Specifications

Specifications let you attach precise technical attributes to products. Instead of cramming everything into a product name, you define structured fields — and then fill in the actual values per Variant.

The three spec concepts

Concept	What it is	Example
Spec Category	A grouping of related spec attributes	“Dimensions”, “Electrical Properties”
Spec	A single attribute defined on a Good Type	“Diameter” (unit: mm)
Spec Value	The actual value of a Spec for a specific Variant	Diameter = 100

Spec Category

A Spec Category is purely an organisational grouping — it collects related Specs so they are easy to find and display together.

Examples:

• “Dimensions” — could contain Diameter, Wall Thickness, Length
• “Electrical” — could contain Voltage, Current Rating, Frequency
• “Mechanical” — could contain Tensile Strength, Weight per Metre

Spec Categories belong to a Good Type, so different product categories can have entirely different groupings.

Spec (Good Type Spec)

A Spec is a single attribute definition attached to a Good Type. Every Good inside that Good Type shares the same set of Specs — you define the spec once at the type level, and it applies to all Goods and Variants within.

Field	What it means
Name	The attribute label (e.g. “Diameter”)
Data Type	The kind of value this Spec accepts: Text, Number, Enum (a fixed list of options), or Boolean (yes/no)
Unit	The measurement unit shown alongside the value (e.g. “mm”, “kg”, “V”). Only applies to Number specs.
Options	The allowed values to choose from. Only applies to Enum specs (e.g. “Red, Green, Blue”)
Spec Category	Which grouping this Spec belongs to
Good Type	Which product category this Spec is defined on

For Engineers

Define Specs at the Good Type level, not the Good level. If “Pipe” has a Diameter spec, all pipe variants automatically have a Diameter field to fill in. You only set it up once.

Note

The Data Type you pick controls how the value is entered and validated everywhere the Spec is used — a Number spec gets a numeric input with its Unit shown alongside, an Enum spec gets a dropdown built from its Options, and a Boolean spec gets a simple yes/no toggle.

Spec Value

A Spec Value is the actual data for one Spec on one specific Variant. This is where the rubber meets the road — it answers “what is the diameter of this particular variant?”

Field	What it means
Spec	Which attribute this value belongs to
Variant	Which Variant this value is for
Value	The stored value (can be a number, text, or structured data depending on the spec)

How Variants use Specs to differentiate themselves

This is the key point: two Variants of the same Good differ from each other through their Spec Values.

Example:

Variant	Diameter (Spec Value)	Wall Thickness (Spec Value)
Steel Pipe DN100	100 mm	5 mm
Steel Pipe DN200	200 mm	6.3 mm

Both Variants belong to the Good “Steel Pipe” under the Good Type “Pipe”. The Diameter and Wall Thickness Specs are defined once on the “Pipe” Good Type. The values 100 mm and 200 mm are the Spec Values on each Variant.

Note

Spec Values are stored as flexible data (JSON). This means a Spec can hold a simple number, a text string, or even a list of values — whatever the attribute requires.

Caution

If you add a new Spec to a Good Type after Variants already exist, those existing Variants will have no value for the new Spec until someone fills them in. Check your Variants after adding new Specs to a type.

Practical workflow

1. Create a Good Type (e.g. “Pipe”).
2. Add Spec Categories to organise the attributes (e.g. “Dimensions”).
3. Add Specs under each category (e.g. “Diameter” in mm, “Wall Thickness” in mm).
4. Create Goods inside the Good Type (e.g. “Steel Pipe”).
5. Create Variants for each SKU. For each Variant, fill in the Spec Values (e.g. Diameter = 100).