With Variant Management, YOU control how variant information from your source data is processed during export. These functions help YOU bundle or expand variants, clean up data, and define the technical structure of your export.
Activate Variant Management
Enable or disable Variant Management using the Active / Inactive switch.
Once it is activated, all variant‑related functions become available to YOU.
Select Function
This setting defines the technical logic used to process variants.
Compress Variants (DEFLATE)
Expand Variants (INFLATE)
Select Variant Field (same for both functions)
Here YOU select the field that contains the actual variant information (e.g., size, color, material).
Choose a Separator
If multiple variant values are combined into one field, YOU can define which separator is used between these values.
Typical options include:
Comma (,)
Semicolon (;)
Pipe (|)
Hyphen (-)
These options help YOU keep your export technically clean and avoid unnecessary data clutter.
If your export does not yet contain any variant fields, YOU can add a new one using “Add Variant Field”.
Technical notes
Depending on the system, YOU may add one or multiple variant fields.
At least one variant field is always required.
Removing all variant fields completely is not technically possible.
If a variant field is not mapped to a data source, a warning will appear.
These fields must be configured in the data field mapping, otherwise the export cannot run correctly.
Compress Variants (DEFLATE)
Multiple variants of an item are combined into a single data record.
This is useful when YOU need compact exports—e.g., for systems that do not support variant-level rows.
Select Root Article Field
When compressing, variants are grouped based on this field.
The root article field defines the technical basis on which variants are collected.
Remove Duplicates
Yes: Identical variant values are automatically filtered
No: All values remain in the export
Remove Empty Data
Yes: Empty or missing values are removed
No: Empty values remain included
Alternative Text (Optional)
You can define an alternative text for missing variant values. This text is displayed whenever no valid information is available.
Technical requirements:
Only alphanumeric characters (A–Z, a–z, 0–9) are allowed
Default value is “NA” if YOU do not enter your own text
YOU may also intentionally leave the field empty (e.g., if the target system accepts empty values)
Expand Variants (INFLATE)
Each variant is converted into its own separate row in the export.
This is ideal when systems require an individual data record for each variant.