Abstract: A catalog system for Internet commerce that supports a hierarchy of buyers specified by a customer includes: a general catalog, a buyer attributes database, and a terms and conditions database. A contract catalog is created for a customer by filtering the general catalog according to customer-specific information stored in the terms and conditions database. The customer-specific information includes hierarchical attributes for the items in the contract catalog. When a buyer enters the catalog system, the buyer's hierarchical level is determined by reading the buyer attributes database, and compared with the hierarchical attributes of the items in the contract catalog. The buyer is granted access to those items in the contract catalog that have hierarchical attributes which do not exceed the buyer's hierarchical level.

Abstract: An improved catalog system for Internet commerce that supports a hierarchy of buyers specified by a customer includes: a general catalog, a buyer attributes database, and a terms and conditions database. A contract catalog is created for a customer by filtering the general catalog according to customer-specific information stored in the terms and conditions database. The customer-specific information includes hierarchical attributes for the items in the contract catalog. When a buyer enters the catalog system, the buyer's hierarchical level is determined by reading the buyer attributes database, and compared with the hierarchical attributes of the items in the contract catalog. The buyer is granted access to those items in the contract catalog that have hierarchical attributes which do not exceed the buyer's hierarchical level.

Abstract: A method and system for permitting businesses and organizations to preview their customized Web-based advertisement in an Online directory listing. The method consists of: linking at least one database server to at least one Web server. The database server has a production database and a staging database wherein the staging database is a replica copy of the production database. Creating (or revising) custom multimedia advertisement material using a variety of widely available HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) tools; importing the resulting HTML source and associated multimedia files into the staging database stored in the database server; and previewing the custom Web pages on the staging database as if they were running on the production database.