We've made some effort to keep the casual vandal out of your catalog system. That means you have a couple of passwords to memorize. That's really the only tricky part -- two passwords.

To enter into the eCatalog Admin function you will either need to enter the administration URL manually into the Location Bar of your browser or access a bookmark. To help keep the riff-raff out there is not an online link.

The eCatalog Administration Center is in a password protected directory. This will be the first of two username/password keys you will need to access the update functions.

Here we see the username and password entered into the authentification panel. This panel is presented by your browser. The example here is one taken from Netscape. If you are using Opera or MSIE it will appear slightly differ in some details. But generally the idea is the same. You will have two boxes -- one for a name and the other for a password.

Once you have entered the authentification codes you will have access to the eCatalog Administrative programs. In this example there are two key functions. Later there will be more. (We may or may not get around to updating this image when more functions are added.)

During eCatalog Administration you will typically spend 95% of your time doing Main eCatalog Admin and 5% of your time updating the websites summary data through use of the "Update Catalog Display Files".

Let's start with an introduction to the Main eCatalog Admin area. To enter just click on the hypertext hot-link

Whether you add a new item, display all categories, display a selected category, or go to import functions you shall need to enter your eCat username/password. This is the second set of username/passwords you were (or will be) given. As you will recall the first set was used for authentification to gain access to the basic center. Now the second set is used to give continued verification that you are who you say you are. While nothing is 100% safe this is good added security.

Select "New Item" by clicking in the radio (circle) box next to "New Item" and enter your Nickname and secondary password in the upper boxes. That will bring you to the screen as depicted on the right.

This entry screen should look familiar to anyone having experience with online auctions. It is a similar interface.

Selecting "Display All Categories" will access a list of all categories along with a count of items available for sale in each individual category. Pay particular attention to the graphic on the left. You will notice a definite lack of radio selection buttons. This is what happens when the username/password combination is not entered. If you don't have the username/password you aren't give access to the editing functions.

This is how the Admin version of the Categories list should appear. Notice the radio selection boxes on the left and the "Click Here to Display Category" button on bottom. These are the boxes used to select a category to view in Admin mode.

You can enter the category display either from this screen or perhaps from the main Admin Center shown earlier.

Here you will find a listing of titles, prices, and selection boxes on the left. In addition there is a "Click Here to Display Item" button on the bottom. That is how to dredge up an individual item for display in the Admin Mode.

Selecting an item for display in the Admin Mode will present the ad as normal along with a selection box at the bottom. This selection box at the bottom will allow you to either "Edit" or "Delete" this current ad.

Selecting "Edit" will bring up the edit form prefilled with all the existing information. Now you can add, delete, modify to your hearts content. When finished if you wish to save your edits just use the button on the bottom of the form. That's it.

Using the "Delete" option will call forth a confirmation screen. Press this button and bye-bye ad.