Magento开源电子商务中文社区

目录概念纵览

现在，你已经安装好了自己的商店，也已经设置好开始状态的配置设置，接下来就该设置你的网站的核心：产品分类了。对于任何一个电子商务网站来说，产品目录都是都是核心部分；而通过Magento，你将对它完全掌控。

产品目录的建立和管理

建立你的产品目录的第一步，就是调整好分类选项的系统设置。System > Configuration, and select the Catalog tab.

这将决定你的产品在前台的产品列表页面的呈现形式。

• 每页呈现产品数-通过选项决定每页显示的产品默认数量是9,15或是30个。你的顾客可以自行调整这个选项，或者选择显示所有产品。
• 列表模式
  • Grid Only - 仅以网格-产品仅以网格方式呈现，你的顾客不能选择其他呈现方式。
  • List Only - 仅以列表-产品仅以列表方式呈现，顾客不能选择其他方式。
  • Grid (Default)/List - 网格（默认）/列表-产品默认呈现方式为网格，用户可以调整为列表方式。
  • List (Default)/Grid -列表（默认）/网格-产品默认呈现方式为列表，用户可以调整为网格方式。

• 默认税值（Default Tax Class） -选择添加进该类别的产品是不是应税产品，以及确定税务等级。

通过注册邮件地址，你可以让你的用户得到两种产品提醒。这两种提醒Email有着各自独立的收件人列表和模板，但是使用同一个发信人地址。更多的关于用户邮件的设置请参考第6章：顾客。价格提醒The Price Alert会在每一个产品页生成一个叫做点击订阅价格提醒Sign up for price alert的链接，此连接将使你的顾客在该产品价格产生变动的时候得到邮件通知。除了普通价格区域它对特价产品也同样生效。库存提醒The Stock Alert会在缺货Out of Stock产品页面生成一个提醒链接Sign up to get notified when this product is back in stock。点击这个链接，当缺货产品再次到货的时候，顾客会得到邮件通知。每一件产品都会有个tab列出所有订阅了这些提醒邮件的顾客。本章节随后的产品部分会有更多的相关信息。

• Frequency - 周期-设置你的Magento每天、每周还是每个月检查一次商品状态。
• Start Time -开始时间-设置你希望Magento在当日何时（以24小时模式）检查商品状态。
• Error Email Recipient - 错误邮件提醒地址-输入一个邮件地址来接收如果在检查中发生错误时的提醒报告。
• Error Email Sender -.错误邮件发送者-选择发送错误提醒报告的邮件地址。
• Error Email Template -错误邮件模板-选择错误提醒邮件的样式

本章产品章节将作进一步详尽阐述

更多细节将在第五章：促销、市场和内容页中的用户个性化Customer Personalization部分阐述。

你可以决定在目录价格范围Catalog Price Scope的下拉菜单中选择价格的共享范围。假如你选择Global，那么该价格将在所有的网站共享。如果你选择Website，不同网站上的价格将会不同，而它们在同一网站上不同等呈现页上的价格是一样的。在Magento中，这里的价格会影响到不同的范围中，例如产品价格、基本货币、管理界面中的价格筛选器还有产品目录/购物车价格规则。

调整这些选项将会使你的网站对搜索引擎更加友好。

• Autogenerated site map - 自动生成网站地图- 开启这个选项，在前台页面的页脚位置会出现一个网站地图Site Map链接，它将链接到自动生成的网站地图，该地图包括你所有现有目录的列表。除了自动生成的网站地图，Magento还带有Google Sitemap的植入功能，下面会有更多关于此项的信息。
• Popular search terms -最热门搜索词功能-开启此选项，搜索词语Search Terms的链接将显示在前台页面的页脚位置，链接到一个由搜索词语组成的词语云处。这是一种有利于SEO的技术，因为每一个搜索词语都将会被算作链到你网站的一个链接，而且会被搜索引擎收录。

• 页面标题分隔符Page Title Separator - 在这里输入字符将被放置在页面标题的Meta信息之间，将出现在是浏览器最上面。
• 在产品链接中采用分类路径Use categories path for product URLs - 这取决于URL重写是如何自动生成的。如果你选择是，那么URL重写将包含相应的分类，并且会为各自联合分类分别重写。如果选否，那么URL重写将仅包含产品名，并且只有一个重写，与这个产品联合了多少分类无关。
• 产品URL后缀Product URL Suffix (需要刷新缓存cache refresh needed) - 这也影响了自动生成URL重写。在这里输入的值，比如.html,将会自动添加到为产品重新生成的URL后面。在URL Rewrites这章会有更多的介绍。

如果你希望配置magento集成的google网站地图（GOOGLE sitemap），可以到navigate to System > Configuration 选择 Google Sitemap。

这三种类型的页面的站点地图设置可以分别配置。

• 频率Frequency - 指定google sitemap多久检查一下各种类型页面的更新
• 优先权Priority - 指定当google sitemap更新时，每个页面类型想对其他页面类型的优先权。

• 激活Enabled - Select Yes to Enable Google Sitemap autogeneration and automatic updates.
• 起始时间Start Time - Select the time of day (in 24 hour mode) at which you wish Google Sitemap to update.
• 频率Frequency - Designate whether you want Google Sitemap to update Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. This can differ from the frequency that Google Sitemap actually checks for updates (as defined above).
• 错误信息提醒的email接收者Error Email Recipient - Enter the email address to which emails will be sent in case an error occurs during the automatic update.
• 错误信息email的发送者Error Email Sender - Select the address from which the error notification email will be sent. For more information on how to configure these email addresses, refer to Chapter 6: Customers.
• 错误信息email的模板Error Email Template - Select the template which the error notification email will use. For more information on how to configure these templates, refer to Chapter 6: Customers.

要创建和编辑分类，需要到“Catalog > Manage Categories”这里，页面中间部分可以找到创建一个新的分类的选项。

1. 输入起好的分类的名字，站点前台将以此显示。
2. 从父目录Parent Category的下拉菜单中选择你要创建的产品的目录的位置。默认位置是根目录Root，在这个位置创建的目录都将成为根产品目录Root Catalog级别的目录（尽管你给它起的名字不一定是Root Catalog）。建立这样的多个根目录对于你管理多个网店的不同目录结构是很有好处的。如果你将采用单一网店的话，多个根目录就没有必要了。请跳回第二章来参阅更多关于商店和设置产品根目录的信息。产品根目录级别的目录将成为最高一级的目录出现在前台页面浏览器的最前端。如果你愿意，你可以让你的客户订 阅所有产品根目录的RSS。在第五章的促销、市场和内容页章节中有更多的关于RSS的介绍。如果一个现存的根目录被选为父目录（例如非Root Catalog），新的目录都将被建立在此已选根目录下，并会在前台的下拉菜单的根菜单的下一级呈现。如果新的目录是建立在第二级目录下，则前台呈现会在 鼠标点击二级目录后继续向右扩展，以此类推。 同时，当一个客户浏览你的网站时，目录的结构会显示在浏览器中页面的上方，我们称之为“面包屑 （Creep注：面包屑在英语中的引申意思如下：人们在走迷宫的时候，会沿路洒下面包屑以免迷失路线，沿着地上的面包屑会找到来时的路，在网络中面包屑成 为导航路径轨迹的代名词）”例如如果一个用户点击进入Apparel > Shoes > Mens and clicks Mens，他们将会进入到Mens目录页面。: 而这时候的“面包屑”呈现如下：当前页将以纯文本形式呈现，而其所有上级目录文本则都会连接到相应的目录页， 这是一项动态功能，他会自动根据你的用户浏览目录的路径自动生成面包屑并呈现在页面上。如果你将一个产品与多个目录关联，那么页面上将只呈现你的用户每次 到达该产品时点过的具体目录的面包屑。面包屑功能提高了网站的易用性，使得你的用户可以很容易地追踪自己在你的网站内的浏览路径，而且可以很容易地回到之 前的页面。
3.  输入描述Description，这是个内部功能，不会显现在前台。Enter a Description. This is for internal use only, and will not appear on the front end.
4. 通过点击Browse按钮来选择你本机上的图片，这个图片将显示在前台页面的每一个目录页的目录名和内容之间。当一个目录的图片已经被保存之后，现有的图片的小图标会现在Browse按钮的左边，而右边则会出现“删除图片Delete Image”的按钮。
5. 在页面标题 Page Title, Meta 关键词Meta Keywords和Meta描述 Meta Description中填写Meta信息。
6. 呈现模式Display Mode和CMS区块的意思是使用目录的静态区块。关于此功能的更多信息请参考下面的用目录调用静态区块
7. 选择锚Is Anchor下拉菜单的Yes或者No选项，这个选项有两个效果：
   @加锚的目录将会在该目录页呈现与该目录相关产品的同时，呈现与其所有子目录相关的产品（以及子目录的子目录，子目录的子目录的子目录，以此类推）。
   @加锚的目录会在目录页层级式导航Layered Navigation菜单的左栏呈现所有所有可以进行条件筛选的attributes（意味着所有与该目录和其子目录相关的产品）。层级式导航Layered Navigation将在后面进行详尽的介绍。
8. 在Is Active下拉菜单中选择Yes或者No。选择Yes使该目录在前台显示为可见。如果你选择No，则该目录在前台不能通过导航条进入，其子目录也不能进入，而在管理界面的目录页左栏该目录树将显示为亮亮的灰色。
9. URL Key 会增加一个相关的URL路径，此路径可以被用来替代标准的目标路径Target Path。这是一项对搜索引擎友好的功能，因为它可以使用目录的名字而不是产品的ID号。关于URL Key的更多内容，请参考URL重写章节。如果你把这个区域留作空白不填写的话，它将自动根据产品目录生成相对的名字。在此处输入内容的时候不可以使用空 白。

左边一栏的下拉菜单叫做选择商店浏览方式 Chooese Store View。默认的方式是浏览所有的商店All Store Views。当选择这一选项，你将可以看到每一个目录的“默认”选项；当你选择了某一特定商店的浏览，你将可以看到该商店对其每一目录的浏览方式。在商店 浏览方式里面只有几个选项可以被选。不能够变化而且对所有商店生效的选项叫做“Global”，旁边会有“Global”的标签；而那些可以在不同的商店 中变化的选项叫做“Store View”。注意：与某一个目录相关的产品，通过目录产品标签拜访的，不属于Global。这样你才会可以在每一个商店中选择不同的产品呈现方式

在这个下拉菜单的下面是一个目录树，它列出了所有的现有目录并把它们之间的关系很好的展示出来。例如，如果某一个目录是另一个目录的子目录，它将会被列在 其下方以下级关系表示出来，而上面的数字则表明了与该层目录相关的产品数量。由于产品也是和不同的商店相关的，所以层级目录中的数字也会根据你在下拉菜单 中选择的商店不同而改变。要编辑一个现有目录，在目录树中选中它，其选项会出现在页面的中部，替代了新目录New Category的区域。当编辑一个目录时，父级目录Parent Category的下拉菜单将不会呈现。要把一个目录移动到一个不同的父目录中的话，只要选中并拖动它到目标目录即可。

回到新目录页面，只需要从目录树中选择一个目录点击增加新目录Add New按钮，它将自动指定所选目录为下拉菜单中的父目录。

当一个产品目录创建的时候或者创建之后，便可以向这个目录中添加产品了。只需要选择想添加的目录，然后点击目录产品Category Products标签（在目录页的顶部）即可。你会注意到最左边的一栏列表含有一个可以下拉的菜单。默认的选项为Yes，意味着列表中只会显示以及与该目 录关联的产品；同时，一个新的目录中将永远留有一行空的列表。要搜索产品把它与目录相关联，从下拉菜单中选择No（将只呈现未与该目录相关联的产品）或者 Any（将呈现所有已经关联或者未关联产品），然后点击Search按钮即可；你还可以根据产品的编号ID，产品名称Name，库存编号SKU，价格 Price或者位置Position等条件进行过滤（尽管位置条件只对已经同目录关联的产品生效）。把你希望通目录关联的所有产品前面打上对勾，或者去掉 它们前面的对勾来取消它们与目录的关联。打钩的产品的位置Position域将被激活，你将可以向里面输入一个排序值，它用来控制前台产品呈现的顺序，无 论它在这个表格中的顺序如何。  

通过使用定制Custom Design标签你可以给不同的目录定制不同的外观。此功能可以控制目录页的呈现外观，即包括页面的呈现元素也包括页面的结构。

1. 从Custom Design下拉菜单中选择你想要的外观。Magento本身自带就若干的外观选择，但是你也可以打造你自己外观……如果你把这个下拉菜单留为空白不选，它将自动使用当前的外观设计包的名字Current Pacage Name。通过系统System>设置Configuration点击外观Design标签就可以对其进行编辑。在Current外观设计包名字的位置输入你想要的外观的名字，这个外观将会应用到所有你没有指定其他设计外观的目录中。 
2. 在你的Apply to下拉菜单中选择你的选项：仅在本分类 This category only的意思为该外观设计将仅仅施加于本目录页。本目录及其产品This category and its products意味着该外观将应用于本目录和鱼本目录相关的所有产品。如果某产品被关联到了不同的目录，而每一个目录又有不同的外观设计的话，那么呈现在产品页面上的外观将由用户浏览该产品页面所经过的目录决定。本目录和其子目录This category and its child categories意味着该外观将应用于该目录页，该目录的所有子目录页，子目录的子目录页，以此类推。如果一个子目录的设计外观与其父目录不同，那么……所有All意味着该设计将运用到本目录，其子目录，和其所有产品页中。
3. 在生效开始Active From和生效结束Ative To的字段，你可以选择一个时间让目录自动选择更换设计外观，并且设置一时间点让它自动换回到默认的外观。这个功能在你放假的时候极为方便，你可以提前制作一个假期主题的外观设计，然后让系统自动在你指定的时间换回之前的普通外观，而你自己则可以安然度假了。
4. 页面构架Page Layout的下拉菜单决定的页面的构架结构。无构架更新No Layout Updates是Magento安装之后的默认设置。空Empty将把页面呈现为除了内容（产品或者静态区块）、目录名以及浏览选项（每页展示的数目、以网格还是列表形式展示、以及排序方式的选项）之外的一切元素都不显示。一栏显示1 Column在显示内容、目录名、浏览选项同时也展示页头Header，页脚Footer，搜索区域，以及导航条。栏在左边Column on the left在一栏显示的呈现基础上在左边又增加一栏，默认中的这栏包含了当前选择的目录和层级导航条。栏在右边Column on the right在一栏显示的基础上在右边增加一栏，该栏默认包括购物车状态、愿望单Wishlist，比较的商品列表，投票，以及Newsletter的订阅。三栏显示3 Columns将左右栏都显示出来。
5. 用户定制构架更新 Custom Layout Update 是一个必不可少的静态区块，但是又有几个不同点：
   • 此结构需要使用XML格式而不是HTML格式。
   • 更新需要在页面的底部呈现，在商品的下面；而静态区块的会在产品的上方呈现（如果该静态区块被设置成与产品一起呈现）。
   • 更新只会在激活的时间范围内呈现。

如果你希望用户在点击目录的时候被引导到着陆页（Landing Page）而不是标准的列表页，你可以通过开启目录页的静态区块功能来实现。这个选项功能在整体信息选项General Information标签进行操作。

1. 在呈现模式Display Mode下拉菜单中，选择你想在目录页呈现的内容。仅显示产品Products Only意味着与该目录相关的产品而不显示任何静态区块；仅显示静态区块Static block only意味着将呈现所选择的静态区块而不呈现产品。如果你先让你的用户在看到某个目录下的产品前先被某种内容打动，或者你想在某个目录展示某种特殊的内 容的时候，这个功能就非常方便了（提示：将本页定义为锚目录然后让你的用户在浏览着陆页后使用层级导航来发现他们想找的产品）。静态区块和产品 Static block and products意味着静态区块将被呈现在列出的产品上方。如果你想让不同的几个目录页有着相同的静态区块内容，而其相关的产品又不相同的话，可以利用这 个功能来实现。

1. 在CMS模块的下拉菜单中，选择你想呈现在你的目录页面上的静态区块。它将包括现有的所有静态区块，通过CMS>静态区块可以进行区块的创建。更多的关于建立静态区块的信息请参考第五章：促销，市场和内容页。

    

   属性Attributes

在Magento系统中，属性Attributes就是产品的可以计量或描述的性质，从其颜色、制造商、到其库存号码等等。在Magento中属性共有两 种：个别属性Simple Attribute和系统属性System Attribute。默认情况下，Magento已经包含了所有必须得系统属性，这些系统属性不可删除，而且每一件商品都必须包含这些全部的系统属性。同 时，所有的系统属性设置Attributes Sets也必须包含这些商品（请参考下一章节的系统属性设置内容）。这个类型的属性包含名称、价格以及库存编号SKU，缺少其中的任何一项的商品都将无 效。而个别属性Simple Attribute则是由店主自己设置的属性，它更多地像是针对某些单独的产品设置的属性，而且也不一定要被包含在所有的属性设置中。例如，你想向某一属 性设置中添加属性，该属性为你所出售的衬衫的不同颜色，那么该属性可能就没有必要被包含在你所出售的DVD中，因为对于DVD来说产品颜色不是一个有用属 性。要创建个别属性，可以通过目录Catalog > 属性Attribute > 属性管理Manage Attributes > 点击页面右上角的增加新属性Add New Attribute来完成。

• 属性识别标识Attribute Identifer-这是系统使用的属性的名字，它将出现在属性码Attribute Code栏的属性列表中，当管理属性设置的时候将会用到，它将不会出现在前台页面上。你设置的每一个属性都需要一个独一的属性识别标识，而且此标识不可以 包含空格。
• 范围Scope-这个下拉菜单决定了属性的值在什么范围内被共享，当创建一个新属性时，你将可以看到在每一个属性右侧的范围Scope选项。你可以选择让 任何属性在Global、Website或者在Store View的级别被共享。Global意味着赋予产品的属性值在你整个网站上要保持一致；Website意味着在不同的网站之间商品的属性可以不同，但在同 一个网站内不同的Store View下不能有所区别。Store View意味着施加在某产品的这个属性的阙值可以在所有的网站和商店中不同。例如，如果你在创建一个叫做颜色Color的属性，在Store View Scope的范围内，你将可以在一个商店中将其定义为绿色，而在另一个商店中将其定义为蓝色。
• 店主目录输入形式Catalog Input Type for Store Owner - 它描述了属性中存储的数据的种类。此处的设置将决定这一属性将通过什么样的数据拜访形式生效。例如，产品描述Description的属性需要有文本的输 入框，以便让你将产品的描述性文字手动填写进去；而对于颜色Color的属性则需要使用下拉菜单来对商品进行颜色的选择（就是你在Manage Label/Options的标签选项输入进去的属性）。
• 默认值Default Value - 如果你选择输入一个默认值，每一个在此属性下创建的新产品都将自动被赋予你所输入的这个默认值，但是你可以随时修改这个值。在你将多选Multipal Select，下拉Dropdown或者媒体图像Media Image作为你的输入类型的时候这个选项不会出现。你可以在管理标签Manage Label/选项Options里面设置默认值。
• 唯一值Unique Value - 如果你将一个属性定义为唯一值Unique Value，那么这个属性在每一个商品上都要不同。例如如果颜色Color被定义成唯一值，那只有一件产品可以是绿色，一件是蓝色，以此类推。
• 值提取Values Required - 如果你需要提取阙值，你必须在这个属性那个下为你创建的每一个产品选择一个值。如果这个值为空那么这个产品将不能被保存。
• Input Validation for Store Owner - This controls the type of check Magento places on the values entered for this attribute for each product. If you select None, you can enter any type of information as the value for this attribute. If you select Email, for example, Magento will make sure that the value entered for each product resembles an email address. If it does not, you will receive a warning message.
• Apply To - Decide which Product Types will include this attribute. The three Product Types in Magento are Simple, Grouped, and Configurable Products (there is more information on the differences between these Product Types in the Products section later in this chapter). If you select Selected Product Types, a multiple select menu will appear where you can choose to which of the Products Types this attribute will be associated.
• Use To Create Configurable Product - This drop-down will only appear if the Scope is Global and the Input Type is Dropdown. If you select Yes, this attribute will be a Configurable Attribute. When creating a Configurable Product, the next step after selecting the Attribute Set and Product Type is to select the Configurable Attributes for this product. You will see a list of all the existing Configurable Attributes associated to the Attribute Set. If you select the checkbox, this attribute will be a Configurable Attribute for this product. If you leave the checkbox empty, this attribute (while still a Configurable Attribute in your attribute settings) will not be a Configurable Attribute for this product. If an attribute is a Configurable Attribute, this means that the customer will be able to select the value of the attribute from a drop-down in the front-end. It is customer configurable. For more information about Configurable Products, please refer to the Products section later in this chapter. Note: This drop-down is not related to the Apply To menu above. An attribute can be a Configurable Attribute even if it is not applied to Configurable Products. If this is the case, you will be able to select the attribute as a Configurable Product when creating a product, but you will not be able to see this attribute among the product’s other attributes in the New Product page.

• Use in quick search - If you select Yes, Magento will search all the product values for this attribute when your customer uses the search bar in the header. If you select to use Color in the quick search, your customers will be able to type in green or blue and find products that match that color. For more details, see Chapter 5: Promotions, Marketing and Content Pages.
• Use in advanced search - This is very similar to the quick search. However, in the Advanced Search, each attribute will have its own field, rather than there being one search field. If you select Yes, a field will be created for this attribute in the Advanced Search page. For more details, see Chapter 5.

• Comparable on Front-end - If you select Yes, a row will be created for this attribute in the Compare Products pop-up window. For more details, see Chapter 5.
• Use in Layered Navigation - Magento’s Layered Navigation allows your customers to filter down into a category’s products using any attribute that is “filterable” for Layered Navigation. The Layered Navigation menu will display in the left column of your category pages, and will contain all of the attributes which are filterable. Under each attribute will display the various values of that attribute. Clicking one of these values will filter the list of products in that category page so that only products matching that attribute value will display. There are two types of filterable attributes, which you can select from this drop-down: Filterable (with results) and Filterable (no results). This determines which values will display in the Layered Navigation menu. If you select Filterable (with results), only values that correspond to products in that category page will display in the menu (that is, only values that produce “results” when used as a filter). If you select Filterable (no results), all values that you’ve created in the Manage Label / Options tab will list, whether or not they correspond to any particular products in that category page (it includes values that do not produce “results” when used as a filter). If there are no filterable attributes in a particular category page, the Layered Navigation menu will not display. In order to make an attribute filterable, the Input Type must be either Dropdown, Multiple Select, or Price.
• Position - This determines the position of the attribute in the Layered Navigation menu with respect to the other filterable attributes.
• Visible on Catalog Pages on Front-end - This field only appears for Simple Attributes. On the product page in the front-end, there is a section called Additional Information, that displays below the Product Description section. The attribute name and value for all “visible” Simple Attributes will display in this section. If a product does not have any visible Simple Attributes (or if the product does not have any values selected for its Simple Attributes) there will be no Additional Information section on the front-end.

• Manage Titles - In the Admin field, you must enter the name of the attribute as it will appear in the admin. For each Store View, you can specify a different name for this attribute. This is useful if you manage multiple Store Views with different languages. For example, in the Admin field, type Color; in the UK Store View field, type Colour; in the French Store View field, type Couleur. If you leave the field blank for any of the Store Views, the Admin Label will be used.
• Manage Options - This section will only appear if the Input Type is Dropdown or Multiple Select. In order to have a drop-down or multiple select menu in the product page, you must have predetermined values to populate these menus. This is where the values for these menus are predetermined. This works very similar to the Manage Titles section above. For each value you wish to create, click Add Option. You can enter an unlimited number of values. For each value, you must enter a name in the Admin field, and you have the option to enter a different name for each Store view. For example, create two options. For the first option, enter Green in the Admin field; leave the UK Store View field blank, because it uses the same name; enter Vert in the French Store View field. For the second option, enter Blue in the Admin field; leave the UK Store View field blank; enter Bleu in the French Store View field. You will also have the option to select the position and which value(s) is the default. Enter a numerical value in the Position field, and this will determine the sort order of the values in the drop-down/multiple select menu relative to each other. For the Dropdown Input Type, you will have an Is Default radio button with which you can select one value. For the Multiple Select Input Type, you will have an Is Default checkbox with which you can select multiple values.

An Attribute Set is a collection of attributes, customized to fit certain types of products. All Attribute Sets must contain all of Magento’s System Attributes, but you can customize them to include different combinations of Simple Attributes. For example, if you sell several different kinds of T-shirts in your site, you would want to create a “T-shirts” Attribute Set, which includes the Simple Attributes commonly shared by all of your T-shirts. This may include color, size, gender, and brand. Once you have created each of these Simple Attributes (refer back to the previous section for more details), you can associate them to an Attribute Set. A product is then associated to an Attribute Set during product creation, and the Attribute Set’s Simple Attributes will appear in the New Product page so that you can set the various values.

To create an Attribute Set, navigate to Catalog > Attributes > Manage Attribute Sets and click Add New Set in the top right of the page. Before configuring the Attribute Set, you must enter a name and import Attributes from an existing Attribute Set. The Name will not be used anywhere on the front-end, and can be edited at any point. Even if you have not created any Attribute Sets previously, you can select the Default Attribute Set from the Based On drop-down, which comes with Magento by default, from which you will import Attributes. This includes all of the System Attributes, organized into Groups according to their function. The Default attribute can be customized just as any Attribute Set that you create. Once you have created additional Attribute Sets, you can choose any of these from the Based On drop-down, which will import the Simple Attributes and Groups from that Attribute Set, saving you time during the configuration process. When you are finished, click Save Attribute Set. The Attribute Set will be created, and you will be directed to the configuration section.

• Edit Set Name - This field will contain the name that you entered in the previous step. It can be edited at any point during the configuration, or later on by editing the Attribute Set.
• Groups - Groups are like folders which contain attributes. Each Group corresponds to a different tab in the New Product page. This helps organize the attributes by function so that you can edit them in the product page more efficiently. Magento comes with five Groups by default: General, Prices, Meta Information, Images, and Design. These contain the various System Attributes, marked with a red circle on the attribute icon. System Attributes cannot be removed from an Attribute Set, however they can be moved to different Groups. Therefore, you can remove a Group as long as there are no System Attributes within it. The ordering of both the Groups and the attributes can be changed by clicking and dragging it. This affects the order of the tabs and attributes in the product page, respectively. You can also create a new Group, to which you can move System Attributes, or associate Simple Attributes. To do this, click Add New, and enter the name of the Group in the pop-up.

• Unassigned Attributes - This list contains all of the Simple Attributes which you have created. You can associate one of these attribute to your Attribute Set by clicking and dragging this attribute into the desired Group. Once it is associated to this Attribute Set, it will no longer appear in the Unassigned Attributes list. To disassociate an attribute, click and drag it back to the Unassigned Attributes list.

When you are finished, click Save Attribute Set again to save the configurations.

When creating a new product, you must first select the product’s Attribute Set. Navigate to Catalog > Manage Products and click Add Product in the top right of the page.

Selecting the Attribute Set will load all of the corresponding Groups (tabs) and attributes into the product creation page. Note: Once the Attribute Set has been selected, it cannot be changed. You can change the attributes in a product by creating a new product and assigning a different Attribute Set. You can also edit the Attribute Set, and add or remove attributes, however this will affect all products associated to this Attribute Set.

Products

Before you begin to create the products that you will be offering in your webstore, let’s take a moment to explore the different product types that Magento offers, and what these differences mean. In Magento, there are three product types that you can create: Simple, Configurable, and Grouped. Let’s begin with Simple, because this is the foundation for both Configurable and Grouped Products. A Simple product is basically what its name indicates. It is the simplest type of product to sell on your website; one individual product, where the attributes are determined by the store owner. It will have system attributes (as all products require), and can have simple attributes as well. One example of a Simple Product would be a suit jacket. It is presented on your website as a standalone item, and as the store owner, you define that it is black, with three buttons on the front. When your customers arrive at the page for this product, they can see what the color and button count are in the product information section, their only option is whether or not to buy this item.

A Configurable product, however, offers much more customer interaction. Let’s stick with the example of the suit jacket, because, as a Simple Product, is the foundation for a Configurable Product. In addition to this one suit jacket, you start to carry slightly different versions of the same jacket: a navy blue version, as well as one with four buttons on the front (in black and navy). You create three new Simple Products (navy/three buttons, black/four buttons, and navy/four buttons), and if you only use the Simple Product feature, you would have four product pages, one for each combination of color and buttons. Using Configurable Products, however, you can combine all four pages into one, so that your customer is guaranteed find the exact suit jacket they desire, while simultaneously making navigating your site as easy as possible. Once you have created the four Simple suit jackets, you can create a Configurable suit jacket, and associated all four simple products to it. You will not set the color or button count of the Configurable Product when you create it, but rather, your customer will set this when they purchase it. It is a Configurable Product because your customers get to configure the attributes themselves. So, you can choose not to display any of the four Simple Products on you site, but rather only display the one Configurable Product. When your customers arrive at this page, instead of seeing the attributes listed in the product information section, they will see a drop-down for color (with options for black or navy) and a drop-down for button count (with options for three or four). The combination of attributes they choose determine which of the four Simple Products they are actually purchasing. The attributes point to the Simple Product, so that Magento knows which Simple Product to place in the order. The Configurable Product is therefore not a product at all, but rather a feature used to display multiple Simple Products on one product page.

In this sense, a Grouped Product is very similar to a Configurable Product. It is also only a feature used to display multiple Simple Products on one product page. However, it displays them in a different fashion. Let’s again stick with the example of the suit jacket. Forget about the three new versions that you began to carry, and let’s go back to the classic black with three buttons design. Along with this suit jacket, you also sell matching slacks and vest, the venerable three-piece suit. Using Simple Products alone, you would have three separate pages, one for each piece. But you feel that these should be sold together, because they are part of a set. This can be easily accomplished using Grouped Products. Simply create a Grouped Product – maybe you want to call it Three-Piece Suit – and associate all three Simple Products to it. On your website, the page for this Grouped Product will list all three Simple Products, each with its own quantity field. This way, your customers are alerted of the presence of the set, and even encouraged to buy the pieces together, however they still have the option to buy the pieces individually (you can actually force them to buy all three pieces together, but we will get into that later on).

Now that you are ready to start creating products, make sure that you have everything that you need set up. There is one configuration feature that needs addressed. If you haven’t already done so, navigate to System > Configuration and select the Catalog tab. In the Product Options box, select your Default Tax Class. By default Magento comes with one option for this drop-down: Taxable Goods. If you will be selling products on your site which will need to be taxed, select this option. The Tax Class for all new products will automatically be set to Taxable Goods, which will save you the time of having to manually change this option for each new product. You can learn more about setting up the Tax Rates and Tax Rules that apply to the Taxable Goods Tax Class, as well as creating new Tax Classes in Chapter 4: Get Ready for Selling.

In addition to this configuration setting, make sure that you have created Attributes and Attribute Sets, which you can apply to your new products. You cannot change a product’s Attribute Set once the product has been created (although you can add Attributes to the Attribute Set and thereby add them to the product), so make sure that you have the correct Attribute Set set up for your product before creating your product. For more information about Attributes and Attribute Sets, refer back to those sections in this chapter.

1. Navigate to Catalog > Manage Products.
2. In the top right corner, click Add Product.
3. Select an Attribute Set. Select Default if you haven’t created any attribute sets. This will determine what product data you can enter. You can refer back to the previous section for more information about managing Attribute Sets.
4. Select Simple Product.
5. Press Continue.
6. Enter all product information. Once you’ve set up the product, you’ll be taken to the product’s data entry page. The fields here may change depending on your Attribute Set (you may get rid of weight but add megapixels, for example). If you realize that you want to add an attribute to this product before creating it, there is short cut available. Rather than having to go to the attributes page and create an attribute, and then having to go to the Attribute Sets page and add that attribute to the Set, you can simply click Create New Attribute in the product page. This button exists in all five default Groups (tabs) and any Groups which you have created. Note: Not all tabs correspond to Groups. Groups are folders that exist in the Attribute Set. This opens a pop-up window, which is identical to the New Attribute page. When you enter the attribute information and click Save Attribute, the attribute will be created, and automatically associated to the Attribute Set for the product you are editing, into the Group in which you clicked the Create New Attribute button. You will immediately see the new attribute at the bottom of new product page. If you are managing multiple Websites or Store Views, the attribute Scope will appear next to each attribute in the new product page. This can be either [GLOBAL], [WEBSITE], or [STORE VIEW]. This refers to the level at which this attribute is shared. For example, if the attribute Color had a [WEBSITE] Scope, you would be able to set the color of a product to green in one website, and blue in another website. However, within each website, all the different Store Views would have to have the same color. The Scope can be defined for each attribute. You can refer back to the section about Attributes for more information on this configuration.

• Name - The product name as it will appear in the front-end
• Description - The product’s description. It will display in the main section of the product page.
• Short Description - Short description is specific to this design package. This description will display at the top of the product page, and in category listings in List view.
• SKU - The products SKU. Magento uses SKU as a unique identifier for this product, across all stores and websites. SKU is global, meaning if you update the SKU for a product in one store, it will update in all other stores as well.
• Weight - The product’s weight - usually used for shipping calculations
• Set Product as New from/to Date - In these fields, enter the date range in which the product will be promoted as a new product. For more information about this promotion feature, refer to Chapter 5: Promotions, Marketing and Content Pages.
• Status - Two available - Enabled, Disabled. “Enabled” displays normally in the front-end, and “Disabled” doesn’t display in the front-end.
• URL key - The Search Engine Friendly URL Identifier adds a relative URL path which can be entered in place of the standard Target Path. It is Search Engine Friendly because it can use the name of the product instead of the ID#. For more information about URL Keys, refer to the section about URL Rewrites. If you leave this field blank, it will automatically generate with the name of the product upon creation of the product. If you enter a value here manually, you cannot use spaces in this field.
• Visibility - You can decide whether your product will display in the page(s) of its associated category(ies), display when your customer searches for the product, both, or neither. It may be useful to “hide” certain products from your customers if they are associated to a Configurable or Grouped Product, so that the product is only visible through the Configurable or Grouped Product’s page, and not visible separately.
• Allow Gift Message - If you have enabled Product Level Gift Messages in the Configuration page (for more about this, see Chapter 4: Get Ready for Selling), you can allow your customer to enter a gift message for a specific product during checkout by selecting Yes. If you select Use config, it will use the value in the Allow Product Level Gift Messages drop-down in the system configuration. This differs from Order Level Gift Messages because your customers can add a different message for each product that has this feature enable. This is useful if they create one order, but ship to multiple addresses.

• Price - The price of your item as it will display in the front-end. If you have a special or discount, this will be the original price.
• Special Price - You can enter a Special Price for this product. In the front-end, this will appear underneath the original price (referred to as the Regular Price), which will be crossed out. The Special Price will display in red, and be referred to the Special Price. If you wish, you can allow customers to be alerted of new specials via RSS feeds. There is more information about RSS Feeds in Chapter 5: Promotions, Marketing, and Content Pages.
• Special Price From/To Date - You can enter a date range within which the Special price will be active. This price will apply automatically when the From Date arrives and deactivate automatically when the To Date arrives. If you leave this range blank, the Special Price will apply until you remove it.
• Cost - The Cost is for internal purposes and does not require a value.
• Tax Class - This is the Product Tax Class to which this product will be associated. This determines which Tax Rule will be used for this product, and consequently the Tax Rate that will be charged to your customers. For more information about taxes, refer to Chapter 4: Get Ready for Selling.
• Tier Price - Chapter 5 also provides more information about Tier Pricing.

SEO-related Meta Information is controlled from here. Page Title, Meta Keywords and Meta Description can be entered for this product. The Page Title will display in the browser’s title bar when this product is being viewed. Meta Keywords and Description will show in the tag of the product’s HTML source.

By default, Magento requires you to designate three image types: Thumbnail, Small, and Base. These images each correspond to different locations on the front-end where they will display. When first creating a product, you will not have any custom images uploaded. Therefore, all three image types will be set to No image. This means that they will use your global Product Image Placeholders. To configure these, navigate to System > Configuration, click the Catalog tab in the left column, and upload a placeholder image for each image type. To add custom images to a product, click Browse Files and locate the desired image. Do this multiple times until you have selected all your desired images, then click Upload Files. The images will list vertically in the image page. By default, all images uploaded here will display under MORE VIEWS on the front-end. This is located under the main product image, and clicking any of the images displayed here will open a pop-up window with the ability to browse through all the images associated to the product. For each image in the admin, you can add a Label, which will display above the image in the pop-up window. You can add a Sort Order, which will determine the order in which the images are displayed in the MORE VIEWS section and the order in which they are browsed in the pop-up window. You can designate which of these images is associated to which of the three image types by selecting the radio button in the appropriate column (only one image can be the Thumbnail image, only one can be the Small image, and only one can be the Base image). The images will automatically resize to fit the dimensions of each image type. The Base image, however, works a little bit differently. This is the main image that displays prominently on the product page. It will resize to fit the image window, however, if it is larger than the window, your customers will be able to zoom in on the image, and then double-click the image so that it displays the entire image outside of the original image window at the designated zoom level. If you want and image to only associate to one of the three image types, and not display in the MORE VIEWS section, you can check the Exclude checkbox. To remove an image, check the Remove checkbox before saving the changes.

In addition to these features, Magento allows you to add your own custom watermarks to the images in your site, to hamper visitors from making unwanted copies. If you would like to add watermarks, navigate to System > Configuration, and click the Design tab in the left column. For each image type, you can upload a separate image file that will be used as the watermark, define the size of the watermark, and define the position in which it will be displayed relative to your product images.

There is more about this in the Assigning Designs at the product level section below.

Inventory settings can be configured individually per product, however there are also several very important global Inventory configuration settings. Additionally, many of the individual product settings can be set to use the default value (the global setting). Therefore, it is beneficial to discuss the product settings and global settings together. Please refer to the section about Stock Management later in this chapter for more detailed information.

If you’re managing multiple Websites, you can select the Websites to which this product is associated by checking the checkbox next to the Websites from which you want the product to be available. Each Website will display here with all of the associated Stores and Store Views, so that you know exactly which Website you are viewing.

This tab will display the global category tree, which a checkbox next to each category name. Selecting a checkbox will associate this product to that category, and you can select as few or as many associated categories as you wish. For the categories to display on the homepage you must make sure to add the product to a category below the root catalog. If you have not created a new category below the root catalog then do so now.

Each of these tabs contains a product list, from which you can search for and select products in your store which you wish to be related, up-sells or cross-sells of the product being edited. There is more information about these three features later in this chapter.

If you have either or both product alerts enabled, this tab will appear, showing a list of all subscribers to both Price Alerts and Stock Alerts for this product. For each subscriber, both alert lists show the name, email, the date they subscribed to this alert, the time that the most recent notification was sent to them, and the number of times a notification was sent to them. For the Price Alert, this is also one additional column. For each subscriber, it shows the price that the product had at the time they they described. This includes Special Prices. There is more information on how to configure Product Alerts earlier in this chapter.

If you have added any custom Simple Attributes, make sure to configure those as well. These can be scattered throughout the existing tabs, or you can create new tabs in which to put them. It all depends on the configuration of your Attribute Set. In this case, the suit jacket Simple Attributes are in a new tab called Jacket Attributes.

These are all of the tabs which appear when creating a new product. If you press Save And Continue Edit, you will see three new tabs appear in the left column.

You’ll see a list of all reviews that have been added to this product. There is more information about managing Product Reviews in Chapter 9: User-Generated Content.

Shows all tags that this product has been given by users, and the number of times each tag has been used. Chapter 9 also has more information about managing product tags.

A breakdown of individual customers who have tagged this product - the grid shows their first and last name, email, and tag used.

When you have completed all of your edits, press Save. You have now created a Simple Product.

1. By its nature, a configurable product is not useful unless there are simple products which can be associated to it. Therefore, the first step in creating a Configurable Product is to create two or more simple products, containing different attributes, that your customer will be able to configure on the front-end. Once you have created one Simple Product, use the Duplicate Product feature to create the separate products without having to enter every value several times. Once you have created and saved your first product select the Duplicate button on that product’s page. For the duplicated product, change the attribute values which you are going to allow your customers to configure. Only Simple Products will have a Duplicate button. Note: The values of unique attributes (such as SKU) will not duplicate to the duplicated product, and these will need to be entered manually. The duplicated product will be created with a Status of Disabled. If you have forgotten to create all of the Simple Products prior to creating the Configurable Product, you will have the option to create Simple Products during product creation, in the Associated Products tab (more below).
2. To create a configurable product, navigate to Catalog > Manage Products.
3. In the top right corner, click Add Product.
4. Select an Attribute Set. Select Default if you haven’t created any attribute sets. This will determine what product data you can enter. You can refer back to the previous section for more information about managing Attribute Sets.
5. Select Configurable Product.
6. Click Continue.
7. Select Configurable Attributes. For an attribute to be listed here, it must be associated to the attribute set which you selected in step 4, and it must not be a System Attribute. Also, as described in the message on the page (see image above), The Scope must be Global, the Input Type must be Dropdown, and Use To Create Configurable Product must be Yes. If an attribute is selected, it will not be configurable in the admin (as opposed to Simple Products, for which all attributes are configured in the admin). Instead, a drop-down menu will appear on the front-end for this attribute, and the customer will be able to configure it. The options from which your customer will be able to select will depend on which Simple Products are associated to this Configurable Product (more on this below). If an attribute is not selected in this step, it will be configured in the admin just like is done for a Simple Product, and it will be fixed on the front-end. For example, if you were to select Color to be Configurable and Button Count not to be, then you could select the Button Count to be Three in the admin, and associate one Simple Product suit jacket with a Color black and one with a Color navy. On the front-end, the suit jacket Button Count will be set at three, but your customer will be able to select their preferred Color, black or navy, from the drop-down.
8. Press Continue.
9. Enter all product information. This is almost exactly the same process as entering the product information for a simple product. There are, however, three major differences.

When a customer purchases a Configurable Product, they are not actually purchasing this product, but rather one of the associated Simple Products. Therefore, there is no weight for a Configurable Product, because the weight depends on that of each Simple Product individually.

Just like weight, the inventory options for a configurable product depend on those of the individual Simple Products. In the Inventory tab, you can set the configurable product to be In Stock or Out of Stock, but nothing more. If you select In Stock, it will display as In stock on the front-end, but each attribute will only be purchasable if the corresponding simple product is In Stock. If your customer selects an Out of Stock attribute and adds it to the cart, they will receive a message saying “This product is currently out of stock.” If you select Out of Stock, the configurable product will display as Out of Stock on the front-end, and will not be available to add the cart, regardless of the Stock Availability of each Simple Product.

This tab does not exist for Simple Products. At the bottom of the page will be the product list from which you can associate or disassociate Simple Products to the Configurable Product. When first navigating to the page, it will only display currently associated products. Press the Reset Filter button to display all products, associated or not, which belong to the same Attribute Set (a Simple Product must belong to the same Attribute Set as the Configurable Product in order for you to be able to associate it). Select the checkbox of all products you wish to associate. The product list displays certain pertinent information about the Simple Products. To the right of the Inventory column will be a column for each configurable attribute, which you selected in step 7. The value entered for each attribute column will be that product’s Option, which you selected when creating the Simple Product. In order for a Simple Product to display in this list, you must have selected an option for each configurable attribute.

Above the product list will display a list of all configurable attributes. Click and drag the orange arrow next to the attribute name in order to sort the attributes as they will appear on the front-end. The Attribute Name field will be prepopulated with the Label you used when creating the attribute, however it can be changed here so that it displays differently in the front-end. Below each attribute will list all the options that exist for associated products. Each time you associate a new product with a unique option, the option will add to this list. For each option, you can enter a positive or negative Price, which will add or subtract (respectively) from the price of the configurable product, as either a Fixed amount or a Percentage of the Configurable Product price.

If you have not already created all of the Simple Products you wish to associate to this Configurable Product, you will have the option to create Simple Products in this tab. Above the list of configurable attributes is the Create Simple Associated Product section. This contains a button called Create Empty. Clicking this button will generate a pop-up window identical to the New Product page. All of the fields are empty (hence the name of the button), and you will be required to enter values for all configurable attributes (so that this Simple Product can be associated to the Configurable Product). When you click Save, Magento will create a Simple Product, associated to the same Attribute Set as the Configurable product, and Magento will automatically associate the Simple Product to the Configurable Product (you will see this update in the product list at the bottom of the Associated Products tab).

In the front-end, it will look like this:

These are all of the options which appear when creating a new Configurable Product. If you press Save And Continue Edit, you will see two new options in the Associated Products tab (along with the three new tabs in the left column that were mentioned in the Simple Product Section). In the Create Simple Associated Product section, there is a new button called Copy From Configurable. This is similar to the Create Empty button, except that it will prepopulate many of the Simple Product fields with the corresponding fields from the Configurable Product. Many of the fields, however, either must be unique to each product, or are not applicable to the Configurable Product, and must be entered manually. These include SKU, Weight, all configurable attributes, and all Inventory information. Clicking Save will automatically associate the Simple Product to the Configurable Product just as with the Create Empty feature.

The second new option available is Quick simple product creation section. This section includes only some of the attribute fields, all of which are mandatory. In the Name and SKU fields, there is an Autogenerate checkbox. If these are selected, Magento will use the Name and SKU of the Configurable Product to create a new Name and SKU for the Simple Product. It will be in the format [Name/SKU]-[configurable attribute 1]-[configurable attribute 2] and so on. When you click Quick Create, the Simple Product will be created, with all of the attribute information not listed in this section copied from the Configurable Product, and it will automatically associate to the Configurable Product just as with the Create Empty feature.

When you have completed all of your edits, press Save. You have now created a Configurable Product.

1. Like a configurable product, a Grouped Product is not useful unless there are simple products which can be associated to it. Therefore, the first step in creating a Grouped Product is to create two or more simple products that can be purchased together as part of the group.
2. To create a Grouped Product, navigate to Catalog > Manage Products.
3. In the top right corner, click Add Product.
4. Select an Attribute Set. Select Default if you haven’t created any attribute sets. This will determine what product data you can enter. You can refer back to the previous section for more information about managing Attribute Sets.
5. Select Grouped Product.
6. Press Continue.
7. Enter all product information. This is similar to entering the product information for a Simple Product, with four major differences.

This is the same process as a Configurable Product. When a customer purchases a Grouped Product, they are not actually purchasing this product, but rather one of the associated Simple Products. Therefore, there is no weight for a Grouped Product, because the weight depends on that of each Simple Product individually.

Unlike Simple or Configurable Products, Grouped Products do not have their own prices. Despite being displayed on the same page, each Simple Product adds to the cart as a separate item. There are no prices that are applied to the items as a group. Therefore, there is no Prices tab for Grouped Products. If you want to give a discount when your customer purchases multiple products within a Grouped Product, you can set up a Shopping Cart Price Rule for this. There is more information about Shopping Cart Price Rules in Chapter 5: Promotions, Marketing and Content Pages.

Just like Weight, the stock of the individual Simple Products determine the stock of the Grouped Product. The Stock Availability works like that of a Configurable Product. If you select In Stock, it will display as In Stock on the front-end, but each Simple Product will only be purchasable if that Simple Product is In Stock. If your customer attempts to add one or more of the Out of Stock products to their cart, they will receive a message saying “This product is currently out of stock.” If you select Out of Stock, the Grouped Product will display as Out of Stock on the front-end, and will not be available to add the cart, regardless of the Stock Availability of each Simple Product.

This is much simpler than associating products to a Configurable Product. Grouped Products do not need to be in the same attribute set as their associated products, so there is no attribute functionality tied in with creating Grouped Products. You can associate any product to a Grouped Product in this tab by checking it. When checked, two fields unlock: Default Qty and Position.

Control the sort order of the items in the Position field. As with all sort orders in Magento, the product with the lowest number will have the highest position on the page. You can also enter a Default Quantity which will be a pre-populated value in the front-end quantity box.

When you have completed all of your edits, press Save. You have now created a Grouped Product.

There are three types of product relations in Magento: Related Products, Up-sells and Cross-sells. Shown on a product’s page, Related Products are meant to be purchased in addition to the item the customer is viewing. They will appear in a Related Products menu at the top of the right column. Simple Products will have checkboxes, by which the customer can add them to their Shopping Cart. When they add the main product to their cart, all checked Related Products will be added as well.

Configurable and Grouped Products will not contain this checkbox, because the user must specify the settings of these products before adding them to the cart. Also shown on a product’s page, Up-sells are items that customers would ideally buy instead of the product they’re viewing. These may be better quality, produce a higher profit-margin, be more popular, etc. They will appear in a section labeled You may also be interested in the following product(s), which displays beneath the Additional Information section. The Up-sells will display with a link to that product’s page, navigating the customer away from the product which they are currently viewing.

Shown in the shopping cart, Cross-sells act a bit like impulse buys, such as magazines and candy at the cash register in grocery stores. Usually, they are items that a customer who is buying the product in question might enjoy. If there are multiple items in the Shopping Cart, each with their own Cross-sells, the Cross-sells will rotate each time the Shopping Cart is refreshed.

Great For:

• Moving Stock
• Increasing the Sales of Accessory and High-End Items

Related Products, Up-sells, and Cross-Sells are all associated to a product in the same manner. Navigate to Catalog > Manage Products. Locate the product to which you wish to associate the Related Product/Up-Sell/Cross-sell, and click Edit. Click on the Related Products/Up-Sells/Cross-sells tab in the left column.

1. From the products grid that appears, check any products to mark as Related Products/Up-Sells/Cross-sells. Click Reset Filter to see all products.
2. Once a product has been checked, the Position field opens up. This determines the sort order of the Related Products/Up-Sells/Cross-sells in the product’s page/Shopping Cart. Note: For Cross-sells, the Position only applies if there is one item in the cart. When there are multiple items, the Cross-sells will rotate, and not adhere to the Position.
3. Click Save.

One property of Magento attributes is the ability to make them Comparable on Front-end. If at least one attribute is in a product is Comparable on Front-end, customers will be able to add this product to their Compare Products menu. Both System and Simple Attributes can be set to Comparable. Once added to the Compare Products menu, customers will be able to view the products side by side and make an educated shopping decision. This is very powerful; if customers desire, they can compare a chair, a television, and a pair of running shoes. These types of products may not have very many attributes in common (probably only attributes such as SKU, Price, and Product Name), but that is the power of this feature: to allow your customers to customize their shopping experience. There is more information about Product Comparisons in Chapter 5: Promotions, Marketing and Content Pages.

Great For

• Increasing Customer Convenience
• Stores with a Variety of Products
• Increasing Conversions

You can control which data shows in Product Comparisons. Each product attribute has a flag called Comparable on Front-end, which can be set to Yes or No. To choose this:

1. Navigate to Catalog > Attributes > Manage Attributes.
2. In the grid, find the attribute you want to edit. Hint: Change the last column Comparable to Yes or No to see all attributes that can appear in the product comparison chart.
3. Click the attribute to edit it.
4. Change the drop-down Comparable on Front-end to Yes or No.
5. Click Save Attribute.

A customer browsing your site needs to find the products that interest them as fast as possible. To prevent them from frustrating experience of encountering a category containing 60 products spread across multiple pages, give them the option to filter products based on their interests. With layered navigation, customers can search by any attribute that you have designated as filterable, more easily showing customers what they want and raising conversions.

Great For

• Stores with a variety of products
• Giving customers a more individualized experience
• Increasing Conversions

The Layered Navigation menu actually consists of two parts: Category filters and Attribute filters.

• Category navigation - If a category contains child categories, the child categories will automatically display in the Layered Navigation menu. Each child category will display as a link, along with the number of products associated to that category in parentheses. Only the direct child categories will display. Child of child categories will not display.
• Attribute filters - In order for the attribute filter to display in the Layered Navigation menu, a category must be an Anchor category (refer back to the section about categories). For Anchored categories, all filterable attributes will have a section in the Layered Navigation menu, with a link for each value. Clicking on any of these values will filter the results on the category page to display only those products which match the selected value (refer back to the section about attributes for more information about filterable attributes). There will be one link for each existing value. There is one exception to this, however. Price, which is a System Attribute, is by default configured to be a filterable attribute (this can, of course, be changed). Rather than having a separate link for every single price, the price filter values will display as various price ranges. Magento will automatically set the size of the ranges based on the prices of the products in that category (each range will be of equal size), and there will be a maximum of ten ranges.

You can control the look of each product page individually in from the Design tab in the product page. It is very similar to the individual design options for categories. If your product page has a design separate from the category page to which it is associated, then the product level design will supersede the category level design.

• Select the design you want from the Custom Design drop-down. Magento comes with several different design options out of the box. If you leave this drop-down blank, it will automatically use the Current package name design. This can be edited by navigating to System > Configuration and clicking the Design tab. Enter the name of the design you want in the Current package name field, and this design will apply to all products for which you do not specify a different design.
• With the Active From and Active To fields, you can select a time frame in which the category will automatically switch to a design, and then switch back to the blank option when the time frame ends. This is perfect for the holidays, so that you can create a holiday design for your pages, and then have your site automatically switch back to the normal design whenever you want, without having to remember to do it yourself.
• The Custom Layout Update is essentially a static block, with a few differences.
  • Rather than HTML, the structure must be in XML format.
  • The Update will display on the product page, below the product information, whereas a static block will only display on a category page.
  • The Update will display on the page only during the dates specified in the Active date range.
    

    Stock Management

Your ability to manage the details of your products’ inventory is more flexible than ever with Magento’s Inventory Management System. You will have the ability to control not only the quantity and availability, but also the backorder capabilities and the maximum and minimum quantities the consumer is allowed to purchase. Additionally, you can create the settings system-wide, or customize them individually for each product.

1. Navigate to System > Configuration, and click on the Inventory tab in the left column.

1. Enter Minimum Qty Allowed in Shopping Cart. This value requires the customer to purchase a minimum amount of each product in an order.
2. Enter Notify for Quantity Below. When a stock of any product goes below this level, Magento will automatically notify you via RSS Feed. This ability works in conjunction with the Decrease Stock When Order is Placed drop-down below, because Magento cannot notify you of a low stock unless you also enable it to keep track of stock reduction. In this field, enter the quantity level at which Magento will send a notification. In order to set up the RSS feed, navigate to Catalog > Manage Products, and click the Notify Low Stock RSS link at the top of the page. You will be prompted to enter your User Name and Password. These are the same that you use to access the Magento admin panel. You will be redirected to the RSS page, where you can select which reader you would like to use for receiving this feed.
3. Enter Minimum Qty for Items’ Status to be In Stock. This value will determine at which quantity the availability of the item will switch from In Stock to Out of Stock. If you set this value to 20, you will always guarantee that you have at least 20 items in stock.
4. Enter Maximum Qty Allowed in Shopping Cart. This value limits the amount of each product the customer is allowed to purchase in a single order.
5. Select Decrease Stock When Order is Placed status.
   • If you select Yes, the product’s quantity will automatically decrease when an order is placed.
   • If you select No, the product’s quantity will not automatically decrease, and it can only be edited manually.
6. Select Backorders status.
   • If you select No Backorders, the customer will not be allowed to purchase more quantity than is available.
   • If you select Allow Qty Below 0, the customer will be allowed to purchase more quantity than is available, but they will not be notified that some of the quantity has been put on backorder.
   • If you select Allow Qty Below 0 and Notify Customer, the customer will be allowed to purchase more quantity than is available, and they will be notified when they are adding the item to the cart that the unavailable quantity has been put on backorder.
7. Click Save. You have now created the inventory characteristic for all products in your system.

To customize the inventory settings for an individual product, whether creating a new product or editing an existing product, navigate to Catalog > Manage Products, and click the Inventory tab in the left column of the product’s page. Note: These settings only exist for Simple Products. Because Configurable and Grouped Products are essentially just a way to display Simple Products, the inventory settings of the Configurable and Grouped Products are completely dependent upon those of the associated Simple Products. Therefore, for Configurable and Grouped Products, only the Stock Availability will be present in the Inventory tab, because this is actually a display setting and not related to the actual inventory of the product.

1. Enter Qty, or quantity. This is a required field.
2. Enter Minimum Qty for Items’ Status to be In Stock or click the Use Config Settings checkbox to use the value you input in the Inventory System Configuration. Clicking the checkbox will deactivate the text field and it will not be editable.
3. Enter Minimum Qty Allowed in Shopping Cart or click the checkbox.
4. Enter Maximum Qty Allowed in Shopping Cart or click the checkbox.
5. Select Qty Uses Decimals status.
   • If you select Yes, the customer can enter a fraction of a whole number into the quantity field in the shopping cart. This is beneficial if items are being sold in alternative units such as weight or length.
   • If you select No, the customer can only purchase quantities in whole numbers.
6. Select Backorders status, or click the checkbox.
7. Select Notify for Quantity Below, or click the checkbox.
8. Select Stock Availability. You can designate the product to be Out of Stock even if you have stock remaining for the product, and it will display as such in the front-end. This means that your customers will not be able to add the product to their carts, but they can add it to their wishlists. If there is no stock remaining for the product, you do not need to manually switch this to Out of Stock. Magento will automatically update the front-end accordingly, unless you allow for Backorders, in which case the product will display normally and customers will still be able to add quantity to their carts.
9. Click Save. You have now customized the inventory characteristics for this product.
   

   Batch Updates

Products can be imported to and exported from the admin using the Magento DataFlow engine. However, in this section we will concentrate on making batch updates to products in the admin. This feature saves you time by allowing you to change the attributes of multiple products at the same time. There is similar functionality in several other places in the Magento admin, from customers to Orders. Each will be discussed in the appropriate chapter.

1. In the admin, navigate to Catalog > Manage Products.
2. Select the products to which you would like to make updates. At the top of the products list, you have the option to Select All products or Select Visible products (products currently displaying on the page). Or, you can simply check the checkboxes of each product to which you wish to make updates individually. You can see the number of items selected at the top of the products list, and it will update each time a checkbox is checked or unchecked.
3. When you have all the desired products selected, chose your preferred Action from the drop-down menu, also at the top of the products list.
   • Delete - This will delete the selected products from your catalog when you press Submit.
   • Change Status - Selecting this will produce a Status drop-down menu to the right, where you can choose to either Enable or Disable the selected products. The status will change when you press Submit.
   • Update attributes - When you press Submit, you will be redirected to the Update attributes page. The Attributes tab displays many of the system attributes from the General, Prices, Meta Information, Images, and Design tabs in a product page. It also includes the simple attributes that are shared by all of the items selected. You will not have the option to edit SKU or URL Key, or any other attribute that must be unique per product. The Inventory tab displays the same fields that are displayed in the Inventory tab for an individual product. The Websites tab is also very similar to that of an individual product, however there will be one section for adding the products to the Websites, and once section for removing the products from the Websites. In the top left corner is the Choose Store View drop-down, so that you can choose to make your updates specific to a certain Store View. As always, Global and Website level attributes cannot differ between Store Views. At first, all the of the attribute fields are inactive, and you must click the Change checkbox next to each field in order to activate it and make an edit. The fields will all be blank, even if all the selected products share the same value for a given attribute. This can be useful for many scenarios. For example, if you have several products with the same special price, ending in one week, you can choose to extend the Special Price To Date for all the products at one time. Simply check the checkbox for this field, enter the new date on which you wish the special to end, and click Save. All of the products will update and you will be redirected back to the products list. Tip: Be careful to only check the attributes which you wish you change. If you select an attribute and leave it blank, it will erase the existing value of the attribute when you save.
     

     URL Rewrites

The URL Rewrite Management page is a SEF tool that you can apply to the URLs of your category and product pages. Rather than having all your URLs in the default format, which uses category and product IDs, you can use this feature to create a more descriptive URL, making it easier for search engines to find your pages. Whenever a new category or product is created, a new entry will be added to this list, one for each existing store view.

Before using this feature, there are two important settings that you must configure. Navigate to System > Configuration and select the Web tab from the left column.

• Add Store Code to Urls - This determines whether the store ID (in addition to the category ID or product ID) will be used in the URLs for your site. If you are managing multiple stores, this will create a separate URL rewrite for each store.
• Use Web Server Rewrites - This controls whether Magento will automatically generate URL rewrites. To access the list of existing rewrites, this must be set to Yes.

Now you are ready to view the list of URL rewrites. To access this list, navigate to Catalog > Manage Url Rewrites in the admin. Click Edit next to one of the rewrites and you will be able to change some of the information.

• Type - For automatically created rewrites, this value will be System. For manually created rewrites, this value will be Custom. Neither can be changed.
• Store - The name of the store view to which the rewrite directs. Because a separate rewrite is created for each existing store view, this too can not be changed.
• ID Path - Will display in the format of {Type}/{ID#}. If the Type is System, it will further be specified as either category or product. For products, there may also be an additional /{associated category ID#} following the standard format. This can not be changed.
• Target Path - This is the actual URL that points to the page. It is a relative path, automatically generated in a certain format, and can not be changed.
• Request Path - This is the SEF URL that you can edit. It will be automatically generated with the name that you specified for the category or product when it was created. If it is a product, it may also include the associated category, or a suffix (such as .html), if you have enabled those features in the Catalog Configuration (refer back to the beginning of this chapter for more information about this). However, you can edit this to whatever format you desire. This is the same field that you see in an individual product or category page called URL key. To find this field, navigate to Catalog > Manage Products/Categories and edit the desired product/category. Whether you choose to edit the value in the URL Rewrite Management page, or the individual product/category page, it makes no difference. Note: The Request Path must be unique for each rewrite.
• Redirect - If you select Yes, the URL will switch to the Target Path when the Request Path is entered in the address bar. If you select No, the URL will remain in the format of the Request Path.
• Description - This is for internal purposes.

When you have completed making edits, click Save Url.