Manufacturers are associated with products, providing web site, contact, and descriptive information. Each product that is created is associated with a Manufacturer.
For stores where manufacturer information is not necessarily relevant, a default manufacturer is created upon installation.
It is not necessary to create manufacturers prior to creating your catalog. Products can be re-associated to manufacturers after all the product records have been created. However, creating the manufacturers first can save a lot of extra work if you already know that you will be using this information.
- {typography list type="arrow_black"}Manufacturer Categories{/typography}
- {typography list type="arrow_black"}Manufacturers{/typography}
Manufacturer Categories are used to group Manufacturers into different categories.
Adding Manufacturer Categories
VirtueMart creates the manufacturer category name "-default-" upon installation. It is not necessary to change this.
To create a new manufacturer category, select "Manufacturer | Add Manufacturer Category".
Manufacturer Category Form Fields:
- Category Name
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The name of the Manufacturer category.
- Category Description
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A description of the Manufacturer category (optional).
Click on the "Save" icon. You will be redirected to the "Manufacturer Category List" page, showing the "-default-" category, and the new category you just entered.
Editing Manufacturer Categories
To edit an existing manufacturer category, select "Manufacturer | List Manufacturer Categories" in the VirtueMart admin menu. This will return a list of existing manufacturer categories.
Click on the name of the manufacturer category you want to edit, make any necessary changes to the fields (listed above), and click on the "Save" icon.
You will be returned to the Manufacturer Category List.
Deleting Manufacturer Categories
Before deleting an existing manufacturer category, all manufacturers associated to that category must be removed through either deletion or re-association to a different manufacturer category. VirtueMart will not allow the deletion of a manufacturer category while manufacturers still exist for that manufacturer category. See below under "Manufacturers" for information on re-association and deletion of a manufacturer.
Once the manufacturers have been removed, select "Manufacturers | List Manufacturer Categories" from the VirtueMart admin menu. Click on the name of the manufacturer category you want to delete. In the Manufacturer Category Form, click on the "Remove" icon. Click "OK" to confirm that you are sure you want to delete this category. You will be returned to the Manufacturer Category List.
Note that the manufacturer category you deleted is no longer listed. To recover this record, you must create a new manufacturer category, and re-associate any manufacturers that belong in that manufacturer category.
Manufacturers
Adding Manufacturers
To create a new manufacturers, select "Manufacturer | Add Manufacturer" in the VirtueMart admin menu.
Edit the following fields in the Manufacturer Information Form:
- Manufacturer Name
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The manufacturer's name or company name.
- URL
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http://www.example.com
The manufacturer's fully qualified web address.
- Manufacturer Category
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The manufacturer category this manufacturer will be associated with.
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The manufacturer contact's email address.
- Description
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Information promoting or about the manufacturer.
Click the "Save" icon to create your new manufacturer.
Editing Manufacturers
To edit an existing manufacturer, select "Manufacturer | List Manufacturers" to see a list of all manufacturers. You may also get to this screen by clicking on the linked text, "Manufacturer List", in the Manufacturers column on the Manufacturer Category List screen.
Click on the name of the manufacturer you would like to edit, or click on the linked text "update" in the Admin column - either will take you to the same Manufacturer Add Information form. Make your changes in the Manufacturer "Add Information" form (described above), and click on the "Save" icon. You will be returned to the Manufacturer List screen.
Deleting Manufacturers
Before deleting an existing manufacturer, all products associated to that manufacturer must be removed through either deletion or re-association to another manufacturer. VirtueMart will not allow the deletion of a manufacturer while these child records still exist for that manufacturer.
Once these child records have been removed, select "Manufacturer | List Manufacturers" to see a list of all manufacturer. Then click on the name of the manufacturer you would like to delete. In the Manufacturer Add Information form, click on the "Remove" icon. You will be returned to the Manufacturer List screen.
Once this manufacturer has been deleted, it is removed from the system. To recover this manufacturer, you must re-create the manufacturer information, and re-associate all appropriate products.