Manufacturers
To manage manufacturers go to Catalog → Manufacturers.
Search for a manufacturer in the Search panel by entering the Manufacturer name or a part of the name, by the Published property or among all the manufacturers of a certain Store (if more than one store enabled).
Note
To remove manufacturers from the list, select the items to be deleted and click the Delete (selected) button. You can export the manufacturers to an external file for backup purposes, by clicking the Export button. After clicking the Export button you will see the dropdown menu enabling you to Export to XML or Export to Excel.
Adding a new manufacturer
To add a new manufacturer click the Add new button in the top of the page. The Add a new manufacturer window will be displayed.
This page is available in two modes: advanced and basic. Switch to the basic mode which displays the only main fields or use the advanced mode displaying all the available fields.
Manufacturer info
In the Manufacturer info panel, define the following details:
- Name - this is the name of the manufacturer displayed in the catalog.
- Description - a description of the manufacturer. Use the editor for layout and fonts.
- Picture - an image representing the manufacturer. Upload the image from your device.
Display
In the Display panel, define the following details:
Select the Published checkbox, to enable the manufacturer to be visible in the public store.
Select the Allow customers to select page size checkbox, to enable customers to select a page size, i.e. the number of products displayed on the manufacturer details page. The page size can be selected by customers from the page sizes list entered by the store owner in the Page size options field.
- In the previous checkbox is ticked the Page size options is displayed. Enter a comma separated list of page size options (e.g. 10, 5, 15, 20). First option is the default page size if none are selected.
The Page size option is displayed if the Allow customers to select page size checkbox is unticked. It sets the page size for products in this manufacturer e.g. '4' products per page.
Tip
For example, when you add seven products to a manufacturer and you set its page size to three. Three products per page will be displayed on this manufacturer details page in the public store, and the total amount of pages will be three.
Price ranges - allow defining ranges of price by which customers can filter the manufacturers. Enter a price range in the currency that you defined in the Currencies window. Separate the ranges by a semicolon, for example, 0-999; 1000-1200; 1201 - (1201 means 1201 and over).
Display Order - the order number for displaying the manufacturer. This display number is used to sort manufacturers in the public store (ascending). The manufacturer with the display order 1 will be placed at the top of the list.
The Manufacturer template filed is visible if you have any custom manufacturer templates installed on the System → Templates page. This template defines how this manufacturer (and its products) will be displayed.
Mappings
In the Mappings panel, define the following details:
Discounts - select discounts associated with this manufacturer. You can create discounts on the Promotions → Discounts page. Read more about discounts in the Discounts chapter.
Note
Note that only discounts with assigned to manufacturers type are visible here. After discounts are mapped to the manufacturer, they are applied to all products in this manufacturer.
Note
If you want to use discounts make sure the Ignore discounts (sitewide) setting is disabled in the Configuration → Settings → Catalog settings → Performance panel.
In the Limited to customer roles field choose the customer roles which will be able to see the manufacturer in the catalog. Leave this field empty if this option is not required and the manufacturer can be seen by everyone.
Note
In order to use this functionality you have to disable the following setting: Configuration → Catalog settings → Ignore ACL rules (sitewide). Read more about access control list here.
Choose the stores in the Limited to stores field if the manufacturer is sold in specific stores. Leave the field empty in case this functionality is not required.
Note
In order to use this functionality, you have to disable the following setting: Catalog settings → Ignore "limit per store" rules (sitewide). Read more about multi-store functionality here.
SEO
In the SEO panel, define the following details:
Search engine friendly page name - the name of the page used by search engines. If you leave the field blank, then the manufacturer page URL would be formed using the manufacturer name. If you enter custom-seo-page-name, then the following custom URL will be used:
http://www.yourStore.com/custom-seo-page-name
.Meta title specifies the title of the web page. It is a code which is inserted into the header of your web page:
<head> <title> Creating Title Tags for Search Engine Optimization & Web Usability </title> </head>
Meta keywords - manufacturer meta keywords, which are a brief and concise list of the most important themes for the page. Meta keywords tag looks like:
<meta name="keywords" content="keyword, keyword, keyword phrase, etc.">
Meta description - a description of the manufacturer. The meta description tag is a brief and concise summary of the page content. The meta description tag looks like:
<meta name="description" content="Brief description of the contents of your page">
Click the Save and continue edit button to proceed to add products to the manufacturer.
Products
The Products panel contains a list of products related to the selected manufacturer, these products can be filtered by manufacturer in the catalog. The store owner can add new products to the manufacturer. Note that you need to save the manufacturer before you can add products.
Click Add a new product to find a product you want to include in this manufacturer. You can search by the Product name, Categoty, Vendor, Store, Product type and Manufacturer.
Select products you would like to add to the manufacturer and click the Save button. The product will be displayed under the selected manufacturer.
After the product was added to the manufacturer, define the following information in the Products table by clicking the Edit button beside a product:
- Is featured product.
- Display order.
Note
By clicking View, you will be redirected to the Edit product details page.
Click Save.
Importing manufacturers
If you do not want to add all the manufacturers to your catalog manually you can use the import option.
Note
Before you start import you should download a table template for import in Excel format. For accurate and correct import of your manufacturers it's crucial to name all the columns in the table properly (exactly as in the downloaded table).
It is not mandatory to fill all the table fields. The manufacturer will be created based on the filled fields.
Import requires a lot of memory resources. That's why it's not recommended to import more than 500 - 1000 records at once. If you have more records, it's better to split them into multiple Excel files and import separately.