Attribute Frontend Properties

The Frontend Properties is used to specify how an attribute can be used in your store. 

Properties	Description
Use In Quick Search	You can use the attribute for quick search by setting this value 'Yes'. Options include are: Yes / No Note: What is Quick Search? It appears in the upper-right corner of your store which helps visitors to find products in the catalog. You can use full or partial product name or any other word related to the product as search term . You can see Autocomplete list just below the Quick Search box which shows any matching search terms, and shows the number of results returned for each.
Search Weight	You can assign weight to any product attribute which is used in catalog search that is numeric value from 1-5 . It specify the rank or value of the item. Where you set this? Go to Admin Panel.then select Catalog > Attributes > Manage Attributes. Find and your attribute and open it to edit. Go to Front end Properties section. To include the attribute in Quick Search box queries, set Use in Quick Search to 'Yes'. To include the attribute as a field on the Advanced Search form, set Use in Advanced Searchto 'Yes'. To establish the search value of the attribute, set Search Weight to a number from 1 to 5.
Use In Advance Search	If it is set yes for any attribute then it opens the search form where this attribute appears as a field of search. This link appears in the footer of your store. Options include are: Yes / No Each field in the form corresponds to an attribute from a product record. You can determine which fields to include by setting the attribute front end properties to “Include in Advanced Search. As a best practice, you should include only the fields that your customers are most likely to use to find a product, because using too many can impact the speed of the search. Steps to use advanced search: In the footer of your store, click the Advanced Search link. In the Search Settings form, enter any value that you want to match, in as many fields as is necessary. You can find records based on a full, or partial match. Click the Search button to display the results. If you do no see what you are looking for, click Modify your search and try another combination of values. In the footer of your store, click the Advanced Search link.
Use In Layered Navigation	You can Include the attribute as a filter in the 'Shop By' section of layered navigation. Options you can include: No The attribute will not be used in layered navigation. Filterable (with results) It will lists only products that match the filter value. Filterable (no results) It will lists all attribute values, even those that don't apply to any product in the list. Layered navigation will appear on a category page only if there are filterable attributes available. Note: What is Layered Navigation? Using this,you can find a product based on category, price range, or any other available attribute. It will appear in the left column of search results and category pages. Steps to configure layered navigation: From the Admin panel, select System > Configuration. In the Configuration panel on the left, under Catalog, select Catalog. Click to expand the Layered Navigation section. Then, do the following: To display the results after each attribute, set Display Product Count to 'Yes'. Set Price Navigation Step Calculation to one of the following: Automatic Manual For a manual calculation, enter a number in the Default Price Navigation Step field to determine how the price ranges are grouped. For example, if you enter 100, the prices will appear in groups of 100. When complete, click the Save Config button to save the settings.
Comparable on Front end	To show this attribute value in compare product report,set this as yes otherwise no. To compare products: From your storefront, find the products that you want to compare, and click the Add to Comparelink for each. In the Compare Products block in the right column, click the Compare button. The Compare Products report opens in a new window. To clear the Compare Products list, click the Clear All link. How enable or disable Compare Products: From the Admin menu, select System > Configuration. In the Configuration panel on the left, under General, select Feature. Click to expand the Compare Products section. Then, set Enable Compare Products to 'Yes'. Click the Save Config button to save your setting.
Use In Search Results Layered Navigation	You can include the attribute in the layered navigation for search results by selecting 'Yes'. Options are: Yes / No
Use for Promo Rule Conditions	By selecting 'Yes',you can make the attribute available for use in price rules. Options are: Yes / No
Position	It determines the position of the attribute in layered navigation in relation to other filterable attributes.
Enable WYSIWYG	WYSIWYG stands for "What You See Is What You Get”. It is Text Area input only. You can display the editor when you insert or edit the attribute value by selecting 'Yes'. It will allow you to format field description with HTML Tags. Options include are: Yes / No
Allow HTML Tags on Frontend	You will be able to format the attribute value with HTML tags, by selecting 'Yes'. It has Text Field and Text Area input types only. Options include are: Yes / No
Visible on Product View Page on Front-end	You can include the attribute in the additional Information tab on the product page by selecting 'Yes'. It is for simple and virtual products only. Options include: Yes / No
Used in Product Listing	You can include the attribute in the product summaries that appear in catalog listings by selecting 'Yes'. Options include are: Yes / No
Used for Sorting in Product Listing	You can include the attribute as 'Sort By' option for catalog listings by selecting 'Yes'. Options include are: Yes / No

Attribute Group and Attribute Sets

Attribute Sets:

All the products don't have same fields or properties.

For example, If my product is shoes then possible attributes can be Fabric  (values is cotton/Jersey),Sleeves (value can be Full Sleeve/Half Sleeve),Neck (value can be COLLAR/Henley/Crew Neck).

The another example is if my product is mobile then it can have following attributes:

GENERAL FEATURES
In the Box	Headset, Charger, Handset, Battery, Data Cable
Brand	Samsung
Model Name	Galaxy S4
Model ID	i9500
Form	Bar
SIM Size	Micro SIM
SIM Type	Single SIM, GSM
Touch Screen	Yes, Capacitive
Business Features	Document Viewer, Pushmail (Active Sync)
Call Features	Loudspeaker
Handset Color	White Frost

CAMERA
Primary Camera	Yes, 13 Megapixel
Secondary Camera	Yes, 2 Megapixel
Flash	LED
Video Recording	Yes, 1920 x 1080, 30 fps
HD Recording	HD, Full HD

DIMENSIONS
Size	69.8x136.6x7.9 mm
Weight	130 g

BATTERY
Type	2600 mAh

MEMORY AND STORAGE
Internal	16 GB
Expandable Memory	microSD, upto 64 GB
Memory	2 GB RAM

MULTIMEDIA
Music Player	Yes, Supports MP3, OGG, FLAC, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+, apt-X, AMR-NB/WB, WMA, AC-3
Video Player	Yes, Supports DivX, WMV7/8, Sorenson Spark, HEVC, H.264, MPEG4, DivX3.11, VC-1, VP8, H.263, Full HD

From above example,you will get perfect idea of attributes ,attribute set and attribute group.

AS we can see,different product have different attribute so I will not like to have attributes of shirt in mobile. In this situation, As a solution we have an attribute set.

You can create an attribute set like mobile,television,shoes etc. depends on product.

Now, as shown in above example of mobile, I mention all possible attributes and its values of the attribute in groups.

The possible groups for a mobile can be  general features,camera,dimensions,memory and storage and multimedia etc.

The answer of why I divide attributes in to group is it is easy to search from group when I have so many attributes. For example, if  I want to know about camera details of a mobile then  I don't need to see all the attributes of attribute set.I can easily find out it from camera group.

So,I can say that attribute  set is like a table of database where different attribute group can be divided into children table and attribute represent fields of table.

Now,we will see how to create attribute set:

Step 1:

At Admin side, select Catalog > Attributes> Manage Attribute Sets.

Step 2:

Click the Add New Set button.

Step 3:

Step 4:
Enter the name for the attribute set and select the attribute set  as its base which you want to use as a template for the new attribute set.

After saving attribute set, you can see new attribute with default attributes as we select default as base as following:

Here, There are custom attributes regarding to mobile which i have already created. So now we can assign it to the mobile attribute set.


Before assigning attribute to attribute set, we can more categorize the attributes of the mobile as groups.

For example, here  SIM Size and SIM Type are general attributes where as Primary Camera,Secondary Camera,Flash are regarding camera attributes.

So,first we will create attribute group and then will assign it to attribute set.

Now, you can see the new group name as shown in above screenshot.

Similarly I created another group for camera properties.

After creating groups,now its time to assign attribute this groups.

I hope that from above example, you get the idea how to create attribute group and attribute set,