Catalogs
Catalogs
Catalogs can be added to pages just like any other plug in module. Catalogs display compilations of Products, Partners, Projects, Prices, and Blog Pages. See the "Wysiwyg Function Guide" for more information on how to place a catalog module within one of your pages.
PLEASE NOTE: Catalogs can display collections of just about anything. The price catalogs, events catalogs, blog comments catalogs are in development. The styling (coloring, bolding, italicizing, round cornering) of catalogs are currently created during the main template design of the website. Controls to change the stylings is still in construction. Please ask us if there is something you want "cataloged" which is not currently supported.
Copying Catalogs
Catalogs can be copied and pasted from one page to the other by using the copy and paste keyboard shortcuts on your keyboard. When copy and pasting a catalog, the catalog's display preferences will carry over to the new one. This is by far the easiest way to set up a catalog if you would like to forgo tinkering with all the various options available. The Copy Short Cut command for Macintosh is APPLE+C and on Windows it is CTRL+C. First select the catalog as you have found it within the content editor, use the copy keyboard combo command and then select a new area in the content editor, and use the paste keyboard combo. The shortcut for paste on Macintosh is APPLE+V and on Windows it is CTRL+V.
How do I place an item inside a Catalog?
A catalog will show items which it has been configured to display within it's own preferences section ( see catalog preferences below ). Each catalog setting can be combined to refine what is to be shown, based on criteria such as page assignments, product variety types, and featured items statuses.
Featured Item Assignments
Catalogs have the option to display featured items. To place an item, such as a product, project, or partner, within a featured item catalog you may do so by selecting the "Display In Featured Sections" which exists within the editing section of a item ( Product, Partner, Project ). Optionally you may set a start time and and end time to help manage the addition and removal of items from featured item catalog.
Category/Page Assignments
Catalogs are not limited to showing featured items only. They can also list every item which is assigned to a particular page of your website. When you assign an item such as a product, partner or project to a page you are actually assigning an item to a category of your website. Pages act as primary categories while the details of the item itself help to refine where items are shown. Category/Page assigments can be used in combination with featured item assignments to list items in a catalog, showing featured items which are assigned to a specific category. Listed below are preferences which determine catalog listings based on category assignments.
Alternate Page ID
This drop down select option allows you to choose which page the catalog will pull items from. If this option is not selected the catalog will list items which are assigned to the page which the catalog has been plugged into.
List All Child Elements
Sometimes a page contains sub cataegories within it. For example. You might have a Main Fruit category displaying additional pages which further categorize the Fruit by color, or season. Selecting to list all child items will cause the catalog to draw all items assigned to the sub categories as well. If this option is not selected the catalog would only pull items assigned to the top most category and ignore the items assigned to the smaller sub-sections like colors or seasons.
Featured Items Only
This option when selected will show items which are marked as featured items. It can be used in combination with both List all child elements and Alternate Page ID to show featured items belonging to a specific page category only.
Master Catalogs
Every record which exists within the website can be found in the Master Catalog sections within the Admin portion of the wesbite. The master catalogs allow you to control the overall publishing options for an item. If a product, project or partner item cannot be found anywhere in the mini catalogs which are plugged into the editor areas, then you will find them listed within the master catalogs as they hold all records, whether or not they have been published for public viewing or not.
Product Displays
The Product Displays master catalog contain all of the different product displays found throughout the entire website. Inventory records may be assigned to Product Displays to formproduct ordering pages with variety selectors. You will find all the product display pages in this section whether or not the product is availble for ordering or displayed to the public.
Projects
Projects master catalogs contain all of the different gallery images, special description pages regardless as to whether or not they are visible to the public or not. Mini Project Catalogs are also called Project Galleries.
Partners
Partner master catalogs contain all the people profile page records for membership holders and event participants. Partner records have additional options within the preferences sections to control the way the permission system behaves should the website require a strict approval process for partners to be listed in catalogs. Mini Partner Catalogs are also called Partner Directories.
Inventory / Prices
The Price Inventory master catalog will list every price available to the website whether or not it is available for purchase or listed as an item for sale in the product catalogs. In most cases prices will not display anywhere in product catalogs on thier own but instead they combine to add options to existing product display catalogs. The exception to this rule is when third party inventories are populating the website and the requirement for fancy product displays are not a requirement.
Global Display Preferences
Within the Manager sections there are Display Preferences which control the default settings for single items views throughout the entire website. You may set the default placeholder images for all of the catalogs that exist on the website as well as control some of the basic image recompression handling and resizing options.
Catalog Preferences
Preferences for each catalog can be accessed by navigating to the page where a catalog exists, and clicking on the preferences icon within that page's sub-section.
These same preferences can be accessed from within the content editor by right clicking on the module and selecting the 'Module Settings'. These two images show the access point to the preferences for a catalog module.
When you access the preferences from within the content editor you will also have width and height control over your module.
Preferences Summary
Not all preferences are available to every catalog type.
| Preference Name: | Type: | Description: |
| Show Header | text input | Will add a heading to the top of your catalog. Leave this preference empty to create a catalog without a header. |
| Template | select | This sets the thumbnail view for each item listed within the catalog. |
| Rows | number | The maximum number of rows to display. |
| Columns | number | The maximum number of columns to display. |
| Featured Items Only | checkbox | Choose to show items which are featured. |
| List All Child Elements | checkbox | List all the other products in the hierarchy. |
| Border Style | select | Depending on the style of your website you may need assistance from a developer to set up the round corners option. |
| Top | number | Spacing top controls the distance between thumbnails within your catalog. |
| Bottom | number | Spacing bottom controls the distance between thumbnails within your catalog. |
| Left | number | Spacing left controls the distance between thumbnails within your catalog. |
| Right | number | Spacing right controls the distance between thumbnails within your catalog. |
| Enable Description | checkbox | Selecting this check box will display a snippet of text within the catalog listing for each item. Descriptions are created using the meta description tag when available or the editor content area. |
| Desc Length | number | Set a fixed number of letters to show in the description area. Zero value will permit full content from editor area including links to show in catalog. |
| Min Height (px) | number | Attempts to set the minimum height for your catalog thumbnail. |
| Alternate Page ID | select | The page which the products have been saved to. |
| Catalog Navigation | select | Add a navigation to the next page should there be more items in the row / column matrix. |
| Order By | select | Options to order the catalog items by dates, or alpha numeric values. |
| List Items with Region | select | If product regions are enabled show only those which belong to this region. |
| Show Read More | select | Add a generic read more link to the bottom of the link display. |
| No Date | checkbox | Display any date displays which the template displays. |
| Enable Feed | checkbox | Enables the catalog items to be accessed via XML feeds. |
| Show Buy Now Buttons | select | Adds purchasing or inquiry buttons to the cart catalogs. |
| Catalog Linking Behaviour | select | Changes where the catalog item links to. |
Catalog Templates
Catalog templates provide a variety of different HTML structures for your catalog. This allows you to retain the style and feel of your site, carrying the design through to your catalogs without having to recreate the design each time. Below is a brief description of each catalog template and a view of how the template may look when chosen for your catalog.
Please note that not all catalogs will display correctly depending on the overall design of your site.
