Working with Lists

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There are many screens in Miva Merchant 5 where you can work with lists of items, including products, customers, users, pages, states, and so on. From each of these screens you can create, assign, edit, and delete the items. You can also change how some items are displayed in your store. There are minor differences from screen to screen, as required for the type of information they display, but they all work in fundamentally the same way.

Each of the list screens looks somewhat different. For our examples, we will use the Products list. The entire list area of the screen is shown here, then each section of the screen is discussed in detail, below.

Some of the changes you can make on these list screens affect only how the items are displayed in the administration interface, while others change the way the information appears in the store. The scope of influence for each operation is noted below.

Some operations take effect immediately, while others require that you click Update to save your changes. Still others do not save information, but only affect how it is displayed for the moment. These generally use the Refresh arrow button to refresh the display on the screen. Specific instructions are given for each operation.

Select Fields to Display

Specify which fields to include in the list. Fields that are displayed in the list can be searched.

When working with lists of items that appear in the store, such as products, changing the fields displayed here will not affect how products are displayed in the store.

When you have selected the fields to display click the Refresh arrow button.

View All, or View a Limited Subset

You can choose to view all of the items that exist, or some subset of them. The options vary, depending on the type of list. For instance, with the Products list, you have the option of viewing all the products (All), or only those that have not been assigned to any category (Uncategorized).

When you click any of these buttons, the screen will refresh, but will not update. If you have made changes, click Update first, to save them.

Search for a Listed Item

If you have many items, such as products, or customers, you can search for just the ones you want. For instance, you might search your products list for only those containing a certain brand name. The search results will be displayed in the same format as the entire list, and you can work with them in the same way.

Note that this searches only the fields that are currently displayed in the list. For instance, to search for all customers having shipping addresses in a certain city, first specify that you want the ship-to city displayed in the list, then refresh the list before searching. Likewise, if you find that a search does not return results that you expect, such as when you are certain you have customers with a given first name, but none are found, double-check that the first name field is selected to be displayed in the list.

Searching, and viewing the search results, does not affect how items are diplayed in your store.

To clear the search, and return to viewing all the items normally, click Reset.

Sort the Entire List

On some list screens, you can choose how to display the list - sorted by product name, or by product code, for instance.

For items that are displayed in the store, such as products or categories, the order you specify here is the order that will be used in the store.

Note: You will see a warning message asking you to confirm that you want to reorder the list. You do not need to click Update afterward for this to take affect - it happens immediately. This cannot be undone by clicking Reset. Any fine tuning you have done by bumping items up or down in the list order will be lost.

Bump Items Up or Down in the List Order

You might want items listed in a particular order, one that isn't necessarily alphabetical/numerical. Perhaps you want to keep related items together. Click the Move Up Arrow or Move Down arrows to bump the item up or down one position in the list.

For listed items that are displayed in the store, such as products or categories, the order you specify here is the order that will be used in the store.

Note: You do not need to click Update or the Refresh arrow button for this to take affect - it happens immediately. This cannot be undone by clicking Reset.

Select Multiple Items

List screens give you the ability to take action on several items at one time. The kind of action, such as deleting items, assigning items to categories, or assigning customers to groups, will vary, depending on the screen in question. For instance, to delete items on the Product screen, select the check boxes next to the items, under Remove, then click Update. Likewise, to assign items to a category, under Edit Category: <category name>, on the Products screen, select the check boxes next to the items, under Assigned, then click Update.

To remove an item from a category, or to remove a customer from a group, clear the appropriate check box, under Assigned, and click Update. This does not delete the product or user from your store, it only dissociates it from the current category or group.

At times, you might need to select many items in the list. Rather than selecting the check box for each item one by one, it is often easier to select all the check boxes on the screen at once. You can do this using the Select All and Clear All check marks, at the top of the column of check boxes.

To prevent accidental changes, the Select All and Clear All check marks only affect the items currently on the screen. That is, if you are viewing 20 items per screen, Select All only selects the 20 items you are viewing at the moment, not those items on other screens.

Once you have selected or cleared the items, as appropriate, click Update to save your changes.

Create a New Item

When you are working with a list of products, customers, states, or any other items, you can add a new item to the list by clicking the Add button, near the upper-right corner of the list area. The button name will follow the type of item listed (Add Product, Add User, Add Group, etc.).

Click the Add button to go to a new data-entry screen, where you will enter the information for the item to be created.

For more information on adding items, see the Add & Add+ Buttons Reference Information, listed at the bottom of each Help page.

Edit an Existing Item

Use the Edit and Edit Here buttons to make changes to existing items in the list.

For details on these buttons, see the Edit & Edit Here Buttons Reference Information, listed at the bottom of each Help page.

View a Range of Listed Items

Some lists are short, and fit nicely on a single screen. But in many cases, there will be more items in a list than you can easily work with at one time. By default, 10 items are shown per screen. You can specify any number you like, to suit the way you like to work.

In the example above, 5 items are displayed on each screen. On the left side, a range of numbers (1-5, 6-10, and so on) indicates where you are in the list. The presence of a Next button tells you there are more items to view. When you are further along in the list, there will also be a Previous button available. If there is no Next or Previous button, then all the items in the list are being displayed on the current screen.

To change the number of items to view at once, enter the number in the field, and click the Refresh arrow button.

Note that this setting only temporarily affects the screen you are viewing. Each time you return to the screen, or click Reset, the list will revert to the number of items per page specified in your user preferences. To permanently change the number of items you see on every list in the administration interface, click Users in the left navigation menu, at the domain level. Edit your user record, and under Preferences, enter the number you like under Items per Page.

Work with a Series of Items

When you are editing one item from a list of items, such as a product, you will find this set of controls near the lower-left corner of the screen. These enable you to step through the items, staying on the same edit screen. For instance, if you are uploading product images, you can work with the first product, click Update to save your changes, then click the single right arrow button to go on to the next product, without having to return to the list.

The single arrow buttons, in the center, step to the previous, or next items in the list. The outermost buttons, with arrows and lines, take you to the beginning or end of the list.

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To access these features from anywhere in Miva Merchant 5:

List screens are used throughout Miva Merchant.

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Reference Information:

Glossary | Domain vs. Store | Using Wizards | Working with Lists | Uploading Images
Update, Delete & Reset Buttons | Edit & Edit Here Buttons | Add & Add+ Buttons
Working with Version Histories | Store Layout Elements