Adding new products

1. Add basic info about the pattern, colourway and collection under Posts, if none is available yet. You’ll be linking to those posts in your product info text.
2. Create the appropriate category (categories) if needed. You can add these while you’re creating the new product, so this isn’t strictly necessary.
3. Create a new product or find one that’s similar and duplicate that one. Then add/edit:
   1. The title (usually pattern + name, for example Starry Night Nebula)
   2. If you have copied an existing product, also change the permalink – use the title there. Any spaces are automatically replaced by hyphens upon saving.
   3. In the main text field, add the following. For each ‘heading’, select ‘heading 2’ in the pulldown of the editor to make the font bigger and bold. Adding a link is done by selecting the text you want to link, then clicking the link/chain icon in the editor above the text field. You can then start typing to add a link to the post/page you have created. Posts are shown first before products. When linking to an external source like Wikipedia, click the ‘settings’ icon, add the URL and click the ‘Open link in a new tab’ checkbox.
      1. Title, followed by
         Info about announce/release date; always start with the full name (so yes, that means you’ll be typing that 3 or 4 times in a row). The first line is the one that will by default be visible to search engine users so should contain useful information.
         This is followed by the text Oscha has published on the website (if still available, this may not be the case for old releases. You can try to find the Facebook announce post in those cases). The Oscha text is put between double quotes.
      2. Collection name (with a link to the collection information post) followed by
         The Oscha text about the collection (either the website or Facebook will provide this). The post will contain more information like a complete list of all patterns in that particular collection. You may, if you can find it, add trivia here (on the product page) like ‘this is the first item in this collection’ or ‘this is the second time Oscha is visiting this collection’ etc.
      3. Pattern name (with a link to the pattern information post) followed by
         The Oscha text about the pattern, if you can find it – it’s usually there for the first release of a pattern on the site, or on Facebook. Sometimes in a blog post too. Again, this is posted between double quotes.
         If you can find any additional (fun) info about the pattern, either add it here (if it’s long, add a summary only and add the long text to the pattern post you’re linking to).
      4. Colourway (with a link to the colourway information), followed by
         An explanation of the colourway name. In some cases you may need to ask Oscha about this (try to bundle your request to not bug them too often as you simply may not get an answer, especially in busy times). This is the most “custom” part usually, interpretations are often personal. If you have used an external source (i.e. not Oscha or your own knowledge), please add the source. I prefer using Wikipedia, if I can. Don’t forget to let the link open in a new tab (click the settings icon when adding the link).
   4. In the column to the right, add the correct category (collection)
   5. Add the correct tags (one for pattern, one for colourway). Tags may contain spaces.
   6. Add the product image (main image, the one that shows the whole item best) and below that, any additional pics you can find. Oscha has given permission to use whatever pictures there are on their website. If you wish to add other pictures, please make sure you have permission of the people involved (model and photographer). If you don’t have any image editing software, just skip this step and notify me that I need to add it. It’s preferable not to add products without at least a product image. Pictures are square, 920×920 pixels.
   7. SEO: Make it search engine friendly. Otherwise what’s the use of setting up a database :).
      1. Edit the snippet: Start with the name, followed by general product info like blend and/or gsm/collection (in a nice sentence – it’s what people read when the item comes up as a search result). For example: “Shui Long Midnight, striking and bold in black and ecru. Woven with a hemp weft, Midnight is extremely strong has a beautiful shimmer. Approx 239gsm.”
      2. Edit the slug too
      3. Enter a focus word (the title)
      4. Check the analysis. You will always have some red, some orange and some green. Always try to get ‘green’ status – you can find it as a coloured ball in the black statusbar at the top of the page and in the tab that stays “Keyword: …” However, orange will do, if it doesn’t work out as planned.
   8. The fun part: Product data.
      1. General
         1. Add a “Regular price” i.e. the price in GBP for a size 6.
      2. Inventory
         1. If you have an SKU (at some point, SKU’s were added on Oscha’s site) you can add it, but it’s totally unimportant
      3. Attributes (the REALLY fun part). There is a fixed order to these:
         Pattern – Colourway – Collection – Announce date – Release date – Blend – Weight – Product type – Edition – Amount made – Retail price – Warp colour – Weft colour – Weave. These all have the checkbox for ‘Visible on the product page’ checked.
         Then you get Day of release – Month of release – Year of release – Warp – Weft – Fabric – Colour.
         It’s the same for all attributes: just start typing, if it’s already there you can click it. If not, use the Add new button.
         1. Pattern – you know that
         2. Colourway – same
         3. Collection – same (when in doubt, ask me)
         4. Announce date – if available on the Facebook page. If not, just use Unknown. For preorders, use the date for the final OK from Oscha to start the PO.
         5. Release date – same as Announce date; for preorders, use the shipping date
         6. Blend – you know that. Start with warp fibres first, then weft fibres.
         7. Weight – check the Oscha site. If it’s custom from a group member, please note that in the text.
         8. Product type – whatever they’ve made of it, add it
         9. Edition – usually limited or preorder nowadays
         10. Amount made – usually only available for boutique nowadays
         11. Retail price – same as above
         12. Warp colour – as descriptive as possible (as used by Oscha, preferably) so “coral” and “seagreen” and “burgundy” instead of just “pink, green, red”.
         13. Weft colour – same as warp
         14. Weave – usually jacquard, but lately they’ve done hybrid and pocket etc too
         15. Day/month/year of release: add what you know. Year should be doable at least.
         16. Warp – single or multi colour
         17. Weft – same
         18. Fabric – fibres only, no percentages. But do try to be as specific as possible, so organic combed cotton instead of cotton.
         19. Colour – basic colours only – pink and not baby pink or powder pink etc. Or this will be impossible to use as a filter.

That’s it really. Easy, right?