Is there a tutorial on how to build a product catalog?

I was wondering if there is a tutorial on how I could build a product catalog using Flexicontent.

The catalog would be fairly run of the mill. In fact, I could probably build it easily in a component like Virtuemart minus the "check out" part.

However, I wanted to use FC because once the catalog is built I will need to create a list of users and from there give these users the ability to see certain fields inside each catalog item.

For instance, let's say the catalog is structured this way:

Product SKU#
Product name
Product Description
Product large image
Product small image
Product Attribute 1
Product Attribute 2
Product Attribute 3 (etc.)
Link to product Literature (This one would only be accessible to those that subscribe to the catalog "news")

However, I just wanted to start with just building the catalog and worry about the permission and documentation subscriptions later. I figure building a small catalog will give me a good insight on how FC works.

Is there any available documentation or online tutorial I can follow to go down this path?

Additionally, it may come a time when I may need to hire the expertise of someone much more familiar with FC than me or my programmer. Is there a resource to hire "experts" on this forum or elsewhere?

I'd much rather hire someone from this forum than open up th job in a regular freelancing websit. I am pretty sure that I will get flooded by applications from FC "Experts" that have never even heard of the program before they read my posting.

Thank you for your kind help in this matter.

If you have many product types, i would not recommend using any CCK instead of virtuemart or similar components.

1. Create your content Types: e.g. product_type1, product_type2, product_type3, article, etc

2. Create the fields that will be used in the above content Types, and --assigned-- them to the above Content Types (there is a parameter in Field configuration for exactly this)

3. Go to templates: Duplicate and create at least one template per above Content Type: maybe name them the same as the content Types above

4. Add all the fields that you want to display in the item layout of the template (don't worry only user allowed ones will appear)

5. Go to Joomla's usergroup manager and create your usergroups (if you do not have them done already),

6. Then go back to field manager and foreach of your fields select which user groups can view it

7. Now you can start editing Content items and viewing them in the frontend, try logging with different users and you will see that the fields that are not allowed to the user will not be displayed, you can set for guest to view only a few fields, and then ask your users to login in order to view more information for the content

you can read this
extensions.netassopro.com/9-tutorials

Thank you guys for your suggestions and the link to the tutorial.

ggppdk, I am honestly a bit confused about your answer. it is well crafted enough that I realize if it wasn't for my utter ignorance of flexicontent I should be able to understand it, but for me it was really cryptic.

You say:
First of all, I don;t understand if I should or should not use Virtuemart. Sounds like I should and it sounds like you think I should not use a CCK, but then you go ahead and give me instructions on how to implement the catalog on your CCK.

Also, I am not sure I understand the term "Product type". What that means for me is if I were selling 2 completely different products in my store. For instance, Cars and wedding cakes.
In the car product type, obviously I'd need fields such a "Miles per gallong", HP, Top Speed and so on. For the wedding cakes, many of those fields would be useless and I would need fields like "Feed XX people" and so on.

That's what I call a product type but I have the feeling it is not the same definition you use. Mine comes from specific shopping carts I used in the past.

As far as the rest, if I knew Flexicontent better, I am sure your instructions would be child's play, but bear in mind I have never used FC and last I tried I was unable to make it work to create a very simple, generic "something" where I could create some custom fields in a custom catalog so I could populate it with very simple data.

I think the problem doesn;t reside in your instructions, but in my inability to figure out where I should perform the operation you tell me to do. Where should I be when I am supposed to

2. Create the fields that will be used in the above content Types, and --assigned-- them to the above Content Types (there is a parameter in Field configuration for exactly this)

I'll keep playing around with FC and maybe these instructions will magically make sense to me as soon as I can figure out the starting point.

yes if you have 2 products type create 2 types
after create your field and assign to specific types
after create you template with position to drag and drop field into.
after create your categorie and assign template and test it
regards