Attribute Sets/Types of Forms in Sales Layer (formerly Families)

At Sales Layer, we refer to attribute sets as the different types of forms a company can use to manage its products. This is useful because selling an air conditioning system isn’t the same as selling a clothing catalog, a CD, or a book—different fields are needed so that the editor doesn’t have to guess which ones to fill in. Without form differentiation, irrelevant fields would cause confusion and negatively affect the Quality Score (as many fields would remain empty).

Thus, an attribute set is a list of fields that, as explained in the form editor section, can be customized for clarity and ease of use by creating tabs or adding helper text. It's important to note that any change made to a form will apply to its corresponding attribute set, although you always have the option to replicate changes across all other existing sets.

Applying Changes to All Forms

During the first import, Sales Layer groups basic and non-removable fields (like: product reference, name, description, status, tags, or category reference) in a first tab. Any additional fields are placed in a second tab named Additional Data.

You can import or add products without linking them to a specific attribute set (if none exists or you don’t want to assign one), or you can assign them to an existing set.

There are different ways to create an attribute set:

1. Excel Import: This allows you to quickly create different sets. During the import, you can indicate which products belong to which form type. Sales Layer will then create that attribute set with fields that contain values and are recognized as part of the set.

VERY IMPORTANT: 

This term used to be called family. If your form was created before June 2025, you may still see it listed as family. This will only change if done manually or via importing info, as it is a “renamable” field.

2. From the Product Table: By clicking on All Attribute Sets. From there, you can access a menu through which you can delete, modify, or add a new form type via the Add button.

Creating and Editing Attribute Sets

You can modify an attribute set in the following ways:

• By editing a product (explained in the article on form editing).
• From the Form Editor directly. 

To access the Form Editor:

Go to Products > Actions > Edit Forms

Using this tool, you can:

• Rearrange fields by dragging them or using the Actions menu.

• Add new fields or tabs easily.

From the Actions menu within the editor, you can:

• Create new fields or reuse existing ones from other form types.

• Add all unused fields.

   

Field Editing Options in Form Editor

It’s essential to understand this key option: there are two buttons to choose whether changes should apply only to the current attribute set/form or to all existing ones. You can either select the specific set or use the generic apply-to-all button.

Warning: Always double-check this setting during modifications. A wrong choice, like adding a new field to all forms, could lead to widespread changes. We recommend creating a backup before major edits.

Note: If no attribute sets exist, the field will not appear by name.

Important Considerations

It is possible to remove fields from an attribute set without deleting them from Sales Layer. They are simply unlinked and no longer visible in that form, but can be recovered later if needed and if the field exists in another form. As long as a field is not deleted from all forms, it remains on the platform as unused. To delete it permanently, it must be removed from all attribute sets.

• Go to Actions > Edit Forms, then remove it from there.

Note: The Attribute Set field itself cannot be locked.

• You can incorporate existing fields from another attribute set using Add new field (Sales Layer lets you choose between creating a new field or using an existing one).
• From Actions, you can delete all empty pages and unused fields from the forms in a table.

Attribute sets (forms) apply to products and their variants, not categories. Therefore, variants inherit the fields of the attribute set their products belong to during merge or export processes.

Exporting configuration in an .XLY file

The form editor allows you to export an attribute set or parts of it in an .XLY file. With this file, you can re-import the information to apply it to other sets/forms.

Importing configuration from an .XLY file

As shown, when exporting you can choose which part of the file to include. This selection is maintained when re-importing, allowing practical and flexible movement of structures.

Multiple attribute sets can be created, but it is not recommended to have too many for organizational and performance reasons. If the difference between forms is minimal, it is recommended to mark that field as Not applicable in the items where necessary (see section “Quality Report: field not applicable”).