AX Specific

Product Categories

Applies to Sana Commerce 8.3 SP1 and Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 allows to classify products using item groups and product categories. Item groups or product categories can be imported in the Sana Commerce backoffice to build webshop navigation. By default Sana Commerce uses item groups. Item groups allow to create single-level navigation, unlike product categories that can be used to create multilevel navigation. Item groups are required, as they are needed when you create products. Also if you use customer assortment rules, they can be configured per individual products and item groups. But additionally you can use product categories in AX and import them as navigation items instead of the item groups. To be able to use product categories you should create a category hierarchy and assign products to this category. Then you should enable product categories and select category hierarchy on the 'Webshops' form. The selected on the 'Webshops' form category hierarchy can be imported in the Sana Commerce backoffice as navigation items for your webshop.

To create a product category in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012:

Step 1: Click: Product information Management > Setup > Categories > Category hierarchies.

Step 2: On the action pane, click 'Category hierarchy' and enter a unique name to create a category hierarchy.

Step 3: Use the 'Category hierarchy' form to create category hierarchy to classify products by categories:

Category Hierarchy

The following fields are required:

The category hierarchy should be active. On the action pane you can activate/inactivate the category hierarchy or any category node.

You can also associate category hierarchy with a 'Procurement category hierarchy' type. If a category hierarchy is of the 'Procurement category hierarchy' type, then you can add product attributes to the product category that can be used for products filtering in the webshop using facets. In AX it is possible to create only one product category of the 'Procurement category hierarchy' type. For more information about how to use product attributes in Microsoft Dynamics AX, see 'Product Attributes'.

Step 4: When the category hierarchy is created you should assign products to a certain category node. To do this in the 'Released products' list select a product and click 'Product categories' on the action pane to associate a product with a certain category. In the 'Product categories' window select category hierarchy and category that a product should be associated with. This way you can associate any product with a certain category:

Associate a Product with a Product Category

A product can be assigned only to one category.

Step 5: When a product category is created and all products are associated with the product category click: Webshop > Common > Webshops.

Step 6: On the 'Webshops' form enable product categories and select category hierarchy that you have created:

Enable Product Categories

By default product categories are disabled and item groups are used. If you enable product categories this will require product reindexing. You should open the Sana Commerce backoffice, go to 'Scheduled tasks' and run the product indexing task.

When all above steps are completed you can import the product categories in the Sana Commerce backoffice to build the webshop navigation based on the product categories created in Microsoft Dynamics AX and selected on the 'Webshops' form.

For more information about webshop navigation, see 'Navigation'.