products when using the property template assignments tab.
- Miscellaneous
- Added prompts when navigating away from categories and product templates with unsaved changes.
- Updated the downloadable product template import template to include more columns for properties, requirement levels and values.
Bug Fixes
- Miscellaneous
- Fixed an issue where certain .png images would fail to upload.
- Fixed an issue where external asset imports would stall if there were duplicates within the file that also already exist in PIM.
April 1, 2021
Enhancements
- Auto-Assignment of Category Attributes
- Added a setting to enable auto-assignment of category attributes.
- Added an option on the category attributes page to disable auto-assignment for specific categories.
- Updated integration to automatically update category attribute assignments each time data is published if the auto-assign option is enabled.
- Performance
- Improved performance of loading, paging and sorting on the product list.
- Refactored property imports to significantly improve performance when importing globally required properties.
- Miscellaneous
- Added the option to filter for values on the property values tab, to easily find specific values that need to be updated or deleted.
- Updated the Save Collection pop-up to include the option to pin the collection, so the user does not need to navigate to the collections page after saving the filter.
- The Collections button will be hidden on the product list if no collections are pinned.
Bug Fixes
- Miscellaneous
- Fixed an issue where inconsistent capitalization of a category name between a category import file and an existing category in PIM would prevent the import from updating data.
- Fixed an issue where the completion percentage for products was not recalculated when adding a property as required or recommended from the Properties - Template Assignments tab.
- Fixed an issue where new globally required properties would not cause all products to have their percent complete recalculated if there were a very large number of products.
- Fixed an issue where a category import would stall if no category tree value is entered for a row.
- Fixed an issue where if a property used template specific values and allowed adhoc values, newly imported values were not added as valid values for the template.
- Fixed an issue on the import list where count of imported products would be incorrect in cases where a property had adhoc values enabled before reprocessing records with errors for that property.
- Fixed an issue where the completion percentage for products that require images was not updated when images were assigned via import.
March 12, 2021
Enhancements
- Performance
- Improved the performance of status changes (approve products, reject products, etc.) initiated from the bulk action bar on the product list.
- Improved the way properties are loaded for mapping during product import to make the mapping drop-down menus more responsive and eliminate an issue where auto-mapping would fail for customers with thousands of properties.
- Refactored several backend jobs to reduce payload size and improve performance.
- Miscellaneous
- Added a "Template Assignments" tab to properties so you can review and adjust which templates a property is assigned to and whether it is required, recommended or optional.
- Made it easier to unassign products from categories by adding an option to select all products in the category to the bulk action bar.
- Updated the dashboard with a new count of archived products. Other counts now exclude archived products.
Bug Fixes
- Miscellaneous
- Fixed an issue where the deactivate on date could not be updated via import for existing products with a template assigned
- Fixed an issue where duplicate URL segments could be imported because validation was applied before converting special characters during import.
- Fixed an issue where certain products could not be assigned as variant children.
- Reworked the logic for calculating number of import errors when reprocessing to prevent inaccurate counts of remaining errors.
- Fixed an issue where certain products could not be edited via edit mode on the product list.
February 26, 2021
Enhancements
- Miscellaneous
- Fixed a bug where the name column could not be resized on the property values tab.
- Refactored backend processes to improve performance when importing or modifying product templates.
- Added a 255 character limit to the asset description to prevent integration issues with Configured Commerce.
Bug Fixes
- Miscellaneous
- Fixed an issue where assigning related products by import was not causing published products to be "dirtied" so changes would not show up in Configured Commerce the next time products were published.
- Fixed a bug where the name column could not be resized on the property values tab.
February 16, 2021
Enhancements
- Performance
- Improved the performance of the asset to product assignment import.
- Improved the performance of bulk editing on the product list.
- Miscellaneous
- Added a progress bar to the category import.
- Added a progress bar to the product to category assignment import.
- Added a 255 maximum character length for property values to prevent integration errors for properties mapped as attributes.
- Updated adhoc values to default to a maximum of 250 characters.
Bug Fixes
- Miscellaneous
- Fixed an issue where certain child products could not be unassigned from their parents.
- Fixed an issue where updating the mapping of a property would occasionally not update the status of all published products to approved.
- Fixed an issue where templates with long names could not be deleted in the side panel. The side panel now will allow horizontal scrolling to accommodate any length.
- Fixed an issue where, if multiple properties shared a display name, the name was occasionally displaying improperly throughout the application.
January 13, 2021
Enhancements
- Variants
- Added the ability to edit existing variants to change the variant properties and configure default values or display order. Access this functionality from the Edit Variant button on the child products tab of a parent product.
- Miscellaneous
- Improved performance of the external asset import.
- Increased the width of the product assignment windows to make it easier to view and use the product list functionality.
Bug Fixes
- Miscellaneous
- Fixed an issue where the publish job was using the same image URL for both large and small images for categories.
- Fixed an issue where the "export all properties" option for product exports would include all properties in the system, rather than all properties for the products included in the export.
- Fixed an issue with property imports where the file validation did not give the proper error message for files with invalid column headers.
January 7, 2021
Enhancements
- Product Approvals
- Added an admin panel flyout to the navigation menu with the option to automatically approve all products in the status Ready for Approval or Submitted for Approval.
- Made improvements to the performance of bulk status changes, including approval, rejection, and submission for approval, on the product list.
- Assets
- Updated the way image uploads are handled so the upload of images is done separately from the processing of the images. This results in a faster upload time, which is reflected using the progress bar, but the actual images will show up in the folders as they are processed.
- Added a quick filter on the asset list to easily filter for assets by name.
- Categories
- Added a quick filter on the category list to easily filter for categories by name.
- Added validation for duplicate category URL segments to the category import.
- Miscellaneous
- If a previously unmapped property in PIM is mapped to a field in Configured Commerce, any products with data for that property will have their status updated to ensure data is pushed to Configured Commerce the next time the publish job is run.
Bug Fixes
- Categories
- Fixed an issue where a category import could stall if there were duplicate categories in the file.
- Variants
- Fixed an issue with product variants; now product variants will have their status updated when a child product is assigned or unassigned to ensure the changes are published to commerce.
- Fixed an issue where parent products with no children assigned could not be deleted.
- Miscellaneous
- Fixed an issue where the filter for products with no template was not working consistently.
- Fixed an issue where some products could not be saved related to duplicate product versions.
- Fixed an issue where folders or categories with long names could not be accessed in the left side panel of several pages. Users can now scroll horizontally if names are longer than the given display window.
- Fixed an issue with product imports not properly enforcing validation when template-specific values are used.
- Fixed an issue with product template imports where property and property values were not considered valid due to case sensitivity.