Catalog assets

Like a traditional catalog, your online catalog consists of the goods and services you offer for sale. Although the size and structure of online catalogs can differ greatly from store to store, depending on the type and amount of merchandise available for purchase, catalogs require the following:

WebSphere Commerce places several requirements on your store's online catalog. Every store in the WebSphere Commerce system must have a master catalog, also referred as simply a catalog. The master catalog is the central location to manage your store's merchandise. It is the single catalog containing all products, items, relationships, and standard prices for everything that is for sale in your store.

You can share the master catalog across stores and define as many stores as needed. In addition to creating a master catalog for catalog management, you may also choose to create one or more sales catalogs for display purposes. A sales catalog can contain a subset or the same catalog entries as the master catalog, but will have a much more flexible category structure for customer display purposes. While there is only one master catalog, you can create as many sales catalogs as you want. However, since use the master catalog to manage your online merchandise, we recommend that you also use the master catalog as your sales catalog to minimize maintenance overhead.

If you are creating a new master catalog for a WebSphere Commerce store using the loading utilities, or if you are modifying an existing master catalog available from a WebSphere Commerce starter store, you will have to ensure that your catalog meets these requirements. The following diagram outlines the basic structure of a master catalog in WebSphere Commerce.

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Catalog

The catalog is the starting point in the information model. The catalog contains all hierarchical and navigational information for the online catalog, and is a collection of catalog groups and catalog entries that are displayed and available for purchase in an online store.

In WebSphere Commerce, a catalog is represented in the database by a catalog entity. A catalog entity consists of a unique catalog ID and a description of the catalog, for example, the catalog name. Since each catalog is a separate, unique entity, it can be associated with one or more stores. Every store in the WebSphere Commerce system must be related to at least one catalog entity.

Catalog groups

Catalog groups are generic groupings of your catalog entries, created for partitioning purposes. A catalog group belongs to a catalog and may contain more than one catalog group or catalog entries. You can associate catalog groups to more than one catalog. A catalog group is also known as a category.

A flat catalog is a catalog that does not group its products in categories; instead, it displays a list of products. Although it is possible to create a flat catalog in WebSphere Commerce, IBM recommends that you create catalog groups for structural and navigational purposes.

When creating catalog groups, first arrange your catalog in a hierarchy, or inverted tree. The tree begins at general catalog groups (called root categories, or top categories), and branches out into increasingly specific subcategories until it cannot be further divided. Each lowest level catalog group, which contains only products, is a leaf. A catalog group is the parent to the categories immediately below it, and a child of the one above. As an example, Men's Fashion is a grouping of the men's apparel categories, while the catalog groups Pants and Shirts are groupings of products.

Catalog entries

Catalog entries represent orderable merchandise in an online catalog. The entries typically have a name or part number, a description, one or more prices, images, and other details. A catalog entry can be a product, item, bundle, package, static kit, or dynamic kit. If necessary, you can create new catalog entry types that do not fit into one of the six existing models. More information about each type of catalog entry is available below.

Products

A product is a type of catalog entry. A product acts as a template for a group of items (or SKUs) that exhibit the same attributes. For example, a shirt is a product in your catalog. After adding attributes and attribute values to the shirt, each variation becomes an item, such as a small black shirt.

Items

An item is a tangible unit of merchandise that has a specific name, part number, and price. For example, a small black shirt is an item while a shirt is a product. All items related to a particular product exhibit the same set of attributes and are distinguished by their attribute values.

For WebSphere Commerce Accelerator users, the terms items and SKUs are considered synonymous. When using the Product Management tools in the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, the orderable item is called a SKU. In the WebSphere Commerce database schema, this particular type of catalog entry is called an item.

Bundles

A bundle is a collection of catalog entries to allow customers to buy multiple items at once. For example, a bundle for a computer might be composed of a central processing unit, a monitor, a hard drive, and a CD-ROM drive. A bundle is a grouping of items, or a combination of products, items, and fully resolved packages. If you select a bundle which only contains items, the bundle is decomposed into separate orderable SKUs that are added individually to the shopping cart. However, if you select a bundle which contains products, these products need to be resolved into items through SKU resolution before they can be added to a shopping cart. In either case, once a bundle is decomposed and its component items are added to a shopping cart, you can modify or remove each item.

Packages

A package is an atomic collection of catalog entries. For example, a computer package might contain a specific central processing unit, monitor, and hard drive that cannot be sold separately. Similar to a product, a package has defining attributes and is a container for fully resolved packages. A fully resolved package is comparable to a SKU. A package has its own price and is an actual orderable SKU that can be added to a shopping cart. You cannot decompose or modify a package either during navigation or after the package has been placed in the shopping cart.

For WebSphere Commerce Accelerator users, packages and prebuilt kits are considered synonymous. When using the Product Management tools in the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, a package is known as a prebuilt kit. In the WebSphere Commerce database schema, this particular type of catalog entry is called a package.

Dynamic kits

A dynamic kit is a type of catalog entry which can be dynamically configured by the customer. This configuration (or grouping) of products is based on the customer's requirements and is sold as a single unit. The components of a dynamic kit are controlled by an external product configurator through a set of predefined rules and user interaction, and supplied at order entry time. Adding a dynamic kit to an order is similar to adding a package. Like a package, the individual components of a dynamic kit cannot be modified and the entire configuration must be fulfilled as a whole. However, you may change the dynamic kit components by reconfiguring it using an external product configurator.

Static kits

A static kit is a group of products that are ordered as a unit. The information about the products contained in a static kit is predefined and controlled within WebSphere Commerce. The individual components within the order cannot be modified and must be fulfilled together. A static kit will backorder if any of its components are unavailable.

A static kit is first created as a package, then configured by an administrator.

Product sets

Product sets are associated with published catalog entries. A product set provides a mechanism to partition your catalog into logical subsets. This partitioning allows you to show different parts of your catalog to different users. You can create a contract and specify that the participants of the contract are only entitled to purchase products that fall into a predefined product set. WebSphere Commerce provides tools to create and manage contracts and entitlement filtering rules on the master catalog.

Attributes

Attributes are properties of products in an online store. There are two types of attributes:

  • Define attributes are properties, such as color or size. Attribute values are the property of an attribute such as a specific color (blue or yellow) or size (medium). You must predefine attribute values before assigning them to items. Attribute values are implicitly related to their attributes. Each possible combination of attributes and attribute values equals a new item. After creating attributes and their values, you can update information such as name, description, and type (text, whole numbers, or decimal numbers). Defining attributes are used for SKU resolution, where each possible combination of attributes and attribute values defines an item.

  • In contrast, descriptive attributes simply provide additional descriptions. For example, some pieces of clothing should only be dry cleaned, never washed, and a descriptive attribute can specify this dry clean only condition. Note that descriptive attributes are not used for SKU resolution and are meant to enhance product descriptions, or to provide easy customization for your business specific information.

Attribute values

Attribute values are properties of an attribute such as a specific color (blue or yellow) or size (small, medium, or large). You must predefine attribute values before assigning them to items. Each possible combination of defining attributes values defines an item.

Package attributes

Package attributes must be created from the attributes of the products that are contained within packages. A package containing only items will have no package attributes.

Package attribute values

Package attribute values are the values assigned to package attributes. Package attribute values must be created from the attribute values of the products that are contained within packages.

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