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Catalog and Inventory Schema Manager

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For the latest version of Commerce Server 2007 Help, see the Microsoft Web site.

The Commerce Server 2007 Catalog and Inventory Schema Manager lets business managers, developers, and system administrators perform the following tasks:

  • Define new property elements that you can use in defining catalog, product, and inventory data objects.

  • Manage the database schema for the Catalog System that allows for the real-time management of catalogs and products for display on the Web site.

  • Manage the database schema for the Inventory System that allows for the real-time management of inventory for items in catalogs.

Catalog and Inventory Schema Data

The following data is managed through the Catalog and Inventory Schema Manager:

  • Catalog metadata. The set of properties that you use to define and store data that holds product and catalog information.

  • Category definitions. A collection of properties that specifies the information that is stored for the category.

  • Inventory Catalog metadata. The set of properties that you use to define and store data that holds Inventory Catalog information.

  • Inventory SKU metadata. The set of properties that you use to define a single directly sellable product or variant. You use stock-keeping unit (SKU) metadata to specify properties that track inventory, such as In Stock, Quantity in Stock, Back-Ordered, and more.

  • Product definitions. A collection of properties that specifies the information that is stored for a product.

  • Property definitions. An attribute that describes a characteristic of a product or category, such as Name, Title, Color, and so on. Property definitions are the fundamental unit defining schema data. Multiple product definitions and category definitions can use a property, and you can share the property across catalogs.

  • Property metadata. Data that you assign to a property.

Features Overview

The following table summarizes the tasks that you can accomplish by using the Catalog and Inventory Schema Manager.

Feature

Description

Manage data

  • Create, edit, delete, and rename data elements. Create and modify category definitions, product definitions, and property definitions.

  • Modify metadata. Assign and modify the assignment of properties to catalogs, inventory catalogs, inventory SKUs, and properties.

View

  • List views. View the list of categories, products, or properties. Sort objects based on a selected attribute or property.

  • Property definition view. View the assignments made to a property or other object.

  • Task view. View and select tasks available for the selected object.

International

  • Create multilingual property. Define properties that have multilingual or multicurrency values.

See Also

Other Resources

Catalog System

Catalog Manager

Catalog Objects Architecture

What Are the Base Catalog Concepts?

Catalog and Inventory System Roles

Common Business User Tasks

Business Management Applications