Catalog management module in a custom product configuration system
A software system may be used to define configurable products for use in a selling application module by sellers of products to define custom configuration of products to satisfy customer needs. During periodic points in time, a subset of all configuration of these configurable products may be offered for sale by sellers user special price terms and conditions. Catalogs of sale products may provide a mechanism for configuring only products that are included within sale products. A catalog manager module may assist in preparing a catalog of product data and related configuration rules associated with only products included within a particular catalog.
1. A method comprising:
providing, by a catalog management system, access to data regarding a plurality of available products to a user, wherein the data is stored in a product database communicatively coupled to the catalog management system and is divided into a plurality of subsets;
receiving, by the catalog management system, a selection of a subset from the user, extracting data included in the selected subset from the product database by the catalog management system, and transmitting, by the catalog management system, the extracted data to a runtime data reduction module communicatively coupled to the catalog management system;
generating, by the runtime data reduction module, a catalog including only the extracted data, wherein the generated catalog includes respective ones of the available products included in the selected subset, hierarchically associated product options and product option attributes for the respective ones of the available products, and product configuration rules associated with the respective ones of the available products; and
providing the generated catalog to the user via a user application module communicatively coupled to the runtime data reduction module.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
configuring, by the runtime data reduction module, the respective ones of the available products within the generated catalog such that it is optimized for a particular user application module.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing, by the runtime data reduction module, the generated catalog in a catalog database communicatively coupled to the runtime data reduction module; and
enabling, by the runtime data reduction module, the user to access the generated catalog in the catalog database via the user application module.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, at the runtime data reduction module, user information via the user application module;
defining, by the runtime data reduction module, a configurable product based on the received user information and configuration rules associated with the configured product; and
providing, by the runtime data reduction module, access to the definition to the user via the user application module.
5. A computer system comprising:
a product database configured to store data regarding a plurality of available products, wherein the data is divided into a plurality of subsets;
a catalog management system comprising a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, the catalog management system communicatively coupled to the product database and configured to provide access to the data stored in the product database to a user, receive a selection of a subset from the user, extract data included in the selected subset from the product database, and transmit the extracted data to a runtime data reduction module;
the runtime data reduction module communicatively coupled to the catalog management system and configured to receive the extracted data from the catalog management system, generate a catalog including the extracted data, hierarchically associated product options and product option attributes for respective ones of the available products included in the selected subset, and product configuration rules associated with the respective ones of the available products, and transmit the generated catalog to a user application module; and
the user application module communicatively coupled to the runtime data reduction module and configured to receive the generated catalog from the runtime data reduction module and provide the generated catalog to the user.
6. A non-transitory computer-readable media including a set of instructions which when executed by a computer system cause the computer system to:
provide access to data regarding a plurality of available products stored in a product database to a user, wherein the data is divided into a plurality of subsets;
receive a selection of a subset from a user;
extract data included in the selected subset from the product database;
generate a catalog including the extracted data, respective ones of the available products included in the selected subset, hierarchically associated product options and product option attributes for the respective ones of the available products, and product configuration rules associated with the respective ones of the available products; and
provide the generated catalog to the user.