Categories & Subcategories

Categories and subcategories can be displayed in many unique ways. The purpose of categories is to help the customer find the products they want quickly and efficiently by categorizing your products into various categories and subcategories. You can also assign a single product to multiple categories.

Navigate to Inventory > Categories, to ADD categories

PARENT/CHILD RELATIONSHIP:

The category system works with a parent/child relationship:

Each main category has a ParentID of 0

Each sub-category has a ParentID defined as the CategoryID of the parent category

The following example explains how to create a main category Footwear, and sub-categories for Footwear:

• In the above example, Sandals, Shoes and Boots are the first set of sub categories. Each of these should have the ParentID defined as 35
• Sandals does not have any further sub categories
• The next set of sub categories are Cross-Training, Walking,Running, Basketball and Tennis. These should have the ParentID defined as 39
• The next set of sub-categories are Suede and Leather. These should have the ParentID defined as 36

CATEGORY VISIBLE:

The Category Visible drop down list has multiple purposes:

1. It can be set to Hidden to temporarily disable the category
2. It may define where a main category will be displayed
3. It may define the style/layout of how a category is displayed

CUSTOMIZING CATEGORY DISPLAYS:

Each of your categories may be displayed in a unique way. The sub categories page layout can be changed through the two SubCategory DisplayMode fields. The display of the products can be changed through the following mentioned Display_... and SHOW... fields. You may add custom text on each category page through the Category Description field. Here are the list of fields and their descriptions:

CATEGORY GRAPHICS:

You can also customize your categories by using custom graphics for each of your categories. You can upload these custom graphics via the Upload New Images. You can upload two different graphics for each category.

To upload a new graphics file:

1. Click on the Upload New Images link on the upper left-hand corner of the category's EDIT tab page
2. Click on the browse button and locate the file on your computer, click on the file to select it, click OK
3. Click the Upload my Images button, and your image will show up under the existing images section on the upload page. The upload page will automatically rename the graphic file as follows, but will not resize the photo:

CATEGORY ORDER:

The Category Order field allows you to specify the order in which a category will appear when it is listed with other categories. If you do not specify an order, or if two categories are assigned the same CategoryOrder value, the default order is alphabetical. Lesser numbers will be displayed before greater numbers.

The order of the navigation menu by default is listed in alphabetical order. If you wish to use a manual order, you must do the following:

• Click Inventory > Categories
• Click the View All tab.
• Enter any number in the Category Order field for each category to define the order in which the categories will be displayed on the navigation menu. Lower numbers will be displayed before greater numbers.

Customizing the visual display (EXAMPLE #1)

SubCategory DisplayMode1

A display of all the subcategories. Go to the EDIT category page and set the field SubCategory DisplayMode 1 to Top, Left Side or None (Hide).

Related Fields:
Table	FieldName	Example Value1	Example Value2
Categories	SubCategory Displaymode1	Top	Left

DataName	DataValue
Config_Colors_Lines_Light	CCCCCC
Config_Colors_BackgroundLight	BEDFFF
Config_Colors_BackgroundNeutral	EEEEEE

Related Graphics:
SearchResults_SubCat_Angle.gif
Bullet_SubCategory.gif
Config_Colors_Lines_Light
Config_Colors_BackgroundLight
Config_Colors_BackgroundNeutral

Category Graphic

An image used to brand the category with a custom look & feel. To upload this graphic, go to the EDIT category page and click the "Upload New Images" link

SubCategory DisplayMode 2

A display of all the subcategories. You may have two simultaneous subcategory listings, which are configurable using the fields SubCategory DisplayMode1 and SubCategory DisplayMode 2. (For more examples of this, see the next example in this tutorial.)

Related Fields:
Table	FieldName	Example Value1	Example Value2
Categories	SubCategory Displaymode 2	Thumbnails	Category Graphics

Related Configuration Variables:
DataName	DataValue
Config_EnableYouAreHere	Y

Related Graphics:
SearchResults_SubCat_Angle.gif
Bullet_SubCategory.gif

Category Thumbnail Image

This image is being pulled from this subcategory. To upload a thumbnail for the subcategory, go to the EDIT category tab page for that subcategory and click "Upload New Images"

Product Display Mode

This area displays all of the products in this category. Be aware that if a category has subcategories, this category will pull products assigned to this category PLUS any products assigned to any subcategories.

Related Fields:
Table	FieldName	Example Value1	Example Value2
Categories	Product Display Mode	Single Rows	Grid

Related Graphics:
buttons/btn_go_gray.gif
buttons/btn_nextpage.gif
buttons/btn_nextpage.gif
Bullet_MoreInfo.gif
divider_bgr.gif
Grid_Divider_Vertical.gif
Grid_divider_bgr.gif

Category Description

Text to describe this category and a general overview of the type of items found in this category. You may also use HTML in this field to add any type of content you wish, such as more imagery, text, promotions, etc.

Customizing the visual display (EXAMPLE #2)

SubCategory DisplayMode 1

Another example of displaying subcategories. To enable this display mode, go to the EDIT category tab page and set the field SubCategory DisplayMode 1to Left Side

SubCategory DisplayMode 2

Another example of displaying subcategories. To enable this display mode, go to the EDIT category tab page and set the field SubCategory DisplayMode 2 to Category Graphics

Navigation Menu Promotions

In order to add unlimited flexibility to your navigation area, we've created the Specials table. You may add promotional messages such as Save over 30% during December only!. Let's take a look at some of the things you can do...

Creating a text promotion with link to an article:

The above nav menu promotion example will be displayed below the main navigationmenus, but above the Quick Links Menu. This is because the SpecialOrder field is set to 25. The existing navigation menu items havethe following pre defined order placemarks: Search box = Position 10Nav Menu 1 = Position 20Nav Menu 2 = Position 30