More About the Product Catalogs

Introduction to Product Catalogs

A product catalog is comprised of categories, and it is used to group many product categories together and forms an intermediate step in the organization between products, categories, and stores. The product catalog can be used to define a common look and feel for all categories in this catalog and specify the way different categories will behave.

For example, it is very useful for stores which sell products from different manufacturer or completely different product types that require differing presentations to the customer.

Product Catalog Sub-Tabs Functionality

The main “Catalog” tab for a product catalog is mostly for specifying the look and feel of that Catalog. Each catalog can have its own style sheet (CSS), its own logo, and its own content repository (the content path prefix) and templates prefix (where its freemarker templates are located.)

The “stores” tab shows a list of stores that this catalog is currently featured in. Note that stores and catalogs do not have a one-to-one relationship: the same store can feature multiple catalogs, and the same catalog could be featured in many stores.

The “parties” tab shows parties which are associated with this catalog.

<< What does associating a party with a catalog do? >>

The “categories” tab shows the different types of product categories and their roles within this catalog. Specifically the Category types include these:

• Catalog – standard product catalog category, with descriptive information and products.
• Quick Add – products on these categories can be added all at once
• Promotions – for the default ecommerce store, the products in the promotions category

will be shown on the first page to all visitors

• Browse Root – root category for browsing through the ecommerce Web Store.
• Default Search – product searches by default are done in this category.

If you want only a subset of your products to show up on your online stores’ search option, then you should create a category, add those products to it, and then make it the “Default Search” category for your catalog. Otherwise, your stores’ search feature will return all products, including those which should not be viewed.

There are also other categories whose function is selfexplanatory including these:

• What's New
• Most Popular