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Levels (Categories, Subcategories, Groups)

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Overview

Levels refers to the Order Manager's ability to create up to a three-tiered hierarchy or "levels" to which products can be assigned, for the purpose of organizing a merchant's product line.

The three levels are Categories, Subcategories and Groups; Categories being the broadest classification group. The use of the terms "category" and "categories" in this article are not to be confused with the Category field on the Inventory record of a product, which can be used to identify the physical location of the product in a warehouse.

The levels, categories, subcategories and groups, that are mentioned here can be used in conjunction with Froogle Google's searchable and browseable shopping index tuned to finding products for sale online. Renamed to Google Product Search in 2008., Shop.com and Stone Edge Technologies' ECom Assembler (Web catalog building program, no longer for sale). Froogle and Shop.com require that classification information is provided when product data is sent to them. Froogle only allows a single classification label for each product, while Shop.com accepts multiple level classifications per product, although only one is required.

Description of the Categories, Subcategories & Groups Screen

Figure 1: Categories, Subcategories & Groups screen synonymous with the Microsoft Access Form Object or user interface. - Names and Description tab is the default view

• At the top of the screen there are three sections that will list all of the entries that have been defined in each of the three classification levels, Categories, Subcategories and Groups.

• At the lower portion of the screen, there is a series of four tabs, three of which only apply to the ECom Assembler, which is outside the scope of this topic. The only tab that is relevant to this discussion is the Product Assignments tab.

• It is only necessary to define the hierarchy of levels and assign products to them when using Shop.com or Froogle. No other data shown on the image above is required.

Alphabetize Button

• used to order the products on the product level pages for use with ECom Assembler

Move Products Between Levels Button

• can be used to relocate a product from one product classification to another

• opens the Move Products screen

Edit Button

• permits the user to alter the contents of the Names and Description, Page Links and META Tags tabs, which pertain only to the ECom Assembler

• click the [Save] button to retain the changes or the [Void] button to abandon the changes that have been made

Close Button

• causes the program to exit the Categories, Subcategories & Groups screen

Add Button

• click the button in the appropriate section, Categories, Subcategories, or Groups to create a new entry in that classification level.

Delete Button

• select to mouse "left-click" on an object, usually a row in a table, in the context of Order Manager documentation an entry from the list in the appropriate section, Categories, Subcategories, or Groups and click this button to permanently remove it from the system   

Move Button

• select an entry from the list in the appropriate section, Categories, Subcategories, or Groups  and click this button to move it from one classification level to another  

Copy Button

• select an entry from the list in the appropriate section, Categories, Subcategories, or Groups and click this button to create a duplicate of that entry with a different name in the current classification level  

Rename Button

• select an entry from the list in the appropriate section, Categories, Subcategories, or Groups  and click this button to create a change the name of that entry in the current classification level.  

Defining Categories, Subcategories and Groups in the Order Manager

Categories

1. From the Main Menu, click on the Maintenance Menu icon and click on the Inventory & Suppliers tab. Double-click on the Levels activity to open the Categories, Subcategories and Groups Screen. Refer to Figure 1.

2. Click the [Add] button under the Categories section of the screen and enter a name for the new category.

3. Click [Save].

4. Repeat steps two and three as often as necessary to create the broadest of classification labels that will be assigned to products.  

Subcategories

1. From the Main Menu, click on the Maintenance Menu icon and click on the Inventory & Suppliers tab. Double-click on the Levels activity to open the Categories, Subcategories and Groups Screen.

2. Click the [Add] button under the Subcategories section of the screen and enter a name for the new subcategory.

3. Click [Save].

4. Repeat steps two and three as often as necessary to create subordinate classification labels that will be assigned to products.  

Groups

1. From the Main Menu, click on the Maintenance Menu icon and click on the Inventory & Suppliers tab. Double-click on the Levels activity to open the Categories, Subcategories and Groups Screen.

2. Click the [Add] button under the Groups section of the screen and enter a name for the new group.

3. Click [Save].

4. Repeat steps two and three as often as necessary to create the most detailed or specific level of classification labels that will be assigned to products.  

Assigning Products to a Level

1. Select the category, subcategory or group definition to which products will be assigned, from the appropriate list at the top of the screen. Choose only one entry in one level at a time. 

2. Click the Product Assignments tab.

Figure 2: Categories, Subcategories & Groups screen - Product Assignment tab is displayed

3. In the Show Product: section of the screen, choose a product from the list of Available Products. Select a radio button to list product the list by SKUs or Item Names.  The contents of the list that will be produced can be controlled by selecting one of the following methods:

• the [Show All] button displays all inventory products

• the number (#) or letter buttons can be used to filter the list of products that will be displayed, by those that start with a number or the specified letter

• the Unassigned Items button will list all products that are not currently assigned to a level

4. Click the [Add to Page] button.

5. The selected product will now be listed in the Products section of the screen.

6. To remove a product from a level, select it in the Products section and click the [Remove] button.

7. The blue directional arrows will move the selected product up or down in the list of Products, which has no bearing in the context of this topic, as it relates only to the ECom Assembler.

Figure 3: Categories, Subcategories & Groups screen - three products have been added the category, New Category

• In the images shown in this section of the topic show that the category, "New Category" is selected from the Categories section at the top of the screen. The Available Products list is filtered to display SKUs that begin with the letter "B". Three products have been added to the category; bed1, bed2 and bed3. An example of creating a three-tiered hierarchy would have been to create a Category of "Furniture", a Subcategory of "Beds" and lastly, Groups named "Brass" or "Wooden", etc.

 Move Products between Levels

1. Clicking the [Move Products Between Levels] button will open the Move Products screen, which is used to promote or demote a product from or to another classification level. The Show SKUs check box controls whether the products will be listed by their Item Names or by SKU the abbreviation for Stock Keeping Unit; a unique identifier used to track product inventory.

2. 

3.     Figure 4: Move Products screen

2. Select a category, subcategory or group from the lists on the left-hand side of the screen. Then select a different category, subcategory or group in one of the lists on the right-hand side of the screen.

3. Use the left or right directional arrows below the Move and Copy sections of the screen to place the selected product in the appropriate level.

4. The other buttons at the bottom of this screen are used to change the sort order of the products in each classification level. The sort order is only applicable to the ECom Assembler, not Froogle or Shop.com. The ECom Assembler uses the sort order when it builds Web pages for each level and needs to know the order in which to list the items on each page.

• The example that is depicted in Figure 4 shows that product "bed1" has been moved from the selected category, "New Category", to the selected subcategory, "New Subcategory", by selecting it from the list in the Items in Selected Level list at the bottom left-hand side of the screen and clicking the right arrow under Move.

Created: 2/16/11

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