Adding a Catalog Category Definition

A category can have one or more properties, such as name, description, and image. These properties are defined in the category definition. For example, if you want to store information about manufacturers, and then organize products by manufacturer, you can create a Manufacturer category definition, which would include different properties, such as Manufacturer Name, Country/Region, Address, and Contact Person.

After you create a category definition, you can create categories based on that category definition.

To help you get started, Commerce Server provides a category definition named Department that you can edit or use as is. The Department category definition includes the following properties: description, image file name, image width, and image height. You can use the Department category definition exclusively, or you can tailor its properties to suit your business needs.

To add a category definition to the catalog definition

1. Verify you have already created the property definitions that you want to add to your category definition. For more information about creating property definitions, see Adding a Catalog Property Definition.

2. In Catalogs, click Catalog Definition Designer.

3. In the Catalog Definition Designer: Category Definitions screen, click on the toolbar, and then select Category Definitions from the drop-down list.

4. In the Catalog Definition Designer: Category Definitions screen, click on the toolbar.

5. In Category Definitions: New screen, in the Name box, type a name for the new category definition.

6. In the Category Properties section, select the property or properties you want for the new category definition from the list of Available Properties, and then click Add.

   The order in which the properties appear in the Assigned Properties box is also the order in which the properties are displayed in the catalog.

7. To change the order of the properties, select the property you want to move, and then click either Move Up or Move Down until the property is in the position you want.

8. To save the new category definition and return to the Catalog Definition Designer: Category Definitions screen, click on the toolbar.

After you have created your property definitions, product definitions, and category definitions, you can create a catalog and add categories and products to it.

See Also

Creating a Base Catalog

Creating a Virtual Catalog

Adding a Catalog Property Definition

Adding a Catalog Product Definition

Adding a Product to a Catalog

Adding a Category to a Catalog

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