Ecommerce Online Store - Inventory - Categories
The Category Manager menu creates and manages categories, subcategories and category wide markups. Categories appear, by default, in the left-hand navigation bar.
You can have up to 2500 categories with up to five (5) levels of depth.
When categories and subcategories have been created, they display in the Category Manager according to sort order. The same order applies to the Browse by Category module on the storefront. The number of products assigned to each category is indicated in parentheses after the name.
To create a new category, click on the Create a new category link. The link will open the Edit Category Details page.
Category Details Page
Click Create a new category and enter the Category Details Page. Enter detailed information in this page on each category you create.
How to Create a New Category
1. Enter text in the Category Name field.
2. Select the desired option from Parent Category drop-down menu.
3. Enter a number in Sort Order to determine where the category appears in the sort order.
4. Enter text in Full Description.
5. Modify your text as desired using the WYSIWYG editor.
6. Alternatively, if you wish to modify HTML, you can also click on View/Edit Source code button
You can find this button in the button bar at the top of the Full Description text area.
7. Enter the Search Engine Optimization information as you think is appropriate. (Friendly URL and Meta fields).
8. Click Save at the bottom of the screen to save the details on this category.
Repeat this process for each category and sub-category you wish to create.
Category Images
You can use an image for your categories. This image will display under the link to the category it's assigned to when viewing the category's parent category.
Note: Assigning a Parent Category image will override the category images for all categories underneath it.
How to Assign a Category Image
1. Click the Image Manager button. This will open the Image Manager in a popup screen.
2. You can upload a new image to your site by clicking the Browse button. This will allow you to find your desired image file and upload it to your site. You can also specify if this will be a thumbnail, display, detail or custom sized image.
3. Once you've selected the image you wish to use, click the Upload button. The image will be uploaded to your site and appear on the right column of images. If you already have an image on your site you wish to use, you can select the drop-down and find your image on your site.
4. Select your desired image from the list of images on the right. A preview of your image will appear in the Image Preview window.
5. Click the Select button. The path for your category image will be in the image path text box. If you wish, you can enter Alternate Text that will appear when a customer hovers their mouse pointer over the image.
6. Click the Save or Save & Return button at the bottom of the Edit Category Details page.
The category image will appear for sub-categories when you are viewing the parent category. Images for Master Categories do not appear. Once you've saved the changes to your category, you can view them by clicking the Preview Category on the Storefront button at the top of the Edit Category Details page.
For Example:
The master category "Furniture" contains two sub-categories: "Chairs" and "Tables". The images for the subcategories appear when you look at the Master Category "Furniture". Any products in the master category "Furniture" that is in a subcategory will be displayed below the two subcategories. Your customers can click on the category images to be taken into that category to view your products.
Field Level Detail
The following list describes the fields of the Category Details screen.
- Category Name: This is the title of the Category as it will display on the store.
- Parent Category: Categories can either be created as a main level category or as a subcategory of an existing category.
- Sort Order: A number that controls the order in which Categories are displayed on the storefront. A Sort Order of zero displays at the top of the list, higher numbers display lower on the list.
- Category Image: This image will display in the master category page for the assigned sub-category. You can click this image to be taken into the category to see either the sub-categories or products contained in the category.
Note: Master Categories cannot have category images.
- Alternate Text: Descriptive text for the logo.
- Short Description (subcategories only): Text summary of your Category, which displays to customers while navigating Categories and Subcategories in your store.
- Full Description: Informative text review of your Category.
- Hidden When enabled: This category and all of the products associated with it will be hidden from view on the storefront.
- Friendly URL: URL in which the query string is replaced by some meaningful identifier for your pages; makes it easier for search engines to index your pages. It also makes it easier for your users to remember the URL.
- Page Title: The text entered in this field can be seen at the top of the web browser window and search engine listings, helping search engines determine your web page relevancy for certain keyword phrases.
- Meta Keywords: The text entered in this field allows you to provide additional text for crawler-based search engines to index along with the text of your store pages. Enter words or phrases separated by commas.
- Meta Description: The text entered in this field can allow you to influence the description of your page in the crawler-based search engines supporting this tag.
When you have finished entering your information for your new category, you can now add new products and assign them to your new category.