1. Using Oracle Commerce
  2. Manage Your Catalog
  3. Work with independent catalogs

Work with independent catalogs

Independent catalogs are catalogs that are not dependent on any other catalog, including the Product Catalog that is included with Commerce.

An independent catalog can contain links to collections and products that are already in other catalogs, or it can contain collections and products that are not associated with any other catalogs.

All catalogs you create in the Commerce user interface are independent catalogs. (You must use the Admin API to create legacy catalogs and filtered catalogs. See Work with filtered catalogs and Work with legacy catalogs for more information.)

Understand independent catalog structure

You can perform all catalog-related tasks on any independent catalog:

  • View details for a product or a collection.
  • Create a new product or collection.
  • Link an existing product or collection.
  • Edit or delete an existing product or collection.
  • Rearrange products in a collection or rearrange collection hierarchy.
  • Access the following options from the Manage Catalogs menu: Product Types, Price Groups, Inventory, and Upload Media.

Any changes you make to linked collections and products are automatically applied to all independent catalogs that are linked to the items that were changed. See Link and unlink collections and products for more information. Remember that you must publish any changes you make to catalogs before they will appear on your stores.

Create independent catalogs

This section describes the steps you must complete to create a new independent catalog and add or link collections to it.

To create a new independent catalog:

  1. On the Catalog page, click Manage Catalogs and select New Catalog.
  2. Enter values for the Catalog Name and Catalog ID.

    You cannot change the Catalog ID once you create the catalog.

  3. Click Create.

To add or link collections to a catalog:

  1. Click the Collections link on the left-hand side of the catalog’s details page.
  2. Click Edit.
  3. Select a collection from the list. You can filter the list by typing or pasting some text in the Collections box.

    The filter control matches letters or numbers that you type, wherever they appear in the name or ID, not just at the beginning. Usually, as you type more characters, there are fewer matches. When you see the item you want, select it.

    Note: Selecting a child collection does not add its parent collections to the catalog.

  4. Click Add Selected.
  5. Click Done when you finish adding collections.
  6. (Optional) You can specify a default collection where Commerce creates products that have no parents, for example, products that come in on a feed. Click the Select Collection button and select a collection from this catalog.

    If you do not select a default collection, Commerce creates products with no parents in Unassigned Collections.

  7. Click Save when you finish making changes.
  8. Publish your changes. See Publish Changes for more information.

Edit and delete independent catalogs

You can change a catalog’s name and associated collections; you cannot change its ID. You can delete a catalog that is not associated with any sites or accounts. You can delete any additional catalogs that you created, but you cannot delete the Product Catalog that is included with Commerce.

Important: Deleting assets, such as products, catalogs, shipping methods, etc., can result in discrepancies in your system, which may produce errors. It is recommended that you disable assets instead of delete them.

To edit or delete a catalog:

  1. Select the catalog to edit or delete in one of the following ways:
    • On the Catalog page, select a catalog from the drop-down list at the top of the catalog page to display the catalog.
    • On the Catalog page, click the Manage Catalogs button and select All Catalogs. Click the name of the catalog you want to edit.
  2. To edit the catalog, click Edit Catalog, then change the catalog name or its collections. Click Save when you finish making changes.
  3. To delete the catalog, click Edit Catalog, then click the Delete button.

    If the catalog is already associated with accounts or sites, you must first remove it from all accounts or sites before you can delete it. See Work with account contracts for information about removing a catalog from an account. See Configure Sites for information about associating catalogs with sites.

    You cannot delete a catalog that is the base catalog for a filtered catalog.