Chapter 11: Flat Catalog . Naxa AC-1

Chapter 11:

Flat Catalog

Magento uses the Entity-Attribute-Value (EAV) model for storing customer, product, and category data in its database. Although the EAV model enables you to have completely extensible attributes for those objects, object attributes are stored in multiple tables rather than one very large table.

Because attributes are stored in many tables—and that includes copies of some of the same attributes—SQL queries can be long and complex. The flat catalog feature creates new tables on the fly, where each row contains all necessary data about a product or category.

In earlier versions of Magento, it was necessary to rebuild the flat catalog every time you made changes to product attributes or product-category associations. In this release, the flat catalog is updated for you—either every minute, or according to your

Magento cron job.

Flat catalog options not only enable the flat catalog and flat product indexers but also enable indexing for catalog and shopping cart price rules. If you have a large number of SKUs (500,000 or more), Magento can index catalog and shopping cart price rules quickly if you enable the flat catalog product option.

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Flat Catalog Configuration Chapter 11:  Flat Catalog

Flat Catalog Configuration

It is recommended that you first test flat catalog in a development environment before enabling it for a live store.

Step 1:

Enable Flat Catalog

1.

On the Admin menu, select System > Configuration .

2.

In the panel on the left, under Catalog, select Catalog .

3.

Click to expand the Frontend section. Then, do the following:

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Use Flat Catalog a.

Set Use Flat Catalog Category to “Yes.” b.

Set Use Flat Catalog Product to “Yes.”

4.

When complete, click the Save Config button.

5.

When prompted to refresh the indexes, click the Index Management link in the message at the top of the workspace and follow the instructions to reindex the data.

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Chapter 11:  Flat Catalog Flat Catalog Configuration

Reindex Required

Step 2:

Verify the Results

Method 1:

Verify the Results for a Single Product

1.

Open one browser tab to the store Admin, and log in as an administrator.

2.

On a second browser tab, navigate to your store’s home page.

3.

On the Admin menu, select Catalog > Manage Products . Then, do the following: a.

Choose a product to modify. Then, click to open the product in edit mode.

b.

On the General tab, in the Name field, add the text “_DEMO” to the product name.

4.

Click the Save button.

5.

In your store, search for the product you edited, and browse to its assigned category.

If necessary, refresh the page to see the result of the change you made. The change occurs either within the minute or according to your cron job schedule.

Method 2:

Verify the Results for Multiple Products

1.

On a second browser tab, navigate to your store’s home page.

2.

On the Admin menu, select Catalog > Categories > Manage Categories .

3.

In the upper-left corner, set Current Configuration Scope to one of the following: l l

All Store Views

A specific store view

4.

In the panel on the left, select an existing category. Click the Add Subcategory button, and do the following:

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Flat Catalog Configuration a.

In the Name field, enter “Test Category.” b.

Set Is Active to “Yes.” c.

Click the Save Category button.

Chapter 11:  Flat Catalog

New Subcategory d.

Click the Category Products tab. Then, click the Reset Filter button to display all products.

e.

Select the checkbox of several products to add them to the new category. Then, click the Save Category button.

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Category Products

5.

In your store, search for or brows to the category you created.

If necessary, refresh the page to see the result of the change you made. The change occurs either within the minute or according to your cron job schedule.

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