Set Sales Catalog Search and Browse Options

The browse catalog feature lets salespeople search and browse product groups and products in a hierarchy view. When configuring search and browse, you set these two options:

• Search Product Groups: Specifies whether the search returns product groups and products, or only products. If you're using not using products in your catalog, then you must set this option to yes.

• Show Immediate Child Products Only: Specifies which products display in the Products heading in the Browse Catalog window. You can ignore this option if you're not using products in your catalog.

Search Product Groups Option

In the Browse Catalog window, users enter keywords to search for product groups and products. The Search Product Groups option specifies whether the search should return product groups and products, or only individual products.

Take a look at this table to understand how to use the Search Product Groups option.

Description	Settings	Example When Set to Yes	Example When Set to No
Determines whether the search finds product groups and products or only products. Searches names and descriptions. The default setting is no.	Yes: Search returns both product groups and products. If you're using not using products in your catalog, then you must use this setting. No: Search returns products only.	Search for the term Green: The application returns all product groups and products with that term in the name or description, such as Green Servers (product group), Green Server 3000 (product), and Green Server 6000 (product).	Search for the term Green: The application returns only products with that term in the name or description, such as Green Server 3000, Green Server 6000, and Green Server 9000.

Show Immediate Child Products Only Option

In the Browse Catalog window, salespeople can browse product groups and products by selecting product groups. The Show Immediate Child Products Only option specifies whether to display only the products immediately within the selected product group, or also to display the products contained within the subgroups of the selected product group.

Here's how to use the Show Immediate Child Products Only option.

Description	Settings	Example When Set to Yes	Example When Set to No
Determines whether the browse feature shows only products within the selected product group in the catalog, or to also show products within the subgroups of the selected product group. The default setting is yes.	Yes: Browse shows only the products within the selected product group. No: Browse also shows the products within the subgroups of the selected product group. If you're not using products in your catalog, only product groups, then this setting has no effect on the browse feature.	The product group Servers has no products within it, but its subgroups, Green Servers and UltraPro Servers, each have several products within them. The user clicks the Servers product group in the catalog browse pane. No products display in the Products section of the display page.	The product group Servers has no products within it, but its subgroups, Green Servers and UltraPro Servers each have several products within them. The user clicks the Servers product group in the catalog browse pane. The products contained within the Green Servers and UltraPro Servers product groups display in the Products section of the display page.

Understand Catalog Usage Option Modes

Before you set the usage options discussed here, be aware of the concept of "modes" for the catalog usage options. Each catalog usage option has a corresponding Mode value. The Mode setting lets you specify which application or applications the usage option applies to. If you leave the Mode value blank, then the usage option applies to all applications where the catalog is in use.

Set the Search and Browse Options

Use these steps to set the sales catalog search and browse options.

1. Sign in as the sales administrator.

2. In Setup and Maintenance, go to the following:

   • Offering: Sales

   • Functional Area: Sales Catalog and Products

   • Task: Manage Product Group Usage

3. In the Product Group Usage list, select the Base usage.

4. In the Base: Details region, click the Miscellaneous tab.

5. Find the option in the list and set it as needed. For example, set Search Product Groups to Yes for the mode, Opportunity Management.

6. Save your changes.