Merging Attributes
It is common to encounter situations where different attribute names represent the same concept. For example, "Country of Origin", "Manufacturer", and "Country of Production" are essentially the same attribute. In such cases, it makes sense to merge them under a single name, such as "Country of Origin". These inconsistencies are called implicit duplicates. Automatic merging is not possible, so it must be done manually. However, the Drag-and-Drop technology significantly simplifies the process.
If you drag one node into another using Drag-and-Drop while holding Ctrl, the dragged node will be merged with the target node. If you drag nodes without Ctrl, it only sorts or changes the group. Thus, the combination Ctrl + Drag-and-Drop is used for merging attributes.
What Happens When Attributes Are Merged?
Links to products or categories are not lost, so the values of the attributes remain intact. If the same product is linked to both the target and the merged attribute, its values are added to the target. For example, if the target attribute had "Russia/France", after merging, it will become "Russia/France/Germany". New values are added using a delimiter. If the products were not linked to the target attribute, their link simply changes from the merged attribute to the target. A video example illustrates this process.
Multiple attributes can be merged with a target attribute simultaneously using multi-selection. Merging attributes from different groups is also allowed.
Merging Groups
It is also possible to merge groups. In this case, all attributes from the selected group will be moved to the target group, and the original group will be deleted.
After merging, nodes marked for merging will be deleted permanently with no recovery option. If the merge does not go as expected, the only way to fix it is by restoring a backup of the database.