Operate > WebSphere Commerce Accelerator > Business relationship management
Catalog filtering
You can access the Catalog Filter from within the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator. You can filter the catalog to a specific set of users and exclude any products in the master catalog that you do not want to sell at the store. Use the Catalog Filter on B2B contracts and hosting contracts.
If you filter the catalog for a base contract or a contract that refers to a base contract, all categories are synchronized so that the changes you make in the catalog are reflected in the contract. If you filter the catalog for a contract that does not refer to a base contract, category exclusion are synchronized; however, for inclusions, the first time you include a category, the system asks whether you would like the contract synchronized with the changes in the catalog.
You can select filtering for product entitlement at both the category and catalog entry level.
To work with product entitlement and pricing within a contract, the Contract notebook within the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator contains a Catalog Filter view. The Catalog Filter can be used on both base and customer contracts, and emergency fixes can be made to product entitlement and pricing without creating a new version of a contract.
The Catalog Filter displays the filter settings from the current contract and all parent base contracts (if applicable). The Catalog Filter will also display the filter settings from the hosting contract for the store. If you use a multiple contract hierarchy, a contract may have several base contracts, and the Catalog Filter displays the relevant settings from all the base contracts. That is, the Catalog Filter will display the settings for a contract and all its parent contracts.
If the base contract or hosting contract has excluded a category or product, the category or product will have an X, and we will not be able to include that category or product in the store or contract. If the base contract has included the catalog, category or product, then the catalog, category or product will have a check mark, and the percentage adjustment or fixed price from the base contract will be displayed, unless there is a filter setting in the customer contract for the same catalog, category, or product. Furthermore, when a category or catalog entry are included, any parent categories are also included. These automatically added parent categories enable customers to browse the site to find the explicitly included catalog entity. Automatically included catalog entities are called browsable inclusions.
You cannot set a price adjustment or a fixed price in a customer contract that will offer a higher price to the customer than is set in the base contract. For example, you cannot set +20% adjustment to Category A when the base contract has -30% adjustment to Category A. However, you can change to a -40% because that offers a lower price to the customer. Similarly, you cannot set $20.00 fixed price to Product B when the base contract has a $10.00 fixed price for Product B. However, you can change the customer's price to be $3.00. If the base contract has a fixed price for Product C, then you may only set a fixed price in the customer contract for Product C.
The Catalog Filter presents the master catalog as an aggregated view of all products and categories available for sale from the store. The Catalog Filter consists of the following parts:
- Catalog tree
- Use this to include the catalog, categories, and products; exclude categories and products; and adjust prices to the entire catalog or to products (either by fixed price, such as discounting all seasonal books to $10 per book; or by percentage, such as 10% off all books). You can also view the actual price (using the Calculate Price option) that customers will see for a product.
- Include option
- Displays when a node does not currently have a filter setting. This option sets the catalog, category, or product as included at 0% discount.
- Include with Adjustment option
- Displays when you include either the entire catalog, category, or product. A dialog display to allow you to set the price adjustment for the catalog, category, or product that you are including for sale in the store.
- Set Price Adjustment option
- Displays when you are working with price adjustments.