Excel and cobby Filter

Excel Filter and cobby Filter

How do I use the Excel filter and the cobby filter in product maintenance?

Filters are a great help for quickly checking product data, such as: Am I missing product data like images, meta-information, description, cross-selling, or GPSR regulations? ... you can filter by almost anything. Here we explain how the Excel filter and the cobby filter work.

Advantages of the filters

• Time savings: With the filters, you can check and adjust your product data more quickly.
• Faster performance: the cobby filter can be applied before loading products, so only relevant products need to be loaded by cobby

In the following, we will show you how to use the Excel filter to:

• apply the filter to filter by specific attributes (e.g., size)
• filter by products where the respective attribute has not yet been maintained
• filter by texts (e.g., product names)
• filter by numbers (e.g., prices)
• remove the filter for one or more attributes

Additionally, we will show you how to use the cobby filter to:

• filter by store views
• filter by text attributes (e.g., SKUs)
• filter by selection attributes (e.g., manufacturer)
• use filter options (hide empty attribute sets; only active products)

Enjoy the demo! You can find the step-by-step guide below.
Find more info about the filter here in our Help Docs.

Demo

Go to the English version.

Step-by-Step Guide

(1) Excel Filter

1. First, upload your products using the "Load Products" button.

• For better clarity, we then created a separate view (hiding irrelevant columns, etc.).
  [Learn here how to create your own views.]

Let's now start applying the filter. Currently, all sizes from XS to XL are still displayed.

2. To open the Excel filter, click the arrow at the top next to the attribute. The Excel filter will then open. Here you can select what you want to filter by. 

Case 1: filter by attribute "size"

• For this, we deselect "Select All" and then choose the sizes M and S that we need.
• Accordingly, only items in sizes M and S are displayed.

Case 2: Filter products that have not been assigned a value

• First, reopen the Excel filter using the arrow in the top right corner.
• If the field (Empty) appears, it means that there are indeed products available that do not contain a corresponding value (here: size). Otherwise, the field would not be available for selection.
• According to the filter selection (Empty), all products are now displayed that have not yet been assigned a value or size. This allows the missing size information to be added quickly.

Case 3: Filter product names using the Text Filter

• Here you can filter very specifically. In our example, we use the filter "Starts with...".
• Then another window opens where we can enter the name Teton. Depending on the need, you can also add an AND/OR condition as a filter setting.
• Now only the products whose product name contains Teton are displayed.

Case 4: Number filter

• Open the Excel filter again for this. Then click on Number Filter and select "Between...".
• Then a field opens where we enter the lower price at the top and the higher price at the bottom - that is, the values between which we want to filter. Finally, confirm with OK.
• According to the filter setting, only values between 50 and 60 are displayed.

💡 By the way: You can directly see which attribute the filter has already been applied to by looking at the filter icon at the top of the attribute bar. Otherwise, the arrow is displayed by default.

Remove filter

• To remove the filter individually, click on the filter icon at the top of the column name and select "Remove filter from 'Product Name'".
• If you want to remove the filter for multiple attributes, click on the "Data" tab at the top.
• Select the second row that contains all the filters, and then click on "Delete" to remove all filters from the attributes. 

(2) cobby Filter

The cobby filter is similar to the Excel filter. However, you have even more options when it comes to pre-filtering products, analyzing product data, and optimizing it - whether it's images, meta-information, descriptions, colors, etc.

1. To open the cobby filter, click on the small arrow next to the "Load Products" button. A drop-down menu will then appear. Next, click on "Filter".

Case 1: only display products from specific store views

• Select your store views now by clicking in the corresponding boxes. 
• In this example, we filter by Storeview MainDE and MainCH. 
• Then click on "Apply filter".

💡 Note: The reason we apply the filter before loading products is that it allows the products to load faster. This way, cobby only needs to load the selected, filtered products.

Case 2: filter by text attributes (e.g., SKUs)

• In general, all products can be filtered, such as those that start with SKU 00123, or all products whose name starts with Adidas. It is also possible to enter multiple filter words. Simply separate the words with a comma, for example, "Adidas, Nike." This way, all products whose names start with Adidas or Nike will be loaded.
• Then a confirmation question appears. This question is asked every time the filter is changed. This only means that the filter settings will be cleared and it will no longer be active. However, no product data will be deleted! Confirm the input by clicking Yes.
• Note: Filter by SKUs faster: You can also copy multiple SKUs by selecting them and then clicking on "Copy selection for filter."
  [If you want to learn more about this, check out this article here.]
• Then a message appears stating that the values have been copied to the clipboard and can be used for the filter.

Case 3: filter by selection attributes (e.g., manufacturer)

• Here we select "manufacturer" as attribute.
• Select the manufacturers you want to load by clicking the box. Only products from these manufacturers will be loaded for you again.

💡 Function "hide empty attribute sets"
If this option is selected, all empty attribute sets won't be loaded. Only the attribute sets that contain the products you want to filter out will be loaded. This benefits performance, as cobby does not have to load 800 attribute sets that are actually unimportant.

• Check the box for "hide empty attribute sets." Accordingly, in our example, only two attribute sets were loaded - all others were not.

💡 Function "only active products"
This checkbox is always checked by default. This way, only active products are displayed. You have to uncheck it manually if you want to see deactivated products as well. If you uncheck the box and apply the filter, both active (enabled) and deactivated (disabled) products will be shown.

Excellent! 🎉

Now you know how to use the filters to search for texts, numbers, and other attributes - and how to remove all filters at once or adjust filter options.