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Catalog Explorer

myFavorites' FAQ

Web catalog navigation problems If your company manages a Web catalog, you may know that navigation through a branching Web catalog may cause difficulties because of a noticeable loading time of each page. In order to reach the description of a required product, the user should view several intermediate pages. During lengthy work with a Web catalog, such delays on each step can become serious obstacles to quick search and selection of the required products. Work with a catalog can be optimized, if one uses a tool that allows to: easily navigate through the catalog tree easily expand or collapse the catalog tree or any its branch quickly browse to any product description mark any items in the catalog and view the list of the marked items search through the whole catalog or any its branch prepare a reports from the marked items and save it on the disk in compact form view the descriptions of different products simultaneously work with the catalog offline The solution that we are offering provides all the features listed above. It will simplify and speed up work with your catalog for the site visitors — by minimizing routine operations and making the catalog navigation easier. It will really help the users get around your catalog. What is our solution? Our solution is based on the compact and quickly downloadable Catalog Explorer. It is a fast catalog tree navigator, which has convenient tools for searching, viewing, browsing, and exporting products descriptions. The main distinguishing feature of our software solution is its incredibly small size combined with rich functionality. Based on Web technology, it can work: As independent standalone application, which works with a local products database. In this case, both the program and the data are downloaded to the user's PC for working with the catalog off-line. As on-line service, which opens as a Web page and gets the products' information on the fly directly from the remote catalog database located on the server. How does it work? Both the remote and the local databases, accessed by Catalog Explorer, contain the product information in a compact form — as textual or tabular data. The absence of graphics enables high-speed data exchange between the database and Catalog Explorer. Each product's description contains an active links to the original Web catalog's pages, which allows to easily access the full product information when needed. Thus, Catalog Explorer combines high effectiveness with easy navigation and fast access to big volumes of product information. Depending on the location of the database, Catalog Explorer can use different program launching ways database access methods data exchange algorithms Working with the catalog offline For off-line work with the catalog, the users download Catalog Explorer from the site and install it on their machines. At its first start, the program downloads via Internet either the full catalog or its specified part. Thanks to the small size of the application and the compact format of data storage, both Catalog Explorer and the products database download quite fast. Later, the program can trace the server-side catalog database changes, and it can update the local database with the changes that were made since the last update. Preparation of data for downloading and database synchronization is carried out by the server-side part of Catalog Explorer. After the database update, the user works with the local data, which is always available without Internet connection. In a simple case — for example, for catalog distribution over the Internet, or by diskettes or CDs — the Catalog Explorer and all its data can be distributed in a single installation pack. Working with the remote catalog When working with the remote database, Catalog Explorer runs directly from your server as a simple Web page without any extra downloads. In this case, Catalog Explorer interacts with its counterpart running on the server. The server side module connects to the catalog database, smartly prepares the data, and intellectually transmits it in batches to Catalog Explorer, providing the fast response. Customer benefits Using Catalog Explorer is similar to using Microsoft Windows Explorer. Users can easily navigate through the catalog tree, quickly look through the product descriptions, easily find the needed products, and, importantly, open the original Web catalog pages. Just a few minutes for downloading, and the user has all information about your products represented in a suitable form. It means that the users can: better find their ways around your catalog quicker find the desired products learn and probably get detailed information about more of your products — the ones they did not have time to view in the Web catalog always keep your catalog handy and share the catalog with their colleagues and friends And at the same time, every item of such catalog contains the link to the original page of your Web catalog; therefore the users never lose contact with your site. Using our solution is also another occasion to advertise your logo and the company name, which can be placed on the Programs submenu of the Windows Start menu. Choosing the right solution Off-line work with the catalog requires some time for downloading the catalog data . The amount of time needed for downloading depends on the number of products in the catalog, the size of the products' descriptions, and the time that elapsed since the last database update. However, after the download, both the program and the data are stored on the user's PC. Thus, Catalog Explorer works completely independently, connecting only with the local products database. Data from the full catalog or from any its branch can be saved to the local disk as a separate database, sent by e-mail, or exported to a database of different format. Some of these operations require special filters, which can be shipped with the program or developed to specific requirements. Remote online work does not require data pre-loading; therefore, such solution is especially suitable for large catalog databases. In this case, Catalog Explorer opens very quickly, and the user can see the catalog tree and work with the catalog right away. When Catalog Explorer runs, the database data is downloaded in portions, providing for fast response and user-friendliness. What can we do for You? To begin with, you must choose which one of the two solutions — offline Catalog Explorer or online service — is more suitable for your needs. After that, we will adapt Catalog Explorer for working with the specific format of your database and develop all necessary software components (database converter, server-side application, data synchronization module, etc.) to meet your specific needs. You can familiarize yourself with our technology by using the Catalog Explorer prototype — our program called myFavorites, which is available on our site www.offshore-software.ru for downloading. We will be glad to see you among our customers!