The Catalog Definition: A Description of Products and Categories
The catalog definition describes the characteristics of the categories and products in a particular type of catalog. For example, the catalog definition for a Sports Clothes catalog could contain the following product definitions: Shirts, Pants, and Shoes. To create a catalog definition, you use the Catalog Definition Designer module in Commerce Server Business Desk.
The following figure shows the parts of a catalog definition, and how they map to the parts of the catalog. Properties are used in the category definition and the product definition. The category definition "DEPT" is used for the "Soccer Shirts" category. The product definition "Soccer Shirt" is used for the "Ace Soccer Shirt" product.
.gif "Part of a catalog definition")
The Catalog Definition
Category Definitions
Product Definitions
Property Definitions
The Catalog Definition
The catalog definition consists of category definitions, product definitions, and property definitions. Category definitions and product definitions are created by using property definitions.
The following figure shows the parts of a sample catalog definition.
.gif "Sample catalog definition")
You can edit the catalog definition even after a catalog has data in it. For example, you can do the following:
- Rename a product or category definition
- Change the properties included in a category definition or product definition
You cannot do the following:
- Rename a property definition
- Change the data type of a property, for example, from a number to text.
Category Definitions
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."
Product Definitions
Product definitions describe the specific qualities of a particular product. These product qualities are called product properties. You create a product definition by assigning product properties to it. For example, you might create a product definition named Shirt that would include three product properties: Name, Manufacturer, and Price. When you create a product based on the Shirt product definition, you enter values for the product properties. For example, the Name product property might be "Ace Soccer Shirt."
Property Definitions
Both category properties and product properties are based on property definitions. A property definition describes information about the property, such as the data type of the property (for example, number, text, multilingual text, and decimal), the name of the property, and a minimum value for the property. For example, you can create a property named Shirt_Size with the values Small, Medium, and Large, or a property named Length with a minimum value of 10 and a maximum value of 120.
See Also
Catalogs: Products and Categories
Catalog Name and Size Restrictions
Copyright © 2005 Microsoft Corporation.
All rights reserved.