Understanding The Catalog

We've spent years designing, organizing, tweaking, and optimizing the catalog with the ultimate goal of building the most powerful catalog available in our industry. Before you start working with the catalog, it is helpful to understand how it is organized.

Catalog Organization

The catalog is organized into a hierarchy of brands, categories, product groups, items, and fitments (collectively we call these entities).

  • Every item has one or more fitments and belongs to one product group.
  • Every product group belongs to a brand and is assigned to a category.
  • Every fitment has a make (e.g. BMW, Nissan, Porsche) and a model (e.g. M3, 350Z, 911).

Each of these entities has a number of simple attributes such as Name, and Weight and more complex attributes such as Images, and Specifications.

As you move down the heirarchy the more deeply nested entities inherit the attributes of their parents. For example, an item will inherit the images attached to its product group. The benefit is you only need to upload the image once, not for every single item as with most shopping carts.

The more deeply nested entities can also add to or override attributes set within their parent. For instance, images attached to an item will be shown in addition to images attached to that item's product group. Attributes can also be overidden: an item's weight will be used in place of the product group's weight if it is provided – if not, the product group's weight will be used.

Catalog Entities

Please refer to the following for a list of the attributes associated with each catalog entity.

Categories

  • Categories form the top of the catalog heirarchy.
  • Each product group is assigned to a category.
  • Categories are nested one-level-deep in a parent/child relationship.
    • Parent categories include: Brakes, Cooling, Drivetrain, Engine, etc.
    • Child categoes for Brakes include: Big Brake Kits, Brake Calipers, Brake Pads, Brake Rotors, Stainless Brake Lines, etc.
  • You may create your own parent categories or add child categories to the existing parent categories.

Brands

  • Brands are also at the top of the catalog heirarchy.
  • Each product group is assigned to a brand.
  • Each brand (usually) has multiple product groups.
  • You cannot add products to or edit brands maintained by RPMWare.
  • You may create your own Brand and add it to your website.
  • Brands without groups will not be shown on your website.

Product Groups

  • Product groups represent the a brand's products: HKS Adjustable Cam Gears, HKS Carbon-Ti Exhaust, HKS Chrono DB Meters, etc.
  • Each product group is assigned to a brand and a category.
  • Each product group (usually) has many items.
  • The Weight and Is Oversized? set on a product group will apply to all items within that group unless the attribute is overridden by the item.
  • Product groups without items will not be shown on your website.
  • You cannot add product groups to brands maintained by RPMWare.

Items

  • Items are the actual products available from a brand: 31006-BM001, 1301-N01US, 22002-AN002, etc.
  • Each item is assigned to a product group.
  • Each item must have a unique part number (within the brand).
  • Each item (usually) has pricing (MSRP, Jobber, MAP or any combination of these). Pricing in RPMWare reflects what is provided to us by the brand. Items without a price will show on the website as contact us for pricing.
  • If the item has a Weight or Is Oversized? set it will override the value set by the product group.
  • Notes can be added to an item.
    • Notes provide additional information about the item.
    • Notes are similar to specifications (below), but are typically used for narrative where specifications are used for name: value pairs.
    • Notes pertaining to specific fitment (below) should be added to the fitment, not the item.
  • An item marked as This is a Universal Part does not have specific fitment information or can fit all vehicles (i.e. gauges, turbo timers, replacement filters).
  • Non-universal items without fitments will not be shown on your website.

Specifications

  • Each item may have zero, one, or many specifications.
  • Specifications are ‘Name: Value’ pairs that provide specific information that differentiates the item within a product group.
  • Specifications provide very specific information about the item:
    • Tip Style: HP
    • Piping: 75mm
    • Color: Purple
    • Flange: V-Band

Fitments

  • Each item may have zero, one, or many fitments. Note: non-universal items without fitments will not be shown on your website.
  • Fitments are used to define the vehicle(s) a part will fit.
  • The following attributes are required:
    • Start Year
    • End Year
    • Make
    • Model
  • Notes may be added to specify attributes not provided in the dropdown menus (e.g. 2-Door, 4 Wheel Drive, etc.)
  • When creating fitments use as few attributes as possible to properly describe the vehcile. For instance, if a part fits 1994-2001 Acura Integra, do not select all the available SubModels, Cyls, Lits, etc. Leave those set to ALL.

Images

  • Images can be attached to brands, product groups, and items.
  • Images added to product groups will also be shown on the item detail page.
  • Images added to items will be shown before the product group images on the item detail page.
Category
Product Catalog