Product Catalog Layout 

Use

The structure of a product catalog is referred to as its layout. The SAP system helps you lay out the various sections of your catalog and assign data to them.

A layout is a hierarchy of layout areas. Each layout area contains either individual items or further subordinate layout areas. A layout area item consists of an article and a unit of measure. Within a layout area, a single article may occur more than once, each time with a different unit. However, you cannot place an article more than once in a layout area using the same unit of measure. (If you want to have several instances of an article with the same unit of measure, each instance must be in a separate layout area.)

You can have a 16-oz can and a 32-oz can of Italian plum tomatoes in a single layout area called “canned goods,” but you cannot have a 16-oz can of Italian plum tomatoes appear twice within “canned goods.” However, you can have a 16-oz can of Italian plum tomatoes appear once in both the “canned goods” and “specialty foods” layout areas.

Next to the layout areas at the lowest level of the hierarchical tree, the system displays the number of items assigned to that layout area.

Once you have created a layout area with articles, you cannot then create another layout area beneath it (i.e., subordinate to it). You can still, however, create other layout areas that appear after it (i.e., at the same or higher level, but at a later point in the catalog).

The order of the layout areas and the order of the items within each layout area serve as a rough placement for the articles within the product catalog. If necessary, you can change the order of the layout areas and the articles afterwards.

The meaning you want to assign to the layout areas is left to your own interpretation. For example, you can associate layout areas with chapters, product categories, themes (e.g., wedding gifts), or catalog pages. You may or may not choose to display the final product catalog in a hierarchical fashion; you might choose simply to use the hierarchy structure to modularize the planning process of the catalog.

Each layout area can have a header, text, or multimedia objects assigned to it. Text and multimedia objects can be assigned to individual items as well.

You can select articles from merchandise categories, layout modules, or the Classification system and insert them in product catalogs. You can also copy individual layout areas from one or more catalogs to another, using the same method. For details, see Article Selection for Product Catalogs.

Filtering is especially useful for the SAP online store. It allows you to hide or display certain layout areas for certain customers based on the following:

·         Settings in the customer profile

·         Characteristics you assign to layout areas in the Classification System.

If the customer-specific characteristics values match the characteristic values for a layout area, the layout area will be displayed for the customer; otherwise, it will be hidden.