The Manage Products page is one of the main tools for managing a product catalog. It includes several sections which facilitate product management and catalog navigation. From this page you can access and manage any product in your online catalog.
Main Concepts
Categories and products.
Imagine that you own a huge bookstore with thousands of books in stock. The store is divided into departments, e.g. Finance, Small Business, E-Commerce. A book titled "Selling Online: How to Become a Successful E-Commerce Merchant" (ISBN - 0793145171) by Jim Carroll and Rick Broadhead is on sale in the E-Commerce department.
In the Avactis system this book is a Product. Products are any items that are delivered to a customer, such as books, shirts, software, electronic documents. The store's departments, e.g. Finance, Small Business, and E-Commerce are called categories in the Avactis software.
Product Types.
Imagine that you sell DVDs and Books in your store. Each of these products has attributes describing it. In this example, the attribute for Books is the ISBN (International Standard Book Number), which is not used when entering DVD details.
To facilitate processing of various kinds (types) of products, we introduced 'product types'. In this example we have two product types - DVDs and Books. The product type for the goods is entered only once. This facilitates the process of catalog creation, product search and comparison. The Manage Product Types section describes how to enter a new product type.
Toolbar Description
Current Category
This line shows the name of the current category and the path to this category from the root category. Using the links, you can move up the category tree, up to the root category.
Switch to Categories
Allows to switch to the category tree in order to obtain detailed information about categories and subcategories.
Go To Subcategory
The current category may have subcategories. Using the Go To Subcategory drop-down menu you can go to products belonging to the selected subcategory.
Add Product
Allows to add a new product to the current category. To add a new product, click the Add Product button. A new window will come up. Follow the instructions in this window.
Move
Allows to move products to another category. Prior to moving products you need to select the targeted products using check boxes. Then click the Move button. A new window for moving the products will come up. Follow the instructions in this window.
Delete
Allows to delete products. Prior to deleting products you need to select the targeted products using check boxes. Then click the Delete button. A new window for deleting the products will come up. Follow the instructions in this window.
Sort
Allows to sort products in the current category. To change the sorting of products, click the Sort button. A new window will come up. Follow the instructions in this window.
You can also see how these commands work by launching our Video Tutorial.
Add New Product
This page allows you to enter information and attributes for a new product.
All fields indicated by red color and marked with an asterisk (*) are mandatory fields. You can input data into the remaining fields later.
Once you have finished entering the data, click the Save button. This will create a new product in the current category. If you intend to create another product in the same category, use the Save and Add Another button.
To close the window, click the Cancel button. In this case no new product will be created.
To view information about a specific attribute, click the question mark (?). This will open a new window with the description of this attribute of the product.
To watch a video clip showing how to enter information about a new product, click the Video Tutorial link.
Delete Products
This page allows you to delete selected products. The entire list of products to be deleted is displayed on this page. To delete products, click the Delete button. To close the window, click the Cancel button.
ATTENTION!!! You cannot restore products after deletion.
Edit Product
This page allows to edit product attributes.
All fields indicated by red color and marked with an asterisk (*) are mandatory fields. You can input data into the remaining fields later.
When you have finished editing, click the Save button. This will save all changes you have just made.
To close the window, click the Cancel button. In this case, no changes will be saved.
To view information about a specific attribute, click the question mark (?). This will open a new window with the description of this attribute of the product.
To watch a video clip showing how to edit a product, click the Video Tutorial link.
Move Products
On this page you can move selected products to another category. To choose a new category where you want to move the selected products, use the links in the Category for New Location line, and the links for subcategories. The new category for the selected products is shown in the New Location line.
Click Save to save the moved products in the new location. To close the window without saving, click Cancel. To see an example of how you can move a product, click the Video Tutorial link.
Sort Products
On this page you can sort the products in the current category (as shown in the Current Category line). To re-order the products, select targeted product and specify the new sorting order using the up and down arrows.
