E-Commerce Core Concepts

InnoShop has five core data models: Category, Brand, Specification (Variant), Option, and Attribute. Understanding their differences and use cases is fundamental for customization.

Concept Comparison

Concept	Purpose	Affects Price	Affects Stock	Relationship
Category	Organize products	❌	❌	Many-to-many (product_categories)
Brand	Identify manufacturer	❌	❌	One-to-many (brand_id)
Specification	Product variant SKU	✅	✅	One-to-many (product_skus)
Option	Value-added service	✅	✅	Many-to-many (product_options)
Attribute	Product specs display	❌	❌	Many-to-many (product_attributes)

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1. Category

Organize products in a hierarchy for navigation and filtering.

Electronics
  └── Phones
       └── Smartphones

Features: Tree hierarchy (parent_id), multi-category per product, SEO support, multi-language.

Database Tables: categories (main), category_translations, product_categories (pivot)

Code Location: innopacks/common/src/Models/Category.php, Repositories/CategoryRepo.php

$category->children();        // Child categories
$category->activeChildren();  // Active children
$category->parent();          // Parent category
$category->products();        // Products in category

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2. Brand

Identify the product manufacturer for brand-based filtering.

Features: Direct brand_id foreign key, brand logo support, first-letter filtering.

Database Tables: brands (main, no translation table needed)

Code Location: innopacks/common/src/Models/Brand.php, Repositories/BrandRepo.php

$brand->products();
BrandRepo::getInstance()->autocomplete($keyword);

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3. Specification (Variant)

Define different product versions/SKUs. Each specification combination maps to an independent stock unit.

Spec Combo	SKU Code	Price	Stock
Red - Large	SKU-001	$99	50
Red - Medium	SKU-002	$89	30

Features: Independent SKU, pricing, stock, and code per variant. Spec data stored as JSON in products.variables.

Example products.variables JSON:

{
  "color": {
    "name": {"en": "Color", "zh-cn": "颜色"},
    "values": {
      "red": {"name": {"en": "Red", "zh-cn": "红色"}},
      "blue": {"name": {"en": "Blue", "zh-cn": "蓝色"}}
    }
  }
}

Database Tables: products.variables (JSON), product_skus

Code Location: Models/Product.php, Models/Product/Sku.php, Repositories/Product/SkuRepo.php

$product->skus();          // All SKUs
$product->masterSku();     // Master SKU
$product->isMultiple();    // Has multiple variants?
$product->variables;       // Variant definitions

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4. Option

Value-added services or add-ons selectable during purchase. These are supplementary services, not product variants.

Option Name	Values	Price Impact
Gift Wrap	Standard / Gift Box	+$10
Warranty	1-year / 2-year extended	+$99

Features: Price adjustment, required/optional, select/radio/checkbox display types, multi-language JSON.

Database Tables: options, option_values, product_options, product_option_values

Code Location: Models/Option.php, Models/OptionValue.php, Repositories/OptionRepo.php

$product->options();           // Product options
$product->productOptions();    // Option configurations
$option->values();             // Option values

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5. Attribute

Describe product specifications and technical parameters for detail page display and category page filtering.

Attribute	Value
Material	Cotton
Weight	500g

Features: Product spec display, filtering, grouped management. Filter logic: different attribute groups use AND, values within the same group use OR.

Filter URL format: attr=1:10,11|2:20 means (attr1=value10 OR value11) AND (attr2=value20)

Database Tables: attributes, attribute_translations, attribute_groups, attribute_values, product_attributes

Code Location: Models/Attribute.php, Models/Attribute/Group.php, Repositories/AttributeRepo.php

$product->productAttributes();    // Product attributes
$product->groupedAttributes();    // Grouped attributes
$attribute->group();              // Attribute group
$attribute->values();             // Attribute values