A parent company and its employees rarely need identical catalog access. Procurement may buy the complete contract range, while a branch, technician, or cost center should use only an approved subset. SoftwareSilo combines Custom Catalog with Sublogin to model both levels.
Two product contexts
The parent customer can receive products through standard Custom Catalog assignments: customer catalogs, customer-group catalogs, and direct customer products. A sublogin can receive its own direct products and its own named sublogin catalogs.
The integration resolves both sets for the current storefront and then applies one configured merge rule. This is more explicit than silently inheriting every parent product.
The four merge operators
| Operator | Result | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Intersection | Products present in both parent and sublogin sets | Employee may use only an approved subset of the company range |
| Union | Products present in either set | Parent range plus role-specific extras |
| Sublogin only | Ignores the Custom Catalog set | Sublogin assignments are the only assortment source |
| Custom Catalog only | Ignores the sublogin set | Every company user follows the parent assortment |
Intersection is the restrictive default. If either side is empty, the resulting set is empty. That behavior is useful for security but should be tested carefully during migration.
Permissions and storefront access
The integration adds a permission for viewing My Products in a sublogin context. When Sublogin Role is active, the role's access decision can control the page. A configuration flag handles installations without the role module.
Product filtering also follows the effective sublogin customer context. The integration replaces customer-session-only behavior so category lists, search, linked products, direct product pages, and add-to-cart checks use the combined set.
Who manages sublogin catalogs
The module contains administration screens for sublogin catalogs and product assignments. It also includes storefront catalog pages for authorized company users. Decide whether company users should manage these records themselves or whether central sales and service teams own every assignment.
Self-service reduces administration, but it needs clear permissions and an approval policy. Central management is slower but may fit regulated assortments or controlled spare parts.
Example
A maintenance company receives 2,000 approved products. Its north branch receives a sublogin catalog with 300 products. Intersection gives that branch only the 300 items that are also approved for the company. If the branch catalog accidentally contains an unrelated SKU, the parent catalog still blocks it.
Union would produce a different commercial rule. It would add the unrelated SKU, so it should be used only when sublogin assignments are allowed to expand parent access.
Test before launch
Create users for each role and merge operator. Test empty sets, direct product URLs, configurable products, related items, cart additions, store views, permission denial, My Products, full-page cache, account switching, and assignment changes while a cart is active.
Related products
Last reviewed: August 9, 2026.