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How products become discoverable, connected, and accessible within B2BCMarket
Product visibility in B2BCMarket is designed around the idea that a product should not exist as an isolated marketplace listing. A product is connected to the branch where it is offered, the company that operates the branch, and the business that owns or represents the broader business relationship.
This connected structure allows buyers and other marketplace participants to discover a product while also understanding the business context behind that product.
Product visibility refers to the conditions under which a product can appear within the B2BCMarket marketplace and its connected catalog structure.
Visibility is not simply determined by whether a product exists in the database. The marketplace considers the relationships and availability surrounding the product.
A product becomes part of the public marketplace through its relationship with a branch.
This relationship provides the product with marketplace context and allows users to navigate between the connected entities.
In B2BCMarket, a product can be assigned to a branch through the branch-product relationship.
The relationship is represented by the marketplace mapping between a Branch and a Product.
BranchAssignedProduct connects the Company, Branch, and Product within the marketplace catalog structure.
This means that product visibility is connected to the branch through which the product is being offered.
A product's marketplace visibility depends on the availability of the branch to which it is assigned.
When a branch is available, the product-to-branch relationship can participate in the public catalog.
When the branch is not available, the related product catalog representation is removed from the marketplace catalog for that branch.
An available branch can provide marketplace access to its assigned products.
An unavailable branch does not provide an active marketplace location for its assigned products.
The current catalog architecture uses the branch-product relationship and branch availability when determining whether a product XML catalog representation should exist.
Product catalog representation exists when:
This approach ensures that the public catalog reflects the current marketplace relationships rather than simply exposing every product stored in the database.
Product stock is also represented in the product catalog. B2BCMarket calculates the product's total stock from its product stock records.
The product catalog records both the stock quantity and whether stock is currently available.
Stock availability therefore provides important information to buyers and marketplace users even though product visibility itself is connected primarily to the product's marketplace and branch relationships.
The product XML model also contains a published status. In the current implementation, product publication is determined from branch availability and stock availability.
This distinction is useful because a product may have a valid identity and marketplace relationship while its current publication status indicates that it does not presently have available stock.
Product catalog information includes several status values that describe the current state of the product.
| Status | Current Meaning |
|---|---|
| Active | Based on the product's availability. |
| Approved | Currently represented as approved by the catalog mapper. |
| Stock Available | True when calculated stock is greater than zero. |
| Stock Quantity | Total quantity calculated from product stock records. |
| Published | Based on branch availability and stock availability. |
| Deleted | Based on the product deletion state. |
Product visibility is more useful when the product is presented together with its surrounding business context.
A visible product can provide navigation to:
Every public product has a public identity that is separate from its internal database identifier.
The public product identity is based on a readable product slug combined with the product's public share identifier.
ProductSlug-ProductShareIdentifier
This public identity allows the product to be referenced through a stable public catalog URL without exposing the internal database GUID.
A product may be associated with multiple branches. The product catalog therefore preserves the relationship between the product and the specific branch through which it is offered.
Product navigation can identify both the product and its branch context.
ProductPublicId / BranchPublicId
This allows users to understand not only what the product is, but also where within the business structure that product is being offered.
Product visibility is not only about whether a product is present. The product catalog also contains information that helps users understand and evaluate the offering.
Product classification helps organize marketplace offerings into meaningful categories.
The product catalog can include both a category and a subcategory, together with associated imagery where available.
Classification can make product discovery more structured for buyers and can also provide additional context for marketplace search systems.
Product visibility can include geographic information associated with the product.
The current product catalog can represent:
This information can provide useful context for buyers evaluating products across different markets.
Product packaging information is also part of the product representation.
Packaging can include a size and unit, with the catalog capable of presenting a combined display value such as:
Providing structured packaging information helps users understand the physical representation of an offering.
Product images are part of the public product representation.
The product catalog can contain multiple images, including information such as:
This allows the product representation to provide both visual information for users and descriptive information for machine-readable systems.
A product does not lose its business identity when it becomes visible within the marketplace.
The product catalog can identify the business associated with the product and provide navigation back to that business.
This provides additional trust and context for users who want to understand the broader organization behind an offering.
The product also maintains a relationship with the company associated with its marketplace branch.
This allows users to move from the product to the company and explore the company's connected branches and marketplace presence.
The branch provides the immediate marketplace context for a product.
The product can therefore provide information about the branch, including its geographic and address information.
This is particularly important when a company operates through multiple branches or locations.
B2BCMarket treats product visibility as part of a connected entity graph.
Business
↓
Company
↓
Branch
↓
Product
The same relationship can be navigated in the opposite direction:
Product
↓
Branch
↓
Company
↓
Business
This connected structure means that product visibility can provide considerably more context than a standalone product listing.
Product visibility is represented through the B2BCMarket catalog system.
The catalog contains machine-readable information describing the product and its relationships with the surrounding marketplace entities.
The product catalog representation can therefore act as a structured public representation of the current marketplace state.
B2BCMarket uses a change-driven catalog refresh architecture.
Changes to the branch-product relationship can trigger the catalog refresh process.
BranchAssignedProduct
↓
BranchMappingChange
↓
CatalogXmlRefreshService
↓
Product
↓
Branch
↓
Company
↓
Business
This allows the public catalog to be rebuilt when marketplace relationships change.
When a product is newly assigned to a branch, the marketplace receives an added mapping change.
The catalog refresh process evaluates the branch and product relationship and can create or update the product catalog representation.
The related branch, company, and business catalog representations are also refreshed.
When an existing branch-product relationship changes, the catalog refresh process re-evaluates the affected product and its parent entities.
This keeps the product, branch, company, and business representations aligned with the current database state.
When a product is removed from a branch, the affected product-branch catalog representation is deleted.
The branch, company, and business catalogs are then rebuilt because removing one product can affect the marketplace state of the parent entities.
Product Mapping Removed
↓
Delete Product Catalog Entry
↓
Refresh Branch
↓
Refresh Company
↓
Refresh Business
B2BCMarket can represent product information through structured, machine-readable catalog resources.
This complements the human-readable product catalog page by providing structured information about the product and its connected entities.
The same underlying relationships can therefore be represented across public catalog pages and machine-readable catalog resources.
Connected product visibility gives buyers more than a product name and description.
Sellers can represent their products within the same connected structure used by buyers for discovery.
Rather than maintaining an isolated product listing, the seller's product can remain connected to the seller's branch, company, and business.
This creates a consistent public representation of the seller's marketplace presence.
Products can participate in different marketplace relationships supported by B2BCMarket.
The product's marketplace model is represented as part of its product information.
The central principle of product visibility in B2BCMarket is:
The product remains its own public entity, while its relationships with the branch, company, and business provide the surrounding context.
Product visibility in B2BCMarket is based on a connected marketplace architecture rather than isolated listings.
Product │ ├── Product Identity ├── Product Information ├── Classification ├── Countries ├── Packaging ├── Inventory ├── Images ├── Business ├── Company ├── Branch └── Product Status
Through this structure, B2BCMarket connects product discovery with the broader business ecosystem behind the offering.
The result is a marketplace where buyers can discover products while retaining access to the business, company, and branch context associated with those products.