VbzCart/docs/pieces/catalog/supplier

Supplier Catalogs are collections of items that Template:L/vc/pieces have made available for us to purchase at wholesale prices for a given span of time (usually specified by year and sometimes season; specific ending dates are rarely given).

Since they are typically not provided in a data-oriented format that could be imported into VbzCart but rather in a print-oriented format (either a PDF of their print catalog or a hard copy thereof), I developed the "Supplier Catalog" (SC) subsystem to make it easier to manually enter print-catalog information.

The basic idea is that there tend to be clusters of options and corresponding prices in any given catalog – so rather than having to key in every item type, item option (e.g. size), and corresponding prices, the SC subsystem lets you make a note of these groups and record which group or groups apply to each title in the catalog.

The local data is then generated by combining the following:

• LC Supplier -- only some LC Suppliers provide catalogs
• LC Source -- Titles will only be included if they're connected to an active Source
• LC Title -- the name for each set of Items
• LC Item -- (short for LC Group Item) a particular item-type / item-option / price
• LC Group -- a group of item-types / item-options / prices that appears in the Source