Currently when populating PAM WebDescription, you must populate it from the RMS Description field. This field is limited to 30 chars and is typically very cryptic as it is meant to be used within the Brick & Mortar store. This leads to extensive and time consuming editing of the PAM WebDescription field. If PAM would allow WebDescription to be populated from the RMS Extended Description field much less work would be required. RMS Extended Description is a fuller, less cryptic field and would be an ideal field to use but is currently inaccessible from PAM for this purpose. Limitation on field length could be specified and maintained by PAM as needed.
Since that is not possible, we could change your product_name mapping source in NSc Sync to synchronize the ExtendedDescription instead, removing the need to populate WebDescription at all, i.e change
product_name : CASE WHEN LEN(nitroasl_pamtable.WebDescription) > 0 THEN nitroasl_pamtable.WebDescription ELSE item.Description END
To:
product_name : CASE WHEN LEN(ISNULL(CONVERT(nvarchar(4000),item.ExtendedDescription),‘’)) > 0 THEN item.ExtendedDescription ELSE item.Description END
Before, we make such a change, we would need to ensure that your Extended Descriptions are not of excessive length.
From what I can see in the following example, the Extended Description is: “CAMPTIME ROLL-A-CHAIR WITH BACK”
Yes, you are correct. I do not belive my extended descriptions are excessive, longer than 30 chars but less than 50 chars. Is 50 excessive.
This would be a good workaround because I have good tools, RMSyenrgy, to easily modify & maintain Extended Description.
One issue is I have at this point spent considerable time updating PAMWebDescription on many products. Is it possible for those products whose PAMWebDescription is populated to not use Extended Description? The other way to say this is to only use Extended Description for those products whose PAMWebDescription is not populated.
product_name: CASE WHEN LEN(nitroasl_pamtable.WebDescription) > 0 THEN nitroasl_pamtable.WebDescription WHEN LEN(ISNULL(CONVERT(nvarchar(4000),item.ExtendedDescription),‘’)) > 0 THEN item.ExtendedDescription ELSE item.Description END
So it’s in order of preference: Web Description, then Extended Description, then Description – the first one that’s populated wins.
Are you comfortable changing the mapping yourself, or would you like us to effect it remotely for you?
Under File, then Configuration in Sync. Click Field Mappings on the left, expand the Item table, double-click the product_name field, replace the value with the one above. Then click OK to save, OK to exit the Configuration window and Synchronize to push the changes up to your webstore.
Once final question on this, will SEO now use this new information from Extended Description when provided or webdescription when provided? I would think the answer is yes but want to make sure…
It will, Richard. The only point to remember is that, once product URLs are generated the first time, they will only change if you fully remove the item from the store and then re-add it (set WebItem > False, Sync, WebItem > True, Sync). Removing and re-adding an item resets it in terms of SEO.
@rherdell: actually, I didn’t realise you were on version 0 style URL formats. You don’t need to do anything to re-generate them; they have all been automatically updated. Nothing to worry about. Sorry for the confusion!
