Use the Sales Catalog tooling on the master catalog

Overview

WebSphere Commerce Accelerator provides two sets of tools to manage catalogs...

• Catalog Management tooling available from the Products menu can be used to manage the master catalog
• Sales Catalog tooling available from the Merchandise menu can be used to manage the sales catalogs

The Sales Catalog tooling offers functionality that can be exploited to manage the master catalog. Examples of these functionality include...

• sequencing of subcategories in a category
• sequencing of the catalog entries in a category

Procedure

1. Go to...

   WC_PROFILE/xml/tools/common

2. Make a copy of resources.xml to a separate directory.

3. Make a copy of CommerceAccelerator.xml from the directory relevant to the business model you are using to a separate directory.
   • For Professional and Express Editions, open CommerceAccelerator.xml
   • For the consumer direct home page, open CommerceAcceleratorB2C.xml
   • For the B2B direct home page, open CommerceAcceleratorB2B.xml
   • For the B2B indirect catalog profile home page, open CommerceAcceleratorCPS.xml
   • For the B2B indirect home pages:
     • Extended sites home pages:
       • For the extended sites hub home page, open CommerceAcceleratorHCP.xml
       • For the storefront asset store home page, open CommerceAcceleratorMPS.xml
       • For the store home page, open CommerceAcceleratorMHS.xml
     • Demand chain home pages:
       • For the channel hub home page, open CommerceAcceleratorCHS.xml
       • For the B2C reseller storefront asset store home page, open CommerceAcceleratorRPS.xml
       • For the B2B reseller storefront asset store home page, open CommerceAcceleratorCPS.xml
       • For the store for resellers home page, open CommerceAcceleratorRHS.xml
     • Supply chain home pages:
       • For the supplier hub home page, open CommerceAcceleratorSCP.xml
       • For the supplier asset store home page, open CommerceAcceleratorSPS.xml
       • For the supplier store home page, open CommerceAcceleratorSHS.xml

   This file should never be directly modified. For more information, refer to XML configuration directory.

4. Open the temporary copy of CommerceAccelerator.xml in a text editor.

5. Locate the following section:

   <node name="CatalogDesign" 
         component="CatalogDesign" 
         url="/webapp/wcs/tools/servlet/NavCatCatalogListDialog?displayNumberOfProducts=true&amp;extendedFunction=(categoryTemplate=false, masterCatalog=false, sku=false)" 
         users="catMgr makMgr podMgr seller"/>
   

   ...and modify it to set mastercatalog=true such that the section looks similar to the following:

   <node name="CatalogDesign" 
         component="CatalogDesign" 
         url="/webapp/wcs/tools/servlet/NavCatCatalogListDialog?displayNumberOfProducts=true&amp;extendedFunction=(categoryTemplate=false, masterCatalog=true, sku=false)" 
         users="catMgr makMgr podMgr seller"/>
   

6. Save the changes.

7. Update the copy of resources.xml to point to the customized copy of CommerceAccelerator.xml.

8. Update WebSphere Commerce with the updated files.

   Ensure that you follow the instructions for updating a partial application zip.

   You will need the following information:

   Enterprise application name

   WC_enterprise_application

   Relative path to file

   xml/tools/common/original_file_name

9. Restart the WebSphere Commerce Server.
   

Results

After the changes are complete, when you access the sales catalog tooling, we will see the master catalog listed as one of the sales catalogs. This ensures that you have the same functionality available for the master catalog that you have for the sales catalogs.

However, because of this added functionality, you should be aware of the following restrictions and limitations:

• Be careful not to delete the master catalog.

• You can now have catalog entries under multiple categories or a category as a subcategory of multiple categories:

  • Only do this if you are using the Consumer Direct model.

    If you are using any of the contract functionality, preserve the structural restrictions of the master catalog and a product in multiple categories break one of the structure restriction. Also having a category as a subcategory of multiple categories breaks one of the restriction.

  • Even in the Consumer direct store by having a product in multiple categories, we will put limitation on the following tool:

    • If you use the Category tab in the product notebook to change the parent category, one of the many parent categories will be changed.

    • You will not be able to use the Category tab in the Product Management tool to change the parent category. You will see a list of categories to which the product belongs.

    • To work around these issues, the Sales Catalog tool needs to be used to manage the relation between categories and catalog entries.

Related concepts

Sales catalogs

Related tasks

List catalog entries in a category
Design a sales catalog

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