Key ideas

Catalogues, catalogue products, variants, Product IDs, brand mode and statuses.

Overview

The key ideas are the terms every catalogue screen uses: catalogues, products, variants, Product IDs, mapping and statuses.

Term	Meaning
Catalogue	A collection of products, usually one supplier, brand or season.
Catalogue product	One product in a catalogue: a simple product, or a parent with its variants.
Product ID	Your own reference for the product, such as TS01. It must be unique inside the catalogue and is how imports recognise the product again.
Variant	One real version of a product, such as Black / Medium.
Variation axis	What variants differ by, such as Size or Colour.
Master link	The Master Product a catalogue product was exported to.
Catalogue mapping	Which catalogue field fills which Master Product attribute.

Each catalogue has a brand mode, chosen when you create it:

Mode	Use it when
Single brand	Every product is one brand. The default brand fills in automatically, and a product with a different brand is flagged.
Mixed brands	Products come from several brands. Each product keeps its own brand.

Tip O2M never guesses a brand from the catalogue's name. Name catalogues however suits your team.

Each catalogue card counts its products by status, so you can see at a glance how much is left to do.

Status	Meaning	What to do
Draft	Saved, still being prepared.	Keep adding details.
Need correction	Something required is missing or conflicting, such as a title, image, category or mapping.	Open the product and fix what is flagged.
Ready	Complete and can be exported.	Export to Master Products.
Linked	Already exported to a Master Product.	Manage it from Master Products; review differences when the catalogue changes.