Best Practices & First Principles: Multiple Catalogs

A Catalog is a version of the Homepage that shows only part of your content. Each Catalog has its own tab in the top navigation bar, its own URL and icon, and its own starting filters.

Every environment has a default Catalog. It is named "Catalog" unless an Admin renames it. Admins create more Catalogs in Content > Catalogs and share each one with Groups or Users. Only the users a Catalog is shared with see its tab.

A Catalog controls what users see first. It does not control what they can open:

• Sharing a Catalog does not give anyone access to the Elements in it.
• A Catalog shows only the Elements a user already has Permission to view. If Element Discoverability is in use, it also shows discoverable Elements as locked tiles. See Best Practices & First Principles: Element Discoverability.
• Users can still find the same Elements through Search and in other Catalogs.

If all users need the same starting point, one Catalog organized with Categories, Folders, and Tags is enough. Add Catalogs only when different groups of users need different starting points.

Decide how many Groups of users need their own starting point. In this article, each such Group is called an audience. This decision affects every other decision.

Option 1: Default Catalog only. All users start on the same Homepage. They find content with filters, Folders, and Favorites. This option needs no extra setup and suits most environments.

Option 2: One Catalog per audience. Each audience opens a Catalog that shows only its content, with its own tab, icon, and starting filters. Each Catalog needs its own constraints and sharing list, and someone must keep them up to date. Typical audiences:

• Departments: Finance, Sales, and HR each start on their own content.
• Business Units or regions: each unit sees its own reports first.
• External partners or customers: each partner sees only the content meant for it, often with its own Brand (see Decision 3).

Create one Catalog per audience, not one per topic. A Catalog for each topic, such as Revenue or Inventory, adds tabs and sharing lists to maintain without giving any audience a better starting point. To organize topics, use Categories, Folders, and Tags inside a Catalog.

With either option:

• The default Catalog always exists. You cannot delete it, add constraints to it, or share it. You can change only its Catalog Name, Name used in URL, and Catalog Icon. It opens with the Catalog Display settings in each user's Preferences.
• All users see the default Catalog's tab. Only two settings hide it: turning off the native Homepage on a Brand (see Decision 3), or turning off Display Catalog tab in a Theme.
• Admins see every Catalog, even Catalogs that are not shared with them.

Catalog, Custom App, or Public App: A Catalog is not the only way to give an audience its own starting page. Choose the option that fits what the audience needs:

Each Catalog has a Constraints tab. Constraints are filters that decide which Elements appear in the Catalog.

Constraints rely on the Categories, Folders, and Tags already assigned to Elements. If those are assigned inconsistently, the Catalog misses Elements. Review them before you set up constraints.

How constraints combine:

• Several values in one constraint: an Element needs to match only one of them. Selecting the Finance and Sales Categories shows Elements from either one.
• Several constraints: an Element must match all of them. Setting the Finance Category and the Board Tag shows only Finance Elements that also have the Board Tag.
• No matches: if no Element matches every constraint, the Catalog is empty.

Limitation: you can select only top-level Categories and Folders, and selecting one includes everything below it. To show only one sub-Category, add a Tag to its Elements and use a Tag constraint.

After login, each user lands on one page. There are three ways to send an audience to its Catalog:

Default Catalog first: Users land on the default Catalog and click a tab to open another Catalog. No setup is needed.

Start Catalog: When you share a Catalog with a Group or User, turn on Start Catalog. Those users land on that Catalog after login. They still see the default Catalog's tab. Set Start Catalogs for Groups, so that new members get them automatically. A Start Catalog set for an individual User overrides the Group's. Start Catalog works at login in v7.2.2 and later.

Brand start page: A Brand controls the logo, theme, portal name, and start page that users see. Admins assign each Brand to Groups. A user whose Groups have different Brands gets the Brand placed highest on the Admin > System > Branding list. A user in no Group with a Brand gets the System Brand. See Multiple Branded Experiences on the Same Instance.

On a Brand, turn off Native Catalog/Homepage is Available and choose a Catalog or App as the Default Start Page. Users of that Brand no longer see the default Catalog. Use this option for users who should never see the full Catalog, such as external partners.

After login, Metric Insights checks the following settings in order and opens the page from the first one that is set for the user. Settings lower in the list are ignored.

1. The Start Page the user chose in their Preferences.
2. An App set as the Start Page in the App's sharing settings.
3. A Start Catalog set for the User, then one set for any of their Groups. If their Groups have different Start Catalogs, the Catalog created first wins.
4. The Brand's Default Start Page.
5. The default Catalog, or the Search page if the Brand has turned off the native Homepage.

Keep in mind:

• If a user's Group has an App as its Start Page, a Start Catalog has no effect for that user.
• If a Brand's Default Start Page is a Catalog, share that Catalog with every Group that uses the Brand. Users without access to it see an Access Denied page at login.

These are tasks, not job titles. One person can do several of them. The last column shows the role or Privilege each task needs in Metric Insights.

• Making a Catalog a Brand's Default Start Page without sharing it with every Group that uses the Brand. Users without access see an Access Denied page at login.
• Trying to hide the default Catalog from one Group through sharing. Sharing cannot hide it. Only a Brand or Theme setting can, and that setting affects everyone who uses the Brand or Theme.
• Giving a Group both an App Start Page and a Start Catalog. The App opens, and the Start Catalog is ignored.
• Putting a user in several Groups with different Start Catalogs. The user lands on the Catalog that was created first, which may not be the one you intended. Set a Start Catalog on the User to choose one.
• Trying to limit a Catalog to one sub-Category. You can select only top-level Categories and Folders. Add a Tag to the Elements instead and use a Tag constraint.
• Using Catalog sharing to control access. A Catalog only filters content that users already have Permission to see.
• Testing as an Admin. Admins see every Catalog. Test with a non-admin account to see what each audience sees.

Before technical implementation, you may want to:

• List the audiences that need their own starting point. For each audience, list the Groups its users belong to.
• Check that Categories, Folders, and Tags are assigned consistently to the Elements each Catalog should show. To fix many Elements at once, see Making Bulk Changes to Elements.
• Find Groups that already have an App as their Start Page. An App Start Page overrides a Start Catalog.
• Set up and test the Catalogs in a sandbox environment first, then repeat the setup in production.
• Prepare one non-admin test account per audience.

• Multiple Catalogs Workflow Playbook
• Configure Multiple Catalogs
• Best Practices & First Principles: Element Discoverability
• Use Themes to Customize Metric Insights
• Multiple Branded Experiences on the Same Instance
• Controlling Access within Metric Insights