Hi Gerald, Please see my response inline.
Best regards, Pierre Smits ORRTIZ.COM <http://www.orrtiz.com> OFBiz based solutions & services OFBiz Extensions Marketplace http://oem.ofbizci.net/oci-2/ On Tue, Mar 8, 2016 at 7:01 PM, G.W. Haywood <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi there, > > First post to this list. I'd like to contribute to the project. When > I have things clear in my mind (if I ever get that far) I propose to > write some user documentation. As you all know, it's badly needed. > > I'm using OfBiz 13.07.02 and the Derby > database at present but I plan to migrate to MySQL or PostgreSQL when > I've got to grips with the basics. > > There are tens of thousands of products to import, a minimum of 40,000 > up to a maximum of about 200,000 from over a thousand manufacturers if > OfBiz will cope with it - that's one of the things I want to find out. > On a 2.5GHz dual Opteron with 16GByte ECC RAM running over the local > Ethernet I'm afraid it looks rather slow at the moment. Usually it > will take several seconds to render a page and sometimes it will take > of the order of ten seconds. > > Immediate problem: > > I've spent almost two weeks reading the revised volume 1 of the Data > Model Resource Book and about how to import products from data files, > and I'm not a lot clearer about it now than I was when I started out. > Most of the time I seem to be going around in circles reading the same > incomplete, out of date, inconsistent and confusing notes which very > often contain links to pages or even Websites which no longer exist. > > Following this document: > > > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBENDUSER/Apache+OFBiz+Business+Setup+Guide > > I have set up a new Catalog - or at least I think I have. But that's > as far as I've been able to go following the text. In particular, the > section entitled "Category Setup" is a masterpiece of confusion. The > concepts of the relationships of a Category to a Product, to a Catalog > and to each other are not clear to me. The section "Category Setup" > suggests that one should give descriptions to the Categories, but as I > have no clear idea yet what they're for, I'm able to describe them > only as "A Sort Of Category". To a novice like me, the administration > interface offers no help, and to the extent that it's possible is even > more confusing than the Business Setup Guide. > > My main concern is if I get it wrong at this stage, but ultimately do > manage to import a couple of hundred thousand products, that I'll just > have to do it all over again after fixing my Categories. > > Questions: > > Please would someone explain to me in simple English what a Category > is for, why I need to create four or more of them, what I need to do > with them after I create them, and exactly how that should be done? > > A category is intended to provide a grouping mechanism for defined products and/or services. A product can belong to many categories. > What is a Browse Root Category (and why is it called that)? > The Browse Root Category is a category that functions as a parent to child categories. In a catalog it is the first category to browse from. > > Why should I want one? > Without the Browse Root Category the child categories are not shown in the the category list. > Why does one Category have to be a child of another? What is the > significance of this parentage? > It is not required. It is a feature to differentiate products. > > Why is the child of the Browse Root Category described as a "top-level > browse Category" when (since it's a child of the Browse Root Category) > it seems it's not at the top level? That is part of the documentation of https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBENDUSER/Apache+OFBiz+Business+Setup+Guide .That is to build perception and understanding. It might be so that it needs a revision. > What is the name of this child? > The name you give it. You can augment the name when you access the category. > Others seem to have names, but not that one. > > Are the Promotions, "All Products" Category, Default Search, Purchase > Allow and View Allow categories children of the Browse Root Category > as well or are they children of the apparently unnamed and mis-described > top-level browse Category? And are there really only two of them there: > Promotions and "All Products"? The Default Search, Promotions, Best Selling ( in fact all with show '(one)" in the selection field can be regarded as master categories. > If so, why are they seemingly pressed > into service for other purposes, and does that not run counter to the > data model ethos? > > Of course I already have categories in the existing product data, and > they don't map well to those suggested in "Category Setup", as they're > more in the nature of sections and sub-sections in a paper catalogue. > I don't know if the concept of an OfBiz Category resembles my concept > of a category - note that I've used a small 'c' in my own categories > for that reason. To begin with, can I simply not have any Categories > at all, and then add my own categories after importing the products? > > -- > > 73, > Ged. >
