Administrator area - Catalog |
- Introduction
- Main Menu > Catalog > Categories/Products
- Main Menu > Catalog > Products Options
- Main Menu > Catalog > Products Options Values
- Main Menu > Catalog > Manufacturers
- Main Menu > Catalog > Reviews
- Main Menu > Catalog > Specials
- Main Menu > Catalog > Products Expected
Introduction
This document explains how to work with a product catalog in the
administrative section of Ext-cart.
You may access the
tools by selecting Menu > Catalog.
Below is the description of each item in the Catalog menu.
Main Menu > Catalog > Categories/Products
This is the main item in the Catalog menu. This is where you can create the complete list of products.
For easier navigation through the product offerings, all stock (database) is broken into categories. You may create an unlimited number of categories and nested subcategories. Information on how to manage products and categories is provided below.
Creating a category
To create a new product category, click “New category” button and fill out the appropriate boxes in the pop-up dialog. You should enter the category name in all languages specified in the Localization – Languages section. Optionally, you may upload an icon for this category and specify a sequential number to be used for sorting purposes.
If you leave the «Sort Order» box empty, the new category will be automatically assigned index «0». Categories will be sorted in the ascending «Sort Order». Categories with the same «Sort Order» index will be sorted alphabetically.
To upload a desired icon, click “Browse…” and select the image file.
Then click “Save” to save the category. The newly added category will appear in the Categories/Products section.

Adding a product
Prior to adding a new product, select an appropriate
category. If such category is unavailable, you may create
it (see the “Creating a category” section).
To
access the category folder, click the yellow folder icon in
the selected category line. This will display a list of
products in this category, and nested subcategories, if
any.
To add a new product, click “New product” and fill out the boxes in the pop-up “New Product" dialog in "Category" window.
You may use the following fields for each product:
- Products Status (In Stock/Out of Stock)
- Date Available
- Products Manufacturer
- Products Name
- Tax Class
- Products Price (Net)
- Products Price (Gross)
- Products Description
- Products Quantity
- Products Model
- Products Image
- Products URL
- Products Weight
After you have entered all product details, click Preview. You will see a product description page. Click “Back” to edit, or click “Insert”to save.
Navigation through categories and products
You may navigate through categories and products using the following control elements:
- Folder icon
: opens the category. - Product icon
: opens the detailed description of a
product. - Icon
: clicking on the icon or clicking in any
other place in the line will make this line active.
This will display an information panel on the right
side, providing a short description of
product/category, which will make it possible to edit
this product or category. - Navigation icons at the top of the list: “Root” icon
and
“Up” icon
. Clicking the “Root” icon will take you
to the root catalog of the list, while clicking the
“Up” icon will take you to a higher level. - Fast access panel (Go To) in the upper right corner of
the screen. Click the "Down Arrow" icon
and select
a desired category from the pull-down list. - Search panel. Enter the keywords and press <Enter> or click the “Search” button.

Managing categories
You may edit, delete or move any category to some other part of the catalog.
To perform a category management task, you need to make the selected category active by clicking on the category name. This will display an information panel on the right side, providing a short description of the category, as well as “Edit”, “Delete”, and “Move” buttons. Using the “Edit” button, you may change the category name, or change the icon associated with this category. Using the “Delete” button, you may delete the category. To move the category, use the “Move” button.

Managing products
You may edit, delete, move or copy an existing product to another category.
Prior to performing any product management tasks, you need
to make the product active. For this purpose, click on the
icon
in the line for the selected product. The icon will change
to the
icon, and an information panel with short
description of the product will be displayed on the right
side of the screen. The same panel will have control
buttons for managing the selected product: “Edit”,
“Delete”, “Move”, “Copy To”.
Under the information panel you will see the “Product options” panel listing all available product options. You may edit or delete any option by clicking “Edit” or “Delete” buttons in the line for the relevant option, respectively.

Below is the “New attribute” dialog. Using this dialog, you may add a new option to the selected product.
Besides, you may temporarily lock a product. In this case all product details will be kept, but the product will not be displayed in the user section of the website. To lock the product, click the red point in the “Status” column. To unlock the product, click the green point.
Main Menu > Catalog > Products Options
Using this tool, you can create options (option names only), which are used for product description purposes.
To create a new product option, please use the "New option" dialog. You may edit or delete previously created options. A newly created option gets a unique identifier (ID).
You may sort the list of options by ID or by Option Name. For this purpose, please click on the appropriate column heading.
Main Menu > Catalog > Products Options Values
Here you can define a list of values, which each of the options specified in “Product Options” section can take.
Main Menu > Catalog > Manufacturers
List of product manufacturers included in the catalog.
To add a new manufacturer into the database, use the «New Manufacturer» dialog.
Manufacturer-related information may include a link to the Internet resource and logo. To add the logo, click "Browse" and select the image file on your local system. When you click “Save”, the logo will be uploaded onto the website.
Main Menu > Catalog > Reviews
Registered customers may leave their comments (reviews) about products. In the user version of the website, such comments will be displayed when you are viewing the detailed information about a product. The link to the most recent review is also available in the «Reviews» section of the page.
User-created review may be edited by the administrator: he/she may modify the text or product rating. Besides, you can delete a particular review altogether.
To make the analysis of reviews easier, you may sort the list by product name, rating, date or author. For this purpose, you need to click on the appropriate column. The repeat click will reverse the sorting order (ascending or descending).
Main Menu > Catalog > Specials
Products listed in this category will be randomly displayed in the user portion of the website, in the “Specials” section.
To add a product to this section, please use the “New specials”
dialog.
You may select a product from the pull-down
'Product' list. It should have been previously entered into the
catalog using the Catalog - Categories/Products tool.
When adding a product, you will specify its special price and the expiry date for this special offer.
You may define special prices both in absolute values and as a
percentage of the list price.
To set the price as a
percentage, you need to put the percent character after the
value (e.g. 10%). To set the price as an absolute value, you
need to enter a value with a decimal floating point (e.g.
25.99).
You may exclude any existing product from the “Specials”
category at any time.
You can also edit product
options, or change «Special Price» and «Expiry Date:»
Main Menu > Catalog > Products Expected
This section displays products that are currently unavailable, but will be available in the future. In the user portion of the website such products will be displayed in the «Upcoming Products» section.
Initially, product availability date may be set using the Catalog - Categories/Products tool. You may only change the availability date for products in this category.



