Catalog

Overview

The catalog domain covers products, categories, brands and the search infrastructure.

Products and types

Products represent items or services and are stored in Product. ProductType defines variations like SimpleProduct, GroupedProduct, or Bundle. Products may include media (ProductMediaFile), tags (ProductTag), and relationships such as CrossSellProduct or RelatedProduct.

Categories and brands

Categories form a tree via Category and ProductCategory and can be loaded with ICategoryService. Manufacturers are modeled as Manufacturer entities and assigned to products through ProductManufacturer.

Attributes

Product attributes allow customers to configure variants. Use global attribute definitions and ProductAttributeValue links to define options. Specification attributes describe filterable characteristics displayed on category pages.

Accessing catalog data

Products

Retrieve products directly via SmartDbContext.Products using standard Entity Framework Core queries:

var product = await _db.Products
    .AsNoTracking()
    .FirstOrDefaultAsync(x => x.Sku == "SKU-1");

ProductQueryExtensions adds helper methods to shape the query. Use ApplyStandardFilter to exclude unpublished or system products and stack other filters as needed:

var products = await _db.Products
    .ApplyStandardFilter()
    .ApplySkuFilter("SKU-1")
    .ToListAsync();

Other useful filters include:

• ApplyGtinFilter / ApplyMpnFilter – search by GTIN or MPN.

• ApplyProductCodeFilter – look up a product by SKU, GTIN, or MPN in one call.

• ApplyAssociatedProductsFilter – retrieve child products of grouped items.

• ApplyDescendantsFilter – traverse a category tree path.

• ApplySystemNameFilter – match a product's system name.

Categories

Categories benefit from ICategoryService, which caches the entire tree and provides helper methods.

GetCategoryTreeAsync returns a TreeNode<ICategoryNode> rooted at a virtual root. Each node exposes its children and Depth, making it easy to traverse or render hierarchical menus:

var tree = await _categoryService.GetCategoryTreeAsync();

// dump the tree with indentation
foreach (var node in tree.FlattenNodes(false))
{
    Console.WriteLine(new string(' ', node.Depth * 2) + node.Value.Name);
}

To build a breadcrumb for a specific category, load the entity and call GetCategoryPathAsync. The method returns a string containing all ancestors, separated by " » ":

var category = await _db.Categories.FindAsync(categoryId);
var path = await _categoryService.GetCategoryPathAsync(category);
// path => "Root » Subcategory » Current"

This combination of tree and path helpers enables quick menu rendering and breadcrumb generation without repeated database queries.

Searching

ICatalogSearchService builds search queries and executes them against either the database or an index provider. Category and manufacturer pages reuse this service to fetch product lists with paging, filtering and sorting applied:

var query = new CatalogSearchQuery();
query.DefaultTerm = "shirt";
query.Slice(0, 10); // page size 10
var result = await _catalogSearchService.SearchAsync(query);

CatalogSearchQuery inherits from SearchQuery<T> and exposes a wide range of properties to shape the request:

• DefaultTerm – search phrase.

• ParseSearchTerm – parse the term for advanced filter syntax.

• LanguageId / LanguageCulture / CurrencyCode – context for localized fields and prices.

• StoreId – restrict results to a specific store.

• Filters – collection of additional SearchFilter instances.

• FacetDescriptors and HasSelectedFacets – describe and inspect facet selections.

• Skip / Take and the computed PageIndex – control paging.

• Sorting – sort expressions such as price or creation date.

• IsFuzzySearch – enable fuzzy matching when supported.

• SpellCheckerMaxSuggestions, SpellCheckerMinQueryLength, SpellCheckerMaxHitCount – configure suggestion generation.

• ResultFlags – request hits, facets and/or suggestions.

• Origin – identifies the source route (e.g. category page).

• CustomData – extension bag for additional values.

• IsSubPage – true when paging or any facet selection is active.