Introduction

Very shortly, we will be upgrading the EZ-Catalog system.  The software programs used by the EZ-Catalog have been completely rewritten.  The ability to customize your category, product, and shopping cart pages will be dramatically enhanced.  The bulk of our programming efforts for the last 10 months have been spent to bring about these changes.  Many of these changes came about because of suggestions that we have received from you.

With such extensive upgrades as these, we run into the problem of adding new features while still keeping the catalog system easy to use.  After all, it is EZ-Catalog.  For that reason, we have built in a large number of default settings.  So if you want a simple catalog or like the way the catalog functions now, you do not have to do anything.  However, if you want to have more flexibility in the look and feel of your catalog, you will find many more options at your finger tips.

A demo web site has been created to show case some of these features.  Note, all of the pages except for the home page (index page) and the search page are created from the EZ-Catalog system. (This site is maintained on our beta test environment which could change as we are making final adjustments to the upgrade.  The demo site may be available only for a few weeks.)

Unfortunately, we were not able to complete all of the additional features that we had planned and mentioned in  the January issue of the EZ-NetAdvantage.  We will continue to work on those new features.

Expanded features for Categories

Subcategories.   You can have categories within categories.  Whereas the current system only allows you to organize products into categories, now you can also organize categories into parent categories.  For example a category of Dress Shirts within a category of Shirts within a category of Mens Wear within a category of Clothing.  Once you have the hierarchy of categories established, the catalog system will generate the web pages at each level with links to the lower levels.  More info . . .

Designating the display order.  You will be able to specify the order you want sub categories within categories and products within categories.  You will continue to have the previous sort order as well.  More info. . .

Import Category information.  You will be able to import and export all of the category information, independently from the product import and export.

Configuration Options for Category, Product, Secure Order Form, and Shopping Cart.

You will have many more configuration options available that determine how the category pages and the shopping cart will look and feel.  The ability to select how many products to display on a page, to adjust the back ground and text colors, and to adjust the background colors will be available.  Because there are so many more options to configure, we have devised a completely new interface.  The regional settings have been merged into the configuration system.  More info. . .

More layout options.  Initially, there will only be two layout options for category pages, the classical look of EZ-NetTools and one new one.  The classical layout should look exactly like it does now and will be the default for everyone initially.  A new layout will include a side bar navigation of the categories and bread crumb trails.  In the future, we will add even more display layouts.  If you have some programming expertise you can even customize how the page elements will be displayed.  More info. . .

New Individual Page Display.  In the past, the only way to get a single product on a page was to create one in EZ-Pagebuilder using the shopping cart block.  With this upgrade, a page for a single product can be generated by the system.  Consequently, the information about the product will be updated automatically.  In the future we plan to add many more features to this page.  Also, like the category display, if you have some programming expertise you can even customize how the page elements will be displayed.  More info. . .

Site Search and Catalog Search

The Site Search block in EZ-Pagebuilder has been enhanced to allow the catalog to be searched as well as the pages built with EZ-Pagebuilder.  The catalog search will check the stock number, the product title, and the descriptions for the words put in the search box.  Any hits to catalog items will be included in the search results along with any pages you have built.  More info. . .

Linking to Categories and Products More Intuitive using EZ-Browse

Currently, you must find the links to the categories in the “system” folder.  This is not obvious to new people.  Now EZ-Browse will have two modes, one for displaying pages and graphics, and another for displaying categories and products.  You will be able to select which mode you want via a radio button.  If you select catalog, you will see a listing of only the categories and products.  If you have subcategories, you will be able to drill down just like you can now with folders.  More info. . .

Improvements to the Catalog Import and Export

Import and export will come later.  The updates to the catalog import and export will occur a few weeks following the rest of the catalog updates.  During this interim period, you will be able to implement subcategories and volume price discounts, but this information cannot be imported nor exported.  If you export and import your catalog regularly, refrain from using these features until the import and export programs have been updated.

Import Category Information.  With this update, you will be able to import all of the information related to a category not just the category name.  You will also be able to import the category information independently from the product information.

More Direct Import of Files from Spreadsheets.  Once you have exported a text based file from your spreadsheet program you will be able to import the file without any additional modifications to the file.

New Field Mapping Interface.  There is a new look and feel to the field mapping page.  You will be able to see more of your data.  The system will remember this mapping for both the import and export.

Miscellaneous Updates

Volume Discounts.  You can now have volume discounts on products.  For example, the price per unit can be changed depending on the quantity ordered. More info. . .

Link Fields. In EZ-PageBuilder, we have increased the length of the link fields from 100 characters to 255.

Metatags on Category Pages.  The category pages will now have metatags so that they are more search engine friendly.  The metatag will come from the category title and description.

Regional settings. The regional settings will now become part of the other catalog configurations. 

Conversion Process

The conversion to the new updates will not occur all at once.  The updates will happen in phases.  The first phase is scheduled to occur during the first part of November.  The other phases will occur several days later.  The Updates page will let you know which phase we are in.  I have described the phases below.

Phase one.  We will switch the underlying data structure for the catalog configuration.  You should see no effects of this change.

Phase two.  We will switch to the new configure interface.

Phase three.  We will add an additional category and shopping cart layout option.

Phase four.  The new catalog import and export updates will be made effective.