Patent ID: 7752238

Claim:
A method comprising: identifying a set of items to be converted, the items being in a first electronic catalog, the first electronic catalog having values for characteristics for a plurality of items in a first format, wherein the items are described by attributes and the characteristics comprise attributes of the items; identifying the characteristics for each item; accessing the characteristic values for each identified item; accessing mapping rules for each characteristic and each item, the mapping rules including a default mapping rule and at least one special case mapping rule that applies to at least one item of the set of items, the default mapping rule defining default conversions of characteristic values for items in the first electronic catalog from the first format into a second format for a second electronic catalog and the default mapping rule being applicable to an item of the set of items when a special mapping rule does not apply to the item, and the at least one special case mapping rule defining conversion of at least one characteristic value of at least one identified item in the first electronic catalog from the first format into the second format; mapping the characteristic values for said each identified item of the set of items in the first catalog into a characteristic identified by the mapping rules for the item for the second electronic catalog, the mapping performed according to the default mapping rule when the item does not have the special case mapping rule and according to the special case mapping rule when the item does have the special case mapping rule, the second electronic catalog having values for the characteristics for a plurality of items in the second format that is different than the first format; and compiling the mapped characteristic values for each item to form the second electronic catalog.