Importance of Families Table

Question

Hi experts,
Im new to MDM and would like to know the importance of families table.
Where it is used and how, as I find it is shown as disable all the times.
Regards
Hari

Answer 1

Hi Hari,
Families can be used to group together records, which have the same value or the same attribute in certain fields.
The families table contains one record for each family. So attributes valid for all family members can be assigned directly to the family and need not be maintained individually for each family member.
This means that instead of having to store group-specific information for every single record, the main table can be more manageable. This group-specific information (for example, for product categories) is stored in the families table and therefore applies to every family member.
The families table must also contain the lookup field in the main
table, which is used to define family membership. This stored lookup field must be of type taxonomy or hierarchy. This allows the family records to be generated automatically.
For eg: if you have a taxonomy for suppliers with various attributes
supplier
|_Tools
|_Hand Tools
|_Machine Tools
|_Services
|_Repair
Now you want to further categorize this hierarchy based on say Manufacturer or Catalog Name.This can be done using Families table.
In console create a families table as type families using Category as family field.
Add a field say Image (look up Image).
After importing the taxonomy table category.
Go to Data manager select Family mode.Select a node .Under partition tab select one of the look up values or Attributes based on which u want to categorize further.Then go to Family detail here u can link a image or PDF to this family.
These are used in case of publishing and printing.
Hope it will help you.
Regards
Richa