8: Creating a Catalog

After preparing the server for the site (see the previous chapter), the next step is to start creating the catalog, because the customer can’t shop without it. To do so, you’ll need to prepopulate the database with some products, since you won’t develop the administrative scripts for adding products until Chapter 11, “Site Administration.” Then you can write the two PHP scripts for generating the catalog: one for browsing by category and a second for listing specific products.

After that, the chapter demonstrates better ways to show the availability of products and any applicable sale prices. From there, you’ll write new PHP scripts for showing the sale items on their own.

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