Catalog Formatting

The format of a catalog is defined at the time the catalog is created and controls the behavior of the catalog at runtime.

When you format a catalog, the layout controls three main areas and includes the following tasks:

• Catalog configuration

• Date enablement

• Category sharing

Some fields are required, and others are optional.

Catalog Configuration

You can configure the catalog, and this affects how the content behaves. The catalog configuration contains a set of attributes that define the catalog configuration. These attributes interact to define the runtime behavior of the catalog.

The configuration functions are:

• Catalog code: A unique identifier that's used.

• : Controls how items are assigned to categories and has two values. The first value is master level, which enables the automatic assignment of items to all child organizations associated with the master organization, if the current context is a master organization. The second value is organization level, which assigns the item only to the organization in the current context.

• Default category: A newly created item is automatically assigned to the default category if specific operational attribute values are entered for the new item. The automatic assignment is controlled by the functional area. Each functional area has specific rules about which operational attribute values are used to trigger the automatic assignment process. For example, an item will be assigned to the catalog assigned to the functional area called Purchasing if the Purchased specification is turned on or if the Internal Ordered Item specification is enabled.

• : Allows items to be added only to the bottom level categories in the hierarchy.

• Catalog content: Controls what content can be added to the catalog and where the content can be added.

• : When this option is selected, you can assign an item to one or more categories in the catalog. The default is deselected, which means that each item can be assigned to only one category in the catalog.

• Public Catalog: Select to mark this catalog as public. All users with access to view catalogs will have access to this catalog.

• Enable duplicate category names

• Enable deletion of item category assignments

• Enable hierarchy for catalog

• Enable date level control for item category assignments

Note: The catalog behavior for functional area catalogs is defined through the combination of fields within the pages and the seeded functional area rules.

Catalog Date Enablement

The date enablement function controls when the catalog is in an active state or inactive state by using the start date and end date attributes.

Category Sharing

The category sharing function enables sharing categories from a designated source catalog.

The sharing function has these attributes:

• Share by Reference: Catalog elements that are shared by reference are read-only in the target catalog. Multiple source catalogs can be used in this type of sharing.

• Copy: Content from other catalogs can be added to the current catalog by creating a copy of the content. The copied content can be edited within the current catalog.

  • Include child categories: Indicate whether to copy child categories when copying categories.

  • Copy item category assignments: Indicate whether to copy items assigned to the category into the catalog.