Creating a New Virtual Catalog

The following section describes how to create a virtual catalog.

To create a virtual catalog

In Catalogs, click Catalog Editor.
In the Catalogs screen, click on the toolbar, and then select New Virtual Catalog from the drop-down list.

In the Catalog Properties – New Virtual Catalog screen, in the Catalog Properties section, do the following:

Use this	To do this
Name	Type a name for the new catalog. This name must be unique; it cannot match the name of any existing catalog in the Commerce Server catalog database.
Start date	Type the start date for the catalog. This date does not have any effect on your Web site. However, if you exchange catalogs with a trading partner, this date lets your trading partner know the first date the catalog is valid.
End date	Type the end date for the catalog. Your trading partners use this date to determine the last date the catalog is valid. By default this will be the current date plus three months. For example, if you create your catalog in December, the catalog end date will be in March.
Currency	Select the currency for the catalog from the drop-down list.
Unit of weight measure	Displays the unit of weight measure for the products in this catalog. Your system administrator specifies this value during Commerce Server configuration. Note For information about how to add a new unit of weight measure, see Adding Custom Catalog Attributes and Property Attributes.

In the Catalog Languages section, click Add to select the languages that the catalog will support.
In the Default Language box, specify the default language for your catalog.

If you do not specify a default language, Commerce Server uses the same language as the Microsoft Windows operating system on the Business Desk Web server.
If the catalog supports more than one language, in the Reporting Language box, specify the language that is to be used for the properties that are to be stored in the Data Warehouse.

This is the language that will be used for reports and analysis.
To save the virtual catalog and return to the Catalogs screen, click on the toolbar.
To include base catalogs in the virtual catalog, see Including Base Catalogs in a Virtual Catalog. You must perform this step to include products and categories in the virtual catalog.

Additional resources