CPPv2 introduces the concept of a “virtual product”.

A virtual product is a product that inherits supplier/production related properties (such as print areas and aspects) from a base product.

Additionally (and optionally), a virtual product can also inherit retailer/preview orientated properties (such as text and image areas) from a dynamic design product.

                                       +---------------------+
                                       |Supplier Base Product|
                                       +---------+-----------+
                                                 |
                                                 |
                                                 |  Print Areas, Print Layouts,
                                                 |  Print Sizes and Aspects
                                                 |
                                                 |
                                                 |
                                                 |
                       Text and Image Areas      |
                                                 |
+----------------------+                  +------v--------+
|Dynamic Design Product+------------------>Virtual Product|
+----------------------+                  +---------------+

This means that:

  • An update to a dynamic design product (e.g. a new placeholder image on a Disney Frozen design) automatically gets applied to all associated virtual products.

  • An update to a supplier’s base product (e.g. a change to print layouts) automatically gets applied to all associated virtual products.

The below video shows how a CPP user can find a supplier’s base product and create a virtual product using it.

Currently, a virtual product can have its own:

  • Colour areas (this may change in the future)
  • Text areas
  • Image areas

Likewise, a virtual product always inherits the following:

  • Print areas
  • Print sizes
  • Print layouts
  • Aspects
  • Attributes (this may be changed in the future)
  • Variants

When a virtual product is first created, ecommerce data is sourced from the base product but there is subsequently no link between the virtual’s ecommerce data and the base product’s ecommerce data.