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Categories, Products & Options

Categories and products are the core elements of any online store. This section of the manual will cover how to create records for these elements, as well as options for products that require them.

Create Categories

Categories organize or your store into distinct product groupings. They generally make up the navigation menu of a website — located either on the top or the left side of the storefront. The purpose of this menu is to help your customers navigate to their desired destination with ease. For example, if you’re operating a clothing website, categories could include "Shirts", "Pants", "Skirts", "Shoes" and so forth.

In the admin area, click on Inventory >> Categories.



This page defaults to Edit mode. You can also switch to Drag & Drop mode by clicking the tab at the top.

 

Using Edit Mode

In Edit mode, the categories list is divided into navigation menu elements. Winter ’09 supports up to eight navigational menu elements that you can configure with any number of categories and subcategories.


Creating a New Category

In Edit mode, any navigation menu element without categories is an empty navigation menu (nav menu). In these cases, the Click to add new category option is visible. To add a category to any empty nav menu:


  • Press the Click here to add new category option.
  • New Category will appear in the empty nav menu, along with its automatically generated category ID number.
  • Mouse over New Category. This will reveal a menu with the following options:


o Advanced View
o Add New Category
o Add New Subcategory
  • When you click New Category, a text box appears. Enter the category name.
  • Click Save to update.
  • On top of the page, you’ll see when you’re done making changes to your categories on this page click here to publish.

  • Unless you configured the store to auto-publish (see the chapter on Config Variables for more information), click Publish to save all edits you’ve performed in Edit mode.
 

To create new categories within nav menus that already contain categories, mouse over one of the existing category titles and click Add New Category or Add New Subcategory, and follow the above steps.


Using Additional Modes

 
As mentioned, there are additional category modes to use. Feel free to test them to fing the mode that's right for you. To learn more about then, see the "Advanced Settings" section of this manual.

Creating Products

This section will show you how to add products to your categories. Note that every product can be configured with a wide variety of settings. This section will detail the basic settings required for each product. Further product settings are discussed in the “Advanced Settings” section of this manual.

 

Basic Product Info

In the admin area, click on Inventory >> Products.

To add a product to your store, click Add at the top.

 

 

Under Basic Product Info, enter information into the following fields to define the required product settings: 

Easy Setup - Products
ProductCode* This field contains the individual ID number which acts as a reference point. It can contain letters, numbers, hyphens or periods. Note that it cannot include punctuation marks and must be unique for each product.
ProductName* This field contains the actual product name as it displays on your site. 
ProductPrice* This field contains the product’s price.
ProductWeight This field defines the product’s weight for shipping. It should only be left blank for downloadable products, gift certificates, or items with fixed shipping costs. 
ProductDescription This field stores a basic product description and any html or image links you wish to display. 
Category This dropdown allows you to assign the product to a category or subcategory.
   

*These fields are required for each product.

 

Once you’re finished configuring the following fields for your product, click Save at the bottom of the page.

Additional Settings

Winter '09 offers additional settings that aren't required for each new product you create. Some are very important to each product's behavior, however, and should be configured under special circumstances.

Product Weight

This field allows you to assign weight to the product, which the software uses to calculate shipping costs. A weight should be entered for every product, with the exception of downloadable products, gift certificates or products with a fixed shipping cost. Note that if you leave this field blank, the software will assume by default that the product is downloadable and offer only the Online Delivery option during checkout. To properly set up a fixed shipping cost product, please contact Technical Support.

 

Product Description

This field displays to visitors browsing your website. You can use text, HTML or a combination of both. Each description should inform your customers thoroughly about products they’re considering for purchase.

 

Apply to Category ID(s)

This setting allows you to a product to one or more categories. All products should be assigned to at least one category to help your customers find them. This also allows options such as Filter Categories to function properly.

 

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is locatedbelow Basic Product Info. It contains five optional text fields that should be configured for all products. SEO is the act of inserting specific “meta data” into web pages to increase the chance of search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and MSN of successfully browsing, indexing and categorizing them. SEO is essentially a marketing best practice — the more that search engines browse and index your site, the easier it will be for potential customers to find your store.

 

To optimize each product page for SEO, fill out all five fields. We will discuss SEO feature details in the “Marketing” portion of this manual. For now, enter your product’s name into each of these five fields. Note that all five fields must be set for SEO to function properly.


Warehouses

Under the Shipping Options section of the category page, Warehouse ID(s) allows you to assign an ID number that relates to a warehouse location you’ve programmed.This option isn’t necessary for every product, but it must be configured if you ship products from a location other than your primary business address (as defined in Company >> Settings of the admin area). The Click to Edit option allows you to configure the product’s warehouse.


Stock

Unless your product is downloadable or you don’t wish to track inventory, each product should have an initial stock value. Under Vendor Information, enter the number of units in Stock Status and click Save. Stock can be set to 0, or to a negative number if the store allows backorders.

Note that this value must be initialized before the system will track a product’s stock. By default, this value is null and will never change based on orders, RMAs or purchase orders processed.  


Product Images

Product images are important because they help potential customers evaluate the product more than any other factor. In Winter ’09, each product’s settings page contains an Image Management section.

 
  • Click Browse to find and select an image file.
  • Click Upload toload the image file to the product page. Once the upload is complete, the image will display to the right of the image upload options.
  • All images are resized automatically during upload to pre-set dimensions for various display functions throughout the store. You can change the dimensions by clicking Advanced Options.
 

Please note that product photos must be in either .jpg or .gif format. If product photos are edited in image editors such as Adobe Photoshop or Corel Paint, please ensure that the image is in RGB color format before saving.

 

To find more information and some tips on additional advanced settings, see the “Advanced Settings” and “Tips and Tricks” sections of this manual.

Configuring Product Options

For certain store types, product options are just as important as products themselves. For example, a clothing retailer probably won’t sell a t-shirt without additional attributes. The shirt will most likely come in a variety of sizes and colors. In this example, attributes like “large” and “blue” are options, and the attribute classifications such as “size” and “color” are option categories. Winter ’09 allows you to establish all attribute combinations to your customers from a single page.


Option Categories

Although you can set up product options before option categories, we recommend setting up option categories first. In the admin area, click Inventory >> Product Options. This page is divided into two sections: the Options table and the Option Categories table.

 

Near the top of the Options table, select Option Categories from the View dropdown menu, then click on a default option category ID number to edit it.

Each product option category offers the following settings:


Product Option Categories
ID* This field contains an auto assigned number used for the system identification.
HeadingGroup This field can be used to group option categories together on the store. Setting this field to the same value for two or more option categories will combine them under a single storefront heading.
OptionCategoriesDesc* In this field, specify the name of the option category that displays to visitors (e.g. "shoe size" or "choose color")
AboutOptionCategories This field allows you to provide a category description for your customers in a popup window when they click a help icon next to the option category in the shopping cart.
ArrangeOptionCategoriesBy* This field sets up the order in which option categories dispaly on a product's page. The higher the number, the later the option category will display on the page. If values for one or more option categories are the same or set to none, the system will dispaly them alphabetically by default.
DisplayType This dropdown menu provides eight different format options for each category display. These will be discussed in more detail below.
IsRequired Enabling this option forces the category to require your customers to choose an option in order to complete a purchase.
Hide_OptionCategoriesDesc Enabling this option will hide the text defined in the OptionCategoriesDesc field from customers.
Include_In_Search_Refinement This option includes the category in the search refinement options near the top of the shopping cart page.

* These fields are required for each option category.
 

Option Category Display Types

As mentioned above, option categories can use one of eight different display types that affect which options display to store visitors:

Option Category Display Types
DROPDOWN Displays the options in a dropdown menu. 
CHECKBOX Displays the options as a series of checkboxes for customers to select (often used to provide customers the opportunity to select multiple options in the same option category). 
RADIO Displays each option with a round “radio” button. 
TEXTBOX Displays a text box in which customers can manually type options (often used to provide customers customized options).
DROPDOWN_CONTROL Similar display to DROPDOWN, normally used in conjunction with the DROPDOWN_CLIENT display. 
DROPDOWN_CLIENT Similar display to DROPDOWN, normally used in conjunction with the DROPDOWN_CONTROL display.
DROPDOWN_SMARTMATCH Similar display to DROPDOWN, normally used in conjunction with Color-Swatch and Inventory Control Grid settings in Products. Review the “Advanced Settings” section of this manual for more details. 
PLAIN_TEXT Displays each option as a line of plain text. Most often used to display options automatically included with the selected product.. 
   

Creating Options

To create product options, go to Inventory >> Options. From this table, you can edit a default option, or click Add to create a new one. 


Product options can utilize many possible settings. The following table details the basic settings required for each product option you create:

Details
ID* This field contains an auto-assigned number used for system identification.
PriceDiff* In this field, enter a price for the system to add or subtract from the main product price when a customer chooses this option. For options that do not affect the main product price, enter “0.”
OptionCatID* This field assigns the option to an option category. Note that an option can only be assigned to one option category.
OptionDesc This field contains the text that displays to customers when they select the option.
ApplyToProductCode(s)
 This field assigns the option to one or more products by product code. Each product code must be separated by a comma.
   

* These fields are required for each option.

Things to Note

Although an option can only be assigned to one option category at a time, you can create an unlimited number of option categories for each product, and an unlimited number of options for each option category.

 

To learn more about the Inventory Control Grid feature and how it affects product options, and for information on additional settings, see the “Advanced Settings” portion of this manual.

Importing & Exporting

If you need to quickly add a large number of products to your store, or to edit them in bulk within a spreadsheet, Winter ’09 provides importing and exporting capabilities. In the admin area, click Inventory >> Import/Export. This page is divided into two main sections — Standard Import/Export and Other Import/Export Features

Data Export

To export your product information to a spreadsheet, click Data Export.



Supported File Types

The export section of the Import/Export system supports four file types:
Supported File Types
CSV Comma Separated Value files are essentially text files. Values within these files are delineated by commas. This is the most commonly file type used for importing and exporting. The benefit of this file type is that it can easily be imported to a spreadsheet program (such as Microsoft Excel) for convenient editing. 
TAB Tab delineated files are similar to CSV files, but all values are separated by a tabbed space within the text file. Many text file editors can read and modify these files. This file type is expressly used as the default export file type for other ecommerce systems and is provided to allow for easy data migration from other shopping cart systems to Volusion.  
PIPE Pipe Delineated Files are text files similar to CSV and TAB files with the exception that values within the file are separated by the pipe ( | ) character. 
XML Short for exensible Markup Language, XML is an industry standard used to format data in a nested or hierarchical manner that appears similar to HTML.  
   

Step 1 - Choose a Table

Within the Table field, select the Volusion data table you wish you export. Note that you can only export data from the tables listed in this menu. Also, you can only export data from one table at a time. In this case, select Products.

Step 2 - Choose Columns to Export

This field auto-populates a list of all variables in the database table including a list with the data type of each variable. In this case, enable all options. Note that columns marked with (*) are the primary key — the column that contains the unique identifier for every entry in the table. It’s recommended to always export this value, especially if preparing a file that will be imported back into the system. Columns marked with (**) are dynamic, virtual columns that are assembled by two or more connecting tables. This data can be exported, but cannot be re-imported. Leave these fields unchecked.

Step 3 - Choose a File Type

As previously mentioned, the system supports four file types. For this project, choose CSV. 

Step 4 - Export

Click Export Now. Note that an export from a very large table, such as a products table that contains over 100,000 entries, may take several minutes to export. Once the export is complete, you’ll receive a notification with a link to download the exported file to your local hard drive.

Once you’ve downloaded the CSV file, you can open this file in your text editor or spreadsheet program of choice (e.g. Microsoft Office, Open Office, etc.).

 

When you open the CSV file, you’ll see a spreadsheet containing all data from your store’s product table with each expressed as a separate column. You can edit or add to this file as needed. Although it is not necessary to configure every column, it may be a good idea to familiarize with if you plan to use this method for editing tables. When finished editing, save.

 

Note for Macintosh Users

 

If editing a CSV file generated by Volusion export in Microsoft Office, note that the Mac version of MS Office supports multiple CSV file formats. When saving your CSV file, use the “CSV (MS Windows)” file type.


Data Import

The purpose of the import function is to quickly insert a large amount of data into one or more of your database tables to add, replace or update table content. In the admin area, click Inventory >> Import/Export >> Data Import.

Executing an Import

Step 1 - Choose a Table

From the Table menu, choose the table you’d like to update. Note that you can only import data into the tables listed in this dropdown menu. Also, you can only import data to one table at a time. In order to import data to multiple tables, you’ll have to perform multiple imports. In this case, select the Products.

Step 2 - Choose a File

From the File Name field, define the file path or use Browse to select the local file you’d like to import. In this case, select the CSV file you saved to your hard drive.  

Step 3 - Choose Import Type

There are three action types to choose from in the Overwrite Existing Data? section when importing data :

 

1. “No, do not change any records already in my database” — This option inserts new data from the import file into the database without overwriting or modifying any existing table data. For example, if the system encounters CSV file entry with a product code that matches a one already in your store’s database, the system will ignore CSV file row and proceed to the next row.

2. “Yes, replace any existing data with my new updated data” — This option inserts new data from your file into your database table and updates existing data for matching product codes.

3. “Clear entire table and replace with this import file” — This option deletes all content in the specified table and replaces it with the content of the import file. Use this method with extreme caution, as it will permanently remove all existing table data!


Step 4 - Define Test Mode

The Define Test Mode field allows you to specify whether to import the file or simply test whether or not it can be imported. Go ahead and import my data file is selected by default. Test my file; do not import it yet performs the import functions without importing the data. When used in conjunction with other diagnostic options available here, you can troubleshoot previous import issues.

Step 5 - Import

Click Upload My Files to begin the import process. Note that importing can take some time, depending on the amount data to be imported. For example, importing a CSV file containing 100 entries to update the productstable should be completed in less than a minute, but attempting to update the same table with a CSV file containing 100,000 entries will take significantly longer.

After the Import

When the import is complete, you’ll receive a confirmation that the import was successful and the data from the imported file will be visible in the selected table.

Rebuilding the Product Index

After importing data, it’s important to rebuild your product index. This is a simple step that reorders your database and monitors and repairs any possible inconsistencies. In the admin area, click Settings >> Maintenance >> Rebuild Product Index.

 

Using the HTML Editor

The HTML editor allows you to create HTML code without any knowledge of or experience with HTML. You can find links to the editor in various locations of the admin


The HTML editor allows you to create HTML code without any knowledge of or experience with HTML. You can find links to the editor in various locations of the admin area, such as product edit pages, category edit pages and site content edit pages.


Inserting Photos


1. Click HTML Editor.
2. Place your cursor on the page location where you’d like to insert an image, then click the image icon.
3. You can either select an image already on your site from the area labeled File Name, or you can upload a new image from your computer by clicking the folder icon next to the Source field. [I see no File Name section]
4. To upload an image from your hard drive, locate the file and click Upload.
5. Click Insert to apply the image to the editor window.
6. Click Copy HTML to Parent Window and then Update.

Items to Note

When referencing images uploaded by the HTML Editor, we recommend prefixing the path in the Source field with a single forward slash “/.” For example, “EasyEditor/assets/sample.jpg” should be entered as “/EasyEditor/assets/sample.jpg. Also, your image names should not contain any spaces.

 

 

 

Creating Hyperlinks


1. To create a link, click the hyperlink icon in the editor window.
2. Select the protocol you’d like to use from the Source dropdown menu:

http://  —  Use this option to link to another page in your website.

https:// — Use this option to link to another page in your website through a secure connection.

mailto:// — Use this option to open a new mail window on the customer’s screen.

ftp:// — Use this option to link to an ftp site for a file download.

news://  — Use this option to link to a newsgroup article.

Items to Note

If you are linking to a page within your website, we highly recommend leaving this menu blank. Using http:// when attempting to access a page on a site using a secure certificate can cause errors.

 

3. Enter the destination of the link to the right.
4. Use the Target menu to designate where you want the link to appear:

Self — This option opens the link in the current window. If you’re using frames on the page, the link will open in the frame that contains the link.

Blank — This option opens the link in a new browser window.

Parent — This option opens the link in the parent browser.

 
Items to Note

If you’re using frames, the link will open in the browser without using the designated frame set. If you enter the link in a popup, the link will open in the popup window.

 
5. Use the Name field to specify the clickable text displayed on your website for your link. For example, if you insert a link to contact_us.asp, you could enter “Contact Us” here.

Most of the features in the HTML Editor are used for text formatting, such as font, color and size specification, as well as indention. It operates much like a word processor.

 

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