WebSphere Commerce Enterprise

Catalog filtering

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 your 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. 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 exclusions are synchronized; however, for inclusions, the first time you include a category, the system asks whether you would like your contract that is 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, use the 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 displays the filter settings from the hosting contract for the store. If you use a multiple contract hierarchy, a contract might have several base contracts, and the Catalog Filter displays the relevant settings from all the base contracts. That is, the Catalog Filter displays the settings for a contract and all its parent contracts.

If the base contract or hosting contract excludes a category or product this is denoted by an X. You cannot include that category or product in the store or contract. If the base contract includes the catalog, category or product, then the catalog, category is denoted by a check mark. The percentage adjustment or fixed price from the base contract is 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 your 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 offers 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 $3.00. If the base contract has a fixed price for Product C, then you might 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 the catalog tree 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 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. You can 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.