ATG Commerce uses the ATG SQL Repository to define the product catalog. Before reading this chapter, you should be familiar with the ATG SQL Repository, as described in the ATG Repository Guide.
A catalog repository is similar to any other SQL repository. There are three main parts:
The database schema on your SQL database server.
The repository component, which is of class
atg.adapter.gsa.GSARepository.The repository definition file, which is an XML file that defines the relationship between the SQL database and the Dynamo repository component.
ATG Commerce comes with SQL scripts for creating the schema for the standard product catalog and the repository definition file that corresponds to this schema. If you use the standard product catalog without modification, you do not need to configure anything. The /atg/commerce/catalog/ProductCatalog repository component is configured to use this schema and repository definition.
You can extend the standard catalog or create an entirely different catalog structure in several ways:
To modify the standard product catalog by adding or removing items or properties, change the standard repository definition file, then use the
startSQLRepositoryscript to generate the database schema.To design your catalog from scratch, write the repository definition file, then use the
startSQLRepositoryscript to generate the database schema.To use an existing database schema, write a repository definition file that corresponds to that schema.
If you replace the standard repository definition file or extend it through XML file combination, you must configure the SQL repository component appropriately.
The easiest way to implement multiple catalogs is through the ATG Commerce custom catalogs feature. For more information, see Using Custom Catalogs. You can also achieve a similar result using additional SQL repositories instead; see the ATG Repository Guide for more information. If you have created additional repositories, edit the task property of the admins.xml file to specify where your new repository should appear in the ACC. For example: <task>CatalogManagement</task> indicates that your new repository will appear under the Catalog Management menu option..
