Loading the catalog
In WebSphere Commerce you can create a catalog either by using the Product Management tools in the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, or by using the loading utilities to mass load the catalog. Usually, a catalog is mass loaded and then maintained by using the Product Management tools.
Create catalog data in XML format
Use the sample catalog as a base to learn how to create your store's catalog. Review the comments in the XML files for information about which database tables are populated and the relationships between the data. For background and additional directions on how to create catalog assets, see Catalog assets.
Create catalog data in CSV format
If catalog data is provided in the form of text delimited data, several steps are necessary to load CSV data to the WebSphere Commerce database.
- Cleanse the CSV data.
- Transform the CSV data to generic XML data.
- Generate a DTD for the WebSphere Commerce Server database.
- Transform the generic XML data to WebSphere Commerce XML data.
- Resolve the identifiers in the XML document.
- Load the data into the WebSphere Commerce Server database.
For more information refer to the following resources:
- For a detailed description on how to create a commerce catalog from CSV data, refer to the chapter entitled "Aggregate and transform data for commerce catalogs" in the publication, WebSphere Commerce V5.4 Catalog Design and Content Management. This publication is available from the IBM Redbooks site, http://www.ibm.com/redbooks/.
- A sample application, Example of loading CSV data into a WebSphere Commerce Server 5.4 database, is available from the http://www.ibm.com/software/commerce/support/ support page. This sample, contains scripts and sample data that load additional categories, products and SKUs into an existing catalog.
If you load the sample data from this sample application to a consumer direct store, set inventory levels before you can order the example products from your store. The sample also contains some ATP specific data which is not required in the consumer direct store; if you use the sample as a base you can remove references to ATP specific tables such as ITEMVERSN, VERSIONSPC, DISTARRANG and STOREITEM.
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