# Attribute entity

For supported attribute types (which are used in frontend_input), please refer to Magento Attribute Types Dev Docs. However, only multiselect and select are currently used; every other type will be treated as if they were text and this is handled by core/modules/catalog/components/ProductAttribute.ts in vue-storefront.

# Adding attributes

To add a new attribute to your custom API, you need to know how you're going to use it. In all cases you'll have to push a new attribute specification to ElasticSearch. The format may vary depending on how you want to use them, however here are the most common cases:

# 1. Simply show attribute on product page

In that case the attributes/index endpoint should have the attribute returned as all you need to do is return the JSON:

{
            "attribute_code": "supplier_note",
            "frontend_input": "text",
            "frontend_label": "Supplier note",
            "is_user_defined": true,
            "is_unique": false,
            "attribute_id": 123,
            "is_visible": true,
            "is_comparable": false,
            "is_visible_on_front": true,
            "position": 0,
            "id": 123,
            "options": []
        }

and then in the products/index product record:

{
    (...)
    "supplier_note": "Keep away from the sun. Store in below 0 temperatures",
    (...)
}

Unless you didn't define the supplier_note format in vue-storefront core/modules/catalog/types/Product.ts The value can also be an empty string "" or null.

# 2. Use attribute to filter products

Checklist:

• For this to work, the filterable attribute frontend_input must be select in the attributes/index endpoint.
• The attribute in the attributes/index endpoint must have an options node, which needs to look like this:

"options": [
    {
        "value": 7,
        "label": "Pink"
    },
    {
        "value": 8,
        "label": "Gold"
    }
]

The value MUST BE of the integer type.

• The product record on products/index must have the attribute value as the integer type that matches the attribute option value field. So, a pink product would have:

{
  (...)
  "color": 7,
  (...)
}

and 7 will be later converted to "Pink" by vue-storefront logic.

• If the product is of configurable type:

{
  (...)
  "type_id": "configurable",
  (...)
}

and the color defines the product children, the parent product should have color set to null, and the products within its configurable_children should have the color value set.

• If the product has children which are defined by color, the parent product should additionally have a color_options node that defines the color IDs of its children, e.g. if the product is available in pink and gold, it should have:

"color_options": [
    7,
    8
]

returned in it, where one row (a pink colored child) in configurable_children has

    "color": 7,

and the other (a gold colored child) has

    "color": 8,

• If the product doesn't have the color set or available, the attribute should still be returned and the value should be null.