Canonical Product
A Canonical Product is the shared Actualog product record for one deterministically identified product or concrete variant. Companies connect to that record through explicit roles instead of creating a separate copy merely because they manufacture, distribute, supply, service, design, or consume it.
The canonical product contains governed product data such as category, structured attributes, name and description, identifiers, media and documents, variant membership, identity state, workflow, publication, quality, and history.
What it is for
- stable product identity and duplicate prevention;
- reuse by several related companies;
- structured search, comparison, validation, and export;
- reuse in catalogs without copying the product master;
- governed changes with traceability.
What it is not
- It is not a catalog offer. Price, stock, lead time, quantity, and commercial terms belong to catalogs and offers.
- It is not the company itself. Company roles are explicit relationships to the product.
- It is not a Company Product Overlay. Company Product Overlay is not implemented in the current application.
Identity
The category's active identity policy determines which product values make the product the same or different. A stored Product Identity Hash supports exact matching and duplicate prevention.