XML Elements
The Microsoft Commerce Catalog Extensible Markup Language (XML) elements are divided into three groups:
MSCommerceCatalogCollection. The root node for a Commerce Catalog XML file.
Catalog Schema Elements. These elements are used to extend the catalog: CatalogSchema, AttributeDefinition, Definition, PropertiesDefinition, Property, and PropertyValue.
Catalog Data Elements. These elements are used for the actual catalog and its members: Catalog, Category, Field, Product, ProductVariant, and Relationship.
AttributeDefinition
Defines an attribute that can be used to describe an aspect of a property, such as its "display name". This allows additional attributes to be defined on fields on top of the built in ones: name, maxSize, defaultValue, and so on.
Parent Elements: CatalogSchema
Child Elements: None
Attributes:
| Name | Description |
| DataType | Valid types are:
datetime |
| id | A unique ID for each node in the document. May not contain spaces (an XML requirement). |
| name | The name of the attribute definition. |
Catalog
Defines an individual catalog.
Parent Elements: MSCommerceCatalogCollection
Child Elements: Category, Product
Attributes:
| Name | Description |
| catalogName | The name of the catalog. |
| currency | The currency used in the catalog, expressed as a three letter ISO 4217 currency code. For example "USD", "AUD", "CDN", "GBP", "DEM", "JPY". |
| description | A description of the catalog. |
| endDate | The date the catalog validity expires. Used for documentation purposes only – Commerce Server does not apply any logic to this value. |
| locale | The locale of the catalog, specified using a Windows Locale ID (LCID). Used for documentation purposes to indicate which locale the catalog is intended for. |
| productIdentifier | The name of the property that uniquely identifies products (or product families) in the catalog. |
| productVariantIdentifier | The name of the property that uniquely identifies product variants in the catalog. If the catalog does not contain products with variants, set this attribute to the same value as the value in the productIdentifier attribute. |
| startDate | The date the catalog becomes valid. Used for documentation purposes only – Commerce Server does not apply any logic to this value. |
CatalogSchema
Contains the schema definition elements for the Catalog collection.
Parent Elements: MSCommerceCatalogCollection
Child Elements: AttributeDefinition, Definition, PropertiesDefinition
Attributes: None
Category
Defines an instance of a type of category.
Parent Elements: Catalog
Child Elements: Field, Relationship
Attributes:
| Name | Description |
| Definition | The name of the category definition that the category is based on. |
| id | The XML ID for the category element. |
| isSearchable | Indicates whether this category is to be used as a starting point for specification searches. True indicates this category will be included in the record set returned by calls to the ProductCatalog.GetSearchableCategories object.
The values are 0 for False; 1 for True. |
| name | The name of the category. This name must be unique for all categories in the same catalog. |
| parentCategories | The XML IDs of the categories that are immediate parents of this category. |
| listprice | The price that should be applied to any products that reference this category as their pricing category. Units for this value are determined by the currency attribute of the containing catalog. |
Definition
Defines a type of product or category.
Parent Elements: CatalogSchema
Child Elements: None
Attributes:
| Name | Description |
| DefinitionType | The type of the definition — either "product" or "category". |
| Name | The name of the property. This name must be unique within the XML document. |
| properties | The XML node IDs of the properties that are to be included in this product or category definition. |
| variantProperties | The XML node IDs of the properties that are to be included as variant properties for this product definition. Use this attribute only for definitions of type "product". |
Field
Defines a name and value pair for a field.
Parent Elements: Category, Product, ProductVariant
Child Elements: None
Attributes:
| Name | Description |
| fieldID | The name of the property a value is being supplied for. |
| fieldValue | The value for the property. |
MSCommerceCatalogCollection
The root node for a Commerce Catalog XML file.
Parent Elements: None
Child Elements: CatalogSchema, Catalog
Attributes: None
Product
Defines an instance of a type of product.
Parent Elements: Catalog
Child Elements: Field, ProductVariant, Relationship
Attributes:
| Name | Description |
| definition | The name of the product definition that the product is based on. |
| id | The XML ID for the product element. |
| listprice | The price for this product. Units for this value are determined by the currency attribute of the containing catalog. |
| parentCategories | The XML IDs of the categories that the product belongs to. |
| pricingCategory | The XML ID of the category that the product inherits pricing from.
Use of this attribute is optional. |
ProductVariant
Defines an instance of a variant of a product.
Parent Elements: Product
Child Elements: Field
Attributes:
| Name | Description |
| id | The XML ID for the variant element. |
PropertiesDefinition
Container for the individual property definitions.
Parent Elements: CatalogSchema
Child Elements: Property
Attributes: None
Property
Defines a property that can be used to describe an aspect of a product or category.
Parent Elements: PropertiesDefinition
Child Elements: PropertyValue
Attributes:
| Name | Description |
| AssignAll | Indicates whether this property should automatically be assigned to product definitions as they are created through Commerce Server Business Desk.
The values are: "1" (True) or "0" (False). |
| DataType | Legal values are:
datetime |
| DefaultValue | The default value for instances of the property. This value will be interpreted according to the datatype specified for this property. Datetime values must be specified in XML Date format. |
| DisplayInProductsList | Indicates whether this property is to be displayed in summary lists of products in the Business Desk Catalog Editor, or in other areas where product lists are displayed.
The values are: "1" (True) or "0" (False) |
| DisplayName | The display name for the property, for example, the label that will be shown next to the values for this property to site users. |
| DisplayOnSite | Indicates whether this property should be shown to users visiting the web site.
The values are: "1" (True) or "0" (False). |
| ExportToDW | Indicates whether the Catalog DTS task should export this property into the Data Warehouse. Properties with this attribute set to True will be available for use in reports and data analysis.
The values are: "1" (True) or "0" (False) |
| id | A unique ID for each node in the document. May not contain spaces (an XML requirement). |
| IncludeInSpecSearch | Indicates whether this property should be exposed to specification searches.
The values are: "1" (True) or "0" (False) |
| IsFreeTextSearchable | Indicates whether this property should be included in the full-text index, and therefore, be free text searchable.
The values are: "1" (True) or "0" (False) |
| MaxValue | The maximum legal value for number data types, and the maximum length for string data types. |
| MinValue | The minimum legal value for number data types, and the minimum length for string data types. |
| name | The unique name of the property. |
PropertyValue
Defines a legal value for a property.
Parent Elements: Property
Child Elements: None
Attributes:
| Name | Description |
| DisplayName | A legal value for the containing property. |
Relationship
Defines a relationship between one product or category and another product or category.
Parent Elements: Category, Product
Child Elements: None
Attributes:
| Name | Description |
| description | The description of the relationship. |
| name | The name of the relationship. |
| relation | The XML ID of a product or category in the same catalog in which to relate the containing product or category. |