Creating and Managing Product Lists (SAP Library - AFS Product Catalog and Online Store)

Creating and Managing Product Lists

Prerequisites

You have created a product catalog and defined layout areas.

Procedure

Assign a description for a layout area at the lowest hierarchy level of the layout structure.

Enter the material description in the field Material. Mnemonic descriptions, units of measure, grids, and prices are copied from the corresponding material master and the condition records. The symbol

in the column NP indicates that different prices exist at grid value level for this material.

Note

You generally cannot use the same material several times in the same layout area. However, if you want to offer a material in different units of measure (for example, a T-shirt by the piece and in packages of five), you enter the material twice with different units of measure in the product list of the layout area.

You have various processing options in the product list:

Adding Texts and Documents

Via Documents you can link documents, pictures, sound files, and multimedia material to a layout area. However, texts and multimedia objects will only be displayed for shops (layout areas at the highest hierarchy level) and for materials. Layout areas shown as product groups are not described using texts or pictures in the online store. You are not able to store descriptions or pictures for individual grid values of a material either.
Via Text you assign headings and write a text for a layout area or material.

Since online stores based on product catalog variants are language-dependent, the description that you give to the layout areas in the layout structure will not be transferred to the online store. Shops and product groups are displayed in the online store under the heading that you specify in the corresponding language for each product catalog variant.

You do not necessarily have to enter separate headings and product descriptions so that materials can be displayed in the online store. In Customizing (Profiles for Product Presentation), you specify how materials will be presented in the product overview of the individual product groups (with material number, material short description and/or the heading entered in the product catalog). If you write headings and texts for materials, they will definitely be displayed in the detail screen of the corresponding product. If you want to transfer the basic data text stored in the material master as the product description, choose Basic Data Text.

Note

You specify the mnemonic description in several languages as well as the basic data text for a material from each view in the material master via Extras and the tab pages Descriptions or Basic data text.

Changing the Sequence of Materials in the Product List

Select the material you would like to move.
Place your cursor in the line before which the selected material should be moved.
Choose to move the material.

Transferring Materials to or Removing Materials from the Product List

You can transfer materials to the product list according to certain selection criteria. To do this, choose Import and choose the selection criterion according to which you want to transfer materials to the list. You can transfer materials together to the product catalog that have the same season, merchandise category, material type, or industry sector.

Note

Several seasons can be assigned to a material at material level or SKU level. The material will be transferred to the product list if at least one of the material’s seasons corresponds to the season you have selected.

You can take materials from the product catalog according to certain selection criteria. To do this, choose Reorganization and choose the selection criterion according to which you want to remove materials from the product list. You can remove materials from the product catalog that belong to a certain season, a merchandise category, material type, or industry sector. There are two ways you can remove materials from the product catalog based on the season:

Choose Season and enter a season. Only those materials will be taken from the product catalog that only have the season you chose assigned to them. If a material has other seasons assigned to it as well as the season you chose, that material will remain in the product list.
Choose Key Date and enter a key date. All the materials will be taken from the product list that have at least one season assigned to them at material or SKU level which is valid on that key date.

Obtaining Information from the AFS Detail Screen
By double-clicking on the material, you come to the AFS detail screen. Here you can get information on the grid values, prices at grid value level, the valid material grid, and on the conversion type. At this point you are not able to change grid values.

Controlling Season-Dependent Hiding and Displaying of Layout Areas
Via Valid Seasons you control the hiding and displaying of layout areas and materials in the online store. The customer’s logon date is the reference date for the filtering.

If you enter seasons for a layout area of which none is valid at the logon time, the entire layout area including all subordinate layout areas will be hidden in the online store.

Example

You create a Product Catalog 2001 with the layout areas Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter. You enter the seasons 001 (valid January 1 – March 31, 2001) and 002 (valid April 1 – July 31, 2001) for the layout area Spring/Summer. For the layout area Fall/Winter, you enter the season 003 (valid August 1 – December 31, 2001). If a customer logs on to the online store on June 15, the layout area Fall/Winter will be hidden.

If you have entered seasons for a layout area, of which at least one season is valid at the time the customer logs on, that layout area will be displayed. A season check at material level will not occur. If you thus want to make sure that all the materials are always displayed, define an unlimitedly valid season and assign it to the layout area under Valid Seasons.
If you have not entered any seasons for a layout area, it will be displayed in the online store during the entire validity period. If the layout area is assigned a product list that contains season-dependent materials, a season check will take place at material level. The system checks for each material in the product list whether the material is assigned at least one season that is valid at the time the customer has logged on. All the materials that are not assigned a valid season will be hidden.

Example

You create the layout areas Women’s Fashion, Men’s Fashion, and Children’s Fashion for your Product Catalog 2001. In the layout area Women’s Fashion you have grouped materials that include spring, summer, fall, and winter fashions and have assigned the individual materials to the corresponding seasons. If a customer logs on to the online store on June 15, only those products will be displayed in the layout area Women’s Fashion that are assigned to the season Summer (valid April 1 – July 31). If you want some products from the fall collection to be displayed in summer, assign Fall to the appropriate materials in addition to Summer.