Patent attributes
An arbitrary number of custom catalogs for an arbitrary number of customers can be published from a single database of seller catalog data. Custom browse hierarchies can be generated for each of the custom catalogs. The custom catalogs are subsets of the catalog database, and are generated in accordance with a set of rules that defines the scope of the content of the custom catalog. The rule sets define a series of sequential searches by which a subset of the product SKUs contained in the database are returned. A primary hierarchy is maintained that can have a scope coextensive with the primary database. Custom browse hierarchies can be pruned to render their scope approximately coextensive with each subset. The custom catalog subsets and the custom browse hierarchies are generated periodically through a virtual publication process.