Enabling the attribute dictionary

If you are using an external catalog and loading your data into WebSphere Commerce, you can save time by using the attribute dictionary to load in attributes for your products, instead of creating new attributes for each product in the Management Center. The Catalogs tool only displays shared attributes meaning, you cannot update or add new attributes to the dictionary.

Before you beginDecide if you want to use the attribute dictionary only, or use the attribute dictionary and classic attribute functionality concurrently. Classic attribute functionality includes those attributes not in the attribute dictionary, where each product has it's own attributes.
Procedure
To enable the attribute dictionary and classic attribute functionality concurrently, switch the implementation of ResolveSkuCmd to ResolveSkuAllCmdImpl in CMDREG table:
Open a database command window.
Run the following SQL command: update cmdreg set classname='com.ibm.commerce.catalog.commands.ResolveSkuAllCmdImpl' where interfacename ='com.ibm.commerce.catalog.commands.ResolveSkuCmd';

To enable the attribute dictionary only, switch the implementation of ResolveSkuCmd to ResolveSkuNewCmdImpl in the CMDREG table:
Open a database command window.
Run the following SQL command: update cmdreg set classname='com.ibm.commerce.catalog.commands.ResolveSkuNewCmdImpl' where interfacename ='com.ibm.commerce.catalog.commands.ResolveSkuCmd';

Customize the Catalogs tool to hide the local attribute table to prevent users from using the table to create a new attribute in the legacy table.
Note: To change the ResolveSkuCmd implementation for one store, you create a new row in the CMDREG table with the STOREENT_ID set to the store ID. If you set the STOREENT_ID to "0", the command applies to all the stores. 

Ref: Infocenter : http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wchelp/v6r0m0/topic/com.ibm.commerce.management-center.doc/tasks/tpnenattrdic.htm