Product Category Administration Tasks

To Create a Product Category

Note:

Partner administrators can only create categories within categories they have created or within categories to which they have been given access by the enterprise administrator.

1. Click Product Master in the Product and Catalog Administration panel on the Comergent eBusiness System home page.

   This displays the Product Management tab of the C3 Product Manager page.

2. To create the category under the root category, click Create New Category.
3. To create the category in a category below the root category:
   1. Navigate to and select the parent category under which you wish to create the new product category.

      The content panel displays the details of the selected category.

   2. Click the Category tab.

      The Category tab displays a list of the current child product categories for this product category.

1. Click Create New Category.

4. Enter a name and description for the new product category.
5. Click Save All and Return to List.

   The parent category's Category tab is re-displayed with the new product category added.

At this point, you can follow the instructions in To Modify a Product Category to do one or more of the following:

• Assign products to the category.
• Assign features types to the category.

  When you assign features to products in the category, you can choose from among the features in the assigned feature types.

• Assign features to the category.

  These features are automatically assigned to all the products in the category.

• Assign resources.
• Provide access for one or more partners for inserting new products.

To Modify a Product Category

1. Click Product Master in the Product and Catalog Administration panel on the Comergent eBusiness System home page.

   This displays the Product Management tab of the C3 Product Manager page.

2. Navigate to and select the product category that you wish to modify.

   The General tab displays the name and description of the category.

   Attention:

   Make sure you click Save All Changes to save your changes before you move on to another tab.

3. If you want to associate an image with the product category, then perform these steps:
   1. Click Upload next to the Image URL text field.

1. Click Browse.... In the File Upload window, navigate to the image file you want to upload.
2. Click Upload.
3. Click Save Changes.

   If you have a Content Manager server set up to serve images, then you can navigate to the image by clicking Browse Content Manager.... The location of the Content Manager is specified by the value of the C3 Product Manager ContentManager URL business rule. Typically, this is of the form:

   http://server:port/docushare

4. Click the Category tab to display the child product categories of the current product category selected in the navigation panel.
   • You can create a new child product category ( To Create a Product Category).
   • You can delete one of the existing child product categories ( To Delete a Product Category).
   • You can modify the order in which the product categories are displayed to the customer by moving the child categories up and down.
5. Click Save All Changes to save your changes before you move to the next tab.
6. Click the Product tab to display a list of the products currently assigned to this product category.

   See To Assign or Remove Products.

7. Click Save All Changes to save your actions before you move to the next tab.

   Note

   If you assigned a product to a category, and if that product was previously assigned to another category, then the product might have features that have no corresponding feature type in the current product category. The tab will display fields that enable you to reconcile the mismatch. You must reconcile these features to the new category. See To Reconcile Feature Mismatch.

8. Click the Feature Type tab to associate feature types to product categories.

9. To assign a new feature type to the product category, click Assign.... Using the Hierarchical Entity Picker, select the feature types you want to assign and click Done. When you associate a feature type with a category, you make it possible to assign features belonging to the feature type to all products in the product category.

   Click the Delete button next to a feature type to remove a feature type.

10. Click the Feature tab to assign features to (or unassign features from) all the products in the product category and its sub-categories.

11. On this tab, you can perform a number of actions:
    1. To create a new feature within a feature type that is already assigned to the product category, click the Create and Assign Feature button next to the feature type. In the Create and Assign New Feature pop-up window, enter information about the new feature and click Save.
    2. To assign an existing feature within a feature type that is already assigned to the product category, click the Assign Feature button next to the feature type. In the Assign Feature pop-up window, select the feature(s) and click Assign.
    3. To remove the assignment of a feature from the product category, click the Delete button next to the feature.
    4. To remove all assigned features from this product category, click Unassign All.
12. You can use power assignment to assign features to all products within a product category. In doing so, you do not assign the feature to the product category itself, and so if a new product is added to the product category it does not inherit the feature.

    To assign features to all the products within the product category, use power assignment as follows:

    1. Click Power Assign....
    2. Using the Hierarchical Entity Chooser window, select one or more features from the feature hierarchy.
    3. Click Done.
    4. A dialog box is displayed to confirm that the selected features are assigned to the products in the product category.
13. You can unassign features from all products within a product category as follows:
    1. Click Power Unassign....
    2. Using the Hierarchical Entity Chooser window, select one or more features from the feature hierarchy.
    3. Click Done.
    4. A dialog box is displayed to confirm that the selected features are unassigned from the products in the product category.

       Any action you take in the Feature tab is automatic. You do not have to save changes before you move to the next tab.

       Note:

       Later, if you add additional products to this product category, then you need to assign the feature to each new product individually, or again do a macro (global) assignment to all the products and subcategories in a product category through this Feature tab.

14. Click the Resource tab to assign resources to the product category and its subcategories.

    See Resources and Resource Types for more information about resources.

    • To assign a resource, select the appropriate resource type, click Assign, and enter or change the details ( Table 19).

      Note:

      Unlike features, assigning a resource to a product category does not assign the resource to all products and subcategories within that product category. The resource is assigned only to the selected product category itself.

    • To unassign a resource, select the appropriate resource type and click Unassign.
    • To modify a resource, click on the resource in the list of Assigned Resource Types and edit the appropriate fields.
15. Click Save All Changes to save your actions before you move to the next tab.

    TABLE 19. Resource Fields 

    Field	Description
    Type	Resource type. For example, white paper, product image, data sheet, URL, and so on.
    Value	Location of the resource. For example, the URL address or the path to a resource.
    Label	Optional. For example, the image caption, the title of a data sheet or white paper, and so on.
    Description	Your comments about this resource.

16. Click the Access Control tab to enable or disable partner access (if any) to this category.

    By enabling access, you allow the partner administrator for the enabled partner to create categories and products within this category. See To Enable Access Control for a description of the procedure.

17. Click Save All Changes to save your actions before you move to the next tab.

To Assign or Remove Products

When you modify a product category ( To Modify a Product Category), you can assign products to or remove products from a category.

1. Click the Product tab.

   This displays the products currently assigned to the product category.

2. To assign products, click Assign to display the Product Browser window.

   See Using the Hierarchical Entity Chooser for information about finding and selecting products in the Product Browser window.

   Once you have selected the product(s), the Product tab is re-displayed. The products appear in the Assigned Products list box with a plus (+) sign, indicating that the product assignments have not been saved.

3. To unassign products, click the product in the Assigned Product list box, then click Unassign.

   A minus (-) appears next to the product in the list box, indicating that the product unassignments have not been saved.

4. Click Save All Changes.

The product assignments and unassignments are saved.

To Move a Product to Another Category

On occasion, you might want to simply change the product category that a product is in. You could do this by removing the product from the original product category and then assigning the product to the new category as described in To Assign or Remove Products. However, you can do it more quickly as follows:

1. Click Product Master in the Product and Catalog Administration panel on the Comergent eBusiness System home page.

   This displays the Product Management tab of the C3 Product Manager page.

2. Navigate to the product category that contains the product you want to move.
3. Click the Products tab.

4. In the Assigned Product list, select the product you want to move, then click Move....

   This displays a chooser ( Figure 175).

5. Select the category to which you want to move the product.
   1. Navigate to and select the category to which you want to move the product.
   2. Click Done.

      The product you are moving might have features that have no corresponding feature type in the current product category. The tab will display fields that enable you to reconcile the mismatch. You must reconcile these features to the new category. See To Reconcile Feature Mismatch.

6. Click Save All Changes.

To Reconcile Feature Mismatch

When you have assigned products to a category (see To Assign or Remove Products) or when you move a product ( To Move a Product to Another Category, the products may contain features that have no corresponding feature types in the current category. In this case, the Feature Reconciliation Panel appears. (See Figure 176).

The Feature Reconciliation Panel contains a list of the feature types that contain the features associated with the product(s) you are assigning to the category.

1. Check the box next to those feature types you want to retain.
2. Click Save All Changes.

The feature types (and their features) you selected will automatically be added to the category. The features belonging to any unselected feature types will automatically be dis-associated from newly assigned products.

To Delete a Product Category

When you delete a product category, all subcategories are automatically deleted. The products assigned to the deleted category are not deleted. If the products in the category are not assigned to other categories, then they become unassigned products.

1. Click Product Master in the Product and Catalog Administration panel on the Comergent eBusiness System home page.

   This displays the Product Management tab of the C3 Product Manager page.

2. Using the Navigation Panel, navigate to and select the parent category that contains the category you want to delete.

   The General tab displays the details of the parent category.

3. On the detail panel, click the Category tab.

   The Category tab displays a list of the current child product categories for the product category selected in the Navigation Panel.

4. Select the product category you want to delete from the list of child categories.
5. Click Delete.
6. Click Save All Changes.

To Enable Access Control

Your partners can add and modify products in the Comergent eBusiness System specific to their partner organization. To do this, however, they can only add them to categories which they (partner administrators) have created or to which they have been granted access by the enterprise administrator. The enterprise administrator uses the following procedure to grant partner administrators access to product categories.

1. Click Product Master in the Product and Catalog Administration panel on the Comergent eBusiness System home page.

   This displays the Product Management tab of the C3 Product Manager page.

2. In the Product Category frame, find and click on the product category to which you want to grant access.
3. Click the Access Control tab.

4. Click the appropriate radio button.

   To close the category to all partners, click Closed. This means only the enterprise administrator has access to this category. Partner administrators can browse the information in this category, but they cannot add products, make changes, and so on.

   To enable access to all partners, click Open for all.

   To return ownership to the original owner, click Owner.

   Note:

   This button appears only if the category was created by a partner. If subsequently other partners were granted access to this category, then you can click Owner to restrict ownership to the partner who originally created the category.

   To enable access for selected partners:

   1. Click Selected open.

      This displays a frame for selecting partners (see Figure 179).

1. From the Closed Groups list box, select one or more partners.
2. Click Add.

   The partner(s) moves to the Open Groups list box.

5. Click Save All Changes.

To Change the Display of a Product Category

In this release, you can manage which display style is used to present a product category to end-users. Each display style is set up as part of the implementation of your Comergent eBusiness System and is defined in the CategoryDisplayStyle.xml configuration file. See Category Display Style for more information.

Display styles can take additional parameters: you can use these to adjust the display so that the same general display style is used for different categories, but the additional parameters adjust the display for a particular category (such as a background image or color).

By default, categories inherit the display style of their parent product category. When you set a display style for a category, you can also clear the styles used by its children, and in so you can reset all the child categories to use the parent display style.

You can manage how product categories are displayed to end-users as follows:

1. Navigate to the product category whose display you want to change.
2. Click the Display tab.

3. For each partner level, you can specify whether the current category uses the same display style as its parent, or to use a different style.
4. If need be, you can specify additional parameters that should be passed to the display. These take the form of Name-Value pairs: for example, "DisplayImage=Workstation.gif&Background=Plain".
5. If you want to override any previously specified display styles on child product categories, then click Clear Descendants.
6. Click Save.

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