1. Implementing Product Management
  2. Catalog Mappings

Catalog Mappings

The Manage Catalog Mappings task is used to create a mapping between one catalog and another catalog or between a catalog and the root item class.

These catalog mappings contain category mappings between the categories of one catalog to the categories of another catalog or between categories of a catalog and item classes in the root item class.

While creating a catalog mapping, users select a source catalog and a target catalog. The combination of the source catalog and target catalog should be unique, meaning, users cannot create two mappings with the same source and target catalogs. Once the source and target catalogs are mapped and the mapping is created, users can create mappings between the categories of the source catalog and the categories of the target catalog within this catalog mapping. For the category mappings, only one mapping can be created for a particular source category, meaning, users cannot create two mappings with the same source category. However, different source categories can be mapped to the same target category.

Item Class to Category Mapping

You can use GPC (global product classification) or any other category classification to model a catalog category hierarchy in Product Hub. The catalog representing this hierarchy can then be used for creating the mapping between the catalog categories and item classes. This mapping can then be used to derive the correct item class, if the category is specified. The item class can then be used to import data into Product Hub and to display proper attributes in Product Hub Portal.

The flow follows:

  1. Product data stewards create a catalog hierarchy depicting the desired classification using the Create Catalog task in the Product Information Management work area.

  2. Next, update the item profile option, Default Catalog for Item Import, in the Setup and Maintenance work area to set the newly defined catalog as the catalog that should be used while importing data that has Catalog specified instead of item class for the mapping.

  3. A mapping between this catalog and the item class hierarchy is then made using the Manage Catalog Mappings task in the Setup and Maintenance work area. The catalog to item class mapping must specify the source catalog as the newly created catalog and the target catalog as an item class hierarchy. The category mappings created within this catalog to item class mapping must specify the source category as one of the categories from the new catalog and the target category as the item class.

  4. In Product Hub Portal, while uploading or creating products, supplier users select a category for the products. The Create and Edit Product pages in Product Hub Portal display the Category field instead of the Item Class field. The drop-down list will list all the categories of the source catalog irrespective of which catalog categories are mapped in the catalog to item class mapping setup. The application will derive the correct item class from the selected category by referring to the category mappings created in step 3.

  5. The Create and Edit Product pages use the derived item class to display the appropriate product attributes to the suppliers. The attributes are derived from the values selected on the Product Hub Portal tab in the Create Item Class task in the Setup and Maintenance work area.