Overview of Catalogs

As a catalog administrator you can perform catalog content management. Use the Manage Catalogs task in the Catalogs work area to create and manage catalogs.

You can use any or all of the following approaches to create catalog content:

Local Catalog

Set up a local catalog consisting of items (item master items and agreement lines) and item attributes (categories, descriptions, UOM, and so on). You can:

define partitions of a local catalog using inclusion and exclusion rules for agreements and categories.
create catalogs in multiple languages and currencies to support requester communities worldwide.
organize local catalog content in a hierarchical view for users to navigate to the products they want to buy.
upload local catalog content either online or in batch.

While batch upload is optimized for large data upload, the online authoring is optimized for making small and quick updates to catalog content. The catalog batch upload supports catalogs formatted in XML, standard text, catalog. interchange format (CIF), or cXML. Through batch upload or online authoring, you can create catalogs, update existing catalogs, and delete catalog content.

Punchout Catalog

Set up punchout to a supplier web store to access their catalog. A punchout catalog provides requesters a direct link to a single supplier site or store. From the punchout site the requester searches, shops, and returns items to a requisition in the Purchase Requisitions work area. You can also set up punchout to Oracle Business Network, where requesters can gain access to multiple supplier sites.

Note: For punchout, you don't need to include supplier sites in your safe-sender list to access the sites. Safe-sender list is a list of approved entities that have been granted authorized access to the application.

Informational Catalog

Define informational catalogs, which contain instructions or links for ordering items or services at your organization. Informational catalogs help make the Purchase Requisitions work area your organization's portal for all your employees' purchase requests.