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Managing the Product Catalog > Categories and Subcategories > Managing Existing Categories |
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To perform any operation on a category (for example, to modify or delete a category, or to view the products contained in a category), you first need to locate this category. As categories in your store may be located on more than one levels, you need to be able to navigate the category tree to locate categories. No navigation is required to locate a category on the root level: a list of all the categories of the root level becomes immediately visible in the 'Categories' form as soon as you enter the 'Categories Management' section of the Admin zone (Management menu->Categories):
The list is sorted alphabetically. The POS. column shows the order in which the categories appear on the storefront. The column PRODUCTS shows the number of products contained in each of the categories (outside subcategories). The column SUBCATEGORIES shows the number of subcategories in each of the categories. The column ENABLED demonstrates the status of the categories (enabled or disabled). To locate a category on any level other than 'root', you need to navigate to that level of the category tree. If the desired category is a subcategory of a root level category, simply click on the name of the root level category. If the desired category is located several levels apart from the root level, consecutively click on the names of categories leading to this category until you reach the desired location. In any case, a click on a category name takes you to the level of that category and allows you to view the list of the category's subcategories (if the category has any subcategories). With regard to the category set shown in the screenshot above, a click on the root level category 'Books' will produce the following:
The name of the current category will be shown at the top of the 'Categories' form (Current category: "Books"). A list of the category's subcategories will be given below. On any level except 'root', the top left-hand corner of the 'Categories' form will have a category level navigation bar. This bar will not only show the path to your current location, but will also allow you to return to any of the previously visited levels of the category tree with a single click.
Changing the order in which categories appear on the storefront To change the order in which your categories appear on the storefront, do the following:
It is possible to temporarily disable categories. A disabled category does not appear in the category tree on the storefront and is removed from the 'Search in category' drop-down box of the 'Search for products' form in the Customer zone. To disable one or more categories:
Note: Please be aware that disabling a category does not disable the products in that category. Although your customers will not be able to find products from a disabled category based on the category name, they will still be able to find them using other parameters (like product title) and they will also be able to access the products directly by entering appropriate URLs into the web browser address line. To disable all the products in a disabled category, you need to do a product search based on the name of that category and use group product editing to assign the status Disabled to every product listed in the search results. To re-enable previously disabled categories, re-set the value in the ENABLED column to Yes for these categories and click on Update. The categories should re-appear on the storefront.
Viewing the products contained in a category To view the products contained in a category (outside subcategories):
Note: You can freely move between category levels by using category name links and the category level navigation bar: clicking on the name of a category brings you to a lower level in your category tree; clicking on a link in the category level navigation bar brings you to that specific level. See Navigating the category tree for details.
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A form titled 'Products' will be opened.
The list of products will be displayed in the 'Category products' section of the 'Products' form. Titles of the products for which the current category is main will be displayed in bold font. Titles of the products for which the current category is additional will use a non-bold font. For each of the products, you will be able to see an SKU, a position number, a quantity and a price. The 'Category products' section allows you to manage the category products very much like the 'Search results' form in the 'Products Management' section: you can delete, preview, modify and clone products, as well as update the products' quantities and prices and generate HTML links. In addition to that, you can change the order in which the products appear within the category and add new products. To change the order of products in the category, edit the position numbers of the products that need to be moved (POS. column), then click on Update. To add a new product, click on the Add new... button at the bottom of the 'Products' form.
If you want to rename a category, to move it to a different location, to change its icon, membership availability or any other parameter(s), do the following:
Note: You can freely move between category levels by using category name links and the category level navigation bar: clicking on the name of a category brings you to a lower level in your category tree; clicking on a link in the category level navigation bar brings you to that specific level. See Navigating the category tree for details.
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A form titled 'Modify category' will be opened.
Below the 'Modify category' form there will also be a form with international descriptions of the category.
After editing any fields, be sure to click on Save to save the changes. To move the category to another location, scroll down to the 'Category location' section of the 'Modify category' form, select the desired location from the 'Current category location' drop-down box and click the Update button. If you have moved the category, its location in the list of categories should change.
If you want to completely remove a category (including all its subcategories and products), do the following:
Note: You can freely move between category levels by using category name links and the category level navigation bar: clicking on the name of a category brings you to a lower level in your category tree; clicking on a link in the category level navigation bar brings you to that specific level. See Navigating the category tree for details.
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A confirmation box will appear. The confirmation box will provide a list of all the categories, subcategories and products that will be removed if you choose to proceed with the deletion.
If you have chosen to delete the category, after an automatic page refresh, you should see an information box with a confirmation message.
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