How to Delete Product Attributes in PIM

The "Settings Icon" opens the settings menu.  The settings menu provides the ability to access settings and configuration information related to Managing and defining Attributes, Creating and Managing Access Groups (Roles) and Managing and inviting Users, Defining and managing Views.

Select Attributes menu option to delete attributes using the "Attributes" settings window.

 

Clicking the "Delete Attribute" icon will delete the selected attributes opens the add attribute dialog window.  Help topics have been created for all available attribute types and are listed at the end of this topic. For more information about each attribute types setting please refer to the help topic for that attribute type.

 

 

The cancel button will cancel the delete operation and close the delete confirmation dialog.

Clicking the delete button will delete the attributes from the PIM attribute dictionary.  It is important to note that when attributes are deleted the underlying data is not immediately removed from the PIM.  The underlying data is removed by automated housekeeping operations that run periodically in the background.  Even though the underlying attribute data has not been removed immediately, since the attribute has been deleted, the attribute and related data will no longer be visible in the user interface or served via the API.  The attribute will no longer be visible in any View configurations that had the attribute added to the View settings.   Deleting an attribute does not remove an attribute from a View.  The View will be automatically aware that the attribute is deleted and will serve view data appropriately.  Not immediately removing the underlying data and not removing the deleted attribute from the view configuration is by design.

 

Adding an attribute with the same attribute name and attribute type as an attribute that was recently been deleted will result in the underlying attribute data being immediately available up until the housekeeping operation has been performed.  Adding the attribute back into the PIM will also result in the attribute being added back to the underlying views that originally had that specific attribute included in its view configuration.

Adding an attribute with the same attribute name and a different attribute type prior to housekeeping operation being performed may result in data related errors being raised in the case where the underlying data is not compatible with the new attribute type. When adding an attribute back with incompatible underlying data the housekeeping operation should be manually triggered to force the cleaning of underlying data prior to adding the attribute with a different attribute type..