Products

What is a product?

Product captures basic information about a product such as name, product identification number, owner of the product etc.

The following example shows a JSON structure of a product.

{
  "id": "urn:ibm:ift:product:class:1111111111111.baby_lettuce",
  "org_id": "1111111111111",
  "description": "baby lettuce",
  "object_sku": "[baby lettuce sku]"
}

Product is one of the data elements that, once captured, does not need frequent changes; only when basic information needs updates. This type of information is often referred to as part of the master data.

Using a product number from the GS1 standard

In order for products to be uniquely identified around the world, the GS1 organization has been the agency that establishes the Global Trade Identification Number (GTIN) standard. A product, once registered with GS1, will have a 13-digit unique GTIN constructed from company's unique ID (also knowns as GS1 company prefix), and product ID.

A product GTIN number has only digits and cannot contain characters or special symbols.

If a GTIN has been established for your product, we recommend that you use it in Transparent Supply.

Using a Transparent Supply-issued product number

If your product is NOT registered with GS1, Transparent Supply allows a company to register a unique identification following the format:

company prefix.product ID.

For example 111111111.baby_lettuce is a valid, unique Transparent Supply product ID. It has 111111111 company prefix to warrant the uniqueness within Transparent Supply as Transparent Supply does not allow more than one company to share prefix.

Unlike in GTIN, Transparent Supply allows both characters and digits in a product ID. However, another . cannot be used in the ID portion. For example, 111111111.baby.lettuce is not valid.

Referencing a product ID in code

When referencing a Product in Transparent Supply programmatically, a prefix must precede the product ID to denote the string as a product ID.

A valid GTIN in code is referenced as:

urn:ibm:ift:product:class: 1234567890123

where 1234567890123 is the GTIN number, and the urn:ibm:ift:product:class: prefix clause denotes the string as a product ID.

Likewise, a Transparent Supply-issued product ID in code is referenced as:

urn:ibm:ift:product:class: 1111111111111.baby_lettuce

where 1111111111111.babylettuce is the Transparent Supply-issued product ID with the company prefix in the front part of the ID.

Notice the reference :class: in the prefix, denoting that the ID is a reference to a general product definition and not necessarily a specific lot or a specific serial number of the product. The following section will provide more information regarding a product lot or serial.

Referencing a specific unit of a product

According to GS1, a product lot or serial number is encoded as a more complex unique ID and is used in place of a general product ID. This is required in events - activities related to particular product lots or serial numbers - as events would have no meaning if not applied to specific units of products.