How a product fits together

Version

3.x

Updated

21 Jul 2026

View markdown

Audience: store admins · Scope: the concepts behind every configurable product · Last reviewed: 2026-07-20

What this does — Five minutes of orientation that make every other article in this system obvious. Read it once; skim it again whenever a form field puzzles you.

The hierarchy

Product            "Shirt Configurator"
 └─ Page           step 1: "Fabric & Fit"
     └─ Question   "Which fabric?"  (radio buttons, required)
         └─ Answer "Linen"  (+ €20, picture, selected by default)

• Product — the thing being sold. Carries the base price, tax class, images, which catalogs it appears in, and how its detail page and configurator behave.
• Page — one step of the configurator. Customers move through pages with tabs and/or next-previous buttons; each page has a title and optional intro text.
• Question — one input on a page. Its question type decides the widget: radio buttons, dropdown, checkbox, clickable images, text box, multi-line text, slider, calendar, color picker, RAL color picker, file upload, or predefined choices with a free-text extra.
• Answer — one selectable choice of a question (for the choice-type questions). An answer belongs to exactly one question and carries its own price, image, description, availability and ordering.

What attaches to the hierarchy

• Rules — on questions and answers. A rule decides whether that question/answer is shown, based on other selections or on who the customer is. This is what makes the configurator reshape itself as customers choose. → Rules
• Calculations — named formulas belonging to the product. Attach one to a question or answer and its price (or weight, or an input's min/max bound) becomes computed instead of static. → Pricing & calculations
• Visual preview — per product you choose none, Composite Image (2D: a base image plus one overlay layer per selected answer) or ShapeDiver (interactive 3D; questions and answers drive model parameters). → Set up the visual preview
• Detail panes — the tabbed info blocks on the product's detail page (specs, delivery info…).
• Product Lists — the catalogs on your storefront; a product appears in the lists you tick on its form. → Manage product lists

What the customer experiences

The storefront side of everything above: a product list → a product detail page → the configurator, stepping through your pages with a live price summary, a live preview, questions appearing and disappearing per your rules — then add-to-cart and checkout.

The build workflow (and the reading order)

1. Create the product — title, list placement, base price, visibility.
2. Add pages, then questions — the steps and their inputs.
3. Add answers — the choices, with prices and images.
4. Add logic — rules for show/hide behavior.
5. Price it properly — calculations where static prices aren't enough.
6. Merchandise — the visual preview, detail panes, list placement, reviews.

Build a little, then look at the storefront, then build more — the configurator is live the moment the product is displayed, and managers can even edit right from the storefront.