Step 3: Create New Category Definition

After you create product definitions, you create a category definition.

Category definitions describe the specific qualities of the categories in your catalog. These category qualities are called category properties. You create a category definition by assigning category properties to it. For example, the Department category definition might have the following category properties: Name, Description, Image File Name, Image Height, and Image Width. When you create a category based on the Department category definition, you enter values for the category properties. For example, the Name category property might be "Sport Shirts Department."

In this step you will create a category definition for Building Materials.

  1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, and then click Microsoft Visual Studio .NET.
  2. In the Microsoft Development Environment [design] – Start Page screen, click Open Project.
  3. In the Open Project dialog box, select the NorthwindTraders project, and then click Open.
  4. In the NorthwindTraders – Microsoft Visual C# .NET [design] – Default.aspx window, click Project on the toolbar, point to Commerce Server Project, and then select Catalog Definition Designer.
  5. In the Catalog Definition Designer: Category Definitions screen, click View on the toolbar, and then select Category Definitions from the drop-down list.
  6. In Category Definition: New screen, in the Name box, type Building Materials.
  7. To save the new category definition and return to the Catalog Definition Designer: Category Definitions screen, click Save and go back on the toolbar.

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