Collection of data for the catalog can proceed almost immediately and even before the definition of the lowest levels of the catalog hierarchy. In fact these can be inductively defined from the collected data, using AnyFront.
Initial collection of the raw data will involve scanning print media, dragging from softcopy files which support OLE interaction with AnyFront, or the hand creation of spreadsheets defining content.
The relation of the raw data to the catalog structure is supplied in the AnyFront utility by the user as additional information supplied with that raw data.