Product associations

❗ Important Product associations is currently in Preview status. It is in development, only available in test environments, and only available to a limited number of customers. For more information about Preview status, see Product lifecycle phases. If you would like to use Product associations during the Preview phase, contact your AppDirect technical representative.

Product associations establish links between editions of products, in order to represent the dependencies between them. Only marketplace owners with the Marketplace Manager role can create them.

📝 Note You define Product associations using GraphQL APIs. You cannot create them using the user interface (UI).

A product association applies purchase rules so that when a customer buys a given product edition, they must also buy other product editions with which it is associated. When a product edition is included in the cart during checkout, the cart indicates any dependencies it has on other products, and the checkout cannot proceed unless those products are also included in the cart.

The simplest example of a product association is an add-on: a product that supplements another parent product. For example, an add-on could be reporting software that tracks activity in a specific database management product—a customer must have the database management product in order to use the reporting software, so it's important that they buy it at the same time as the add-on.

You can use product associations to create more detailed product linkages:

• Multiple products—You can create an association that links a product edition with several other products or product editions at a time.
  For example, if you offer a desktop computer, you can create a product association such that customers must also purchase an operating system and monitor at the same time.
• Alternative choices—You can specify that a product edition requires only one choice from a list of other products or product editions.
  For example, you can specify that customers who buy a desktop computer must have an operating system to go with it, but may choose one of two different operating systems.
• Layers of associations—You can create a hierarchy of associations, where a product edition may be associated with a second product that itself is associated with a third product.
  For example, you can specify that customers who buy a special access keyboard can only buy it for a specific model of desktop with which it is compatible. That desktop in turn may require purchase of an operating system.

By combining these aspects of product associations, you can create linkages that are as complex as you need them to be to ensure that end customers are able to complete their purchases.

To create a product association, see Create a product association. For information on why to use product associations, see Advantages of product associations.