Categories and the Category Tree

If you are selling products, you want to make it easy for users to find them. In addition to the great Search Features SCP offers, you can organize your products into categories and allow your users to browse them. The category tree provides a way to organize the entire product catalog. In addition, each category gets its own page on the site, which offers an opportunity to add content describing your products for your visitors.

Creating and Managing Categories

It's easy to create a category. In the administrator, click into Site Content -> Categories, and click the plus icon to add a category:

The different fields for the category are organized like this:

As you add or edit a category and are going through each of its fields, take note of the following:

1. The Name field will be used by default as the category's name, both in the category tree, the category page for the category, and the subcategory listing under its parent (if it has a parent).

2. On the category page for the category the name can be overridden, however, using the "Page Title" field under the Content section of the category form.

3. Under the Content section, use the Description field to add any formatted content to the category page for the category. You can include references to reusable content blocks also in the description (see the docs on Reusable Content Blocks).

4. Under the Additional Display Fields section, you can set up a carousel of subcategories, and other flags for the category page. See below for more info on the carousel.

5. Under the Navigation Fields section you can control whether a link to the category appears in the category tree, in the global header, or global footer. See below for more information.

Parent Categories, Subcategories, and the Category Tree

Adding Category Links To the Global Header and Footer

Assigning Products to Categories

The main purpose of a category is to hold a list of products of course! There are two ways employees can assign a product to a category:

Setting the Product's "Primary" Category

Very generally, this is the preferred way to assign a product to a category. In many cases, your category structure may be simple enough that most products only belong in one category each, so this will be all you need to do. Even in cases where a product needs to be assigned to more than one category, it's useful to pick one of them as the product's "primary" category. The primary category is used in the breadcrumbing links, if the user arrives at the product page without going through a category page (eg, from an outside link).

To assign the category this way, use the product's "Category" field. This is done by editing the product record. The field is located under the Content section of the product's add or edit form:

Alternatively, starting with the category, you can view all the products that have the category assigned to them as their "primary" category, by clicking the "Products" link under the category's three-dots menu:

Finally, under the main Products grid screen (found under Site Content -> Products), you can quickly search for and edit the primary category for an existing product. By default the category field is shown as a column on this grid. It is editable by clicking the pencil icon that appears when you hover over it:

For more information on the tools on the grid screen, please visit the Administrator Grid Screen document.

Using a "Product Category" Record

If you need to associate the same product with more than one category, you can create any number of Product Category records for the product.

Starting with the product, you can add and delete Product Categories from this link under the product's three-dots menu:

Alternatively, starting with the category, you can look at and manipulate all the Product Categories for it by the same link under it's three-dots menu:

On the resulting screen, you will see the list of Product Categories. Note: each row in the table represents a single product being assigned to a single category:

To add new assignments, simply click the plus icon in the upper right. Select both the product and the category, and click Add New Record:

To remove a product from a category, simply click the three-dots menu next to the row you wish to remove, and select Delete...:

On the subsequent screen, click "Delete Permanently" to confirm you want to delete the record. Note: when you do this from the Product Categories screen, you are not deleting the product, nor the category. You are just unassigning them from each other.

Example: a Category of Featured Products

A common use case where Product Categories are used is having a category composed of "featured" products. The products might have their own "primary" category, but then you may want to select them to be featured in another, special category.

If you have this sort of featured products category, you can maintain the list of products in the category periodically, via the Product Categories link under the category:

On the resulting screen, use the plus icon to add new products to the category, and use the "Delete..." link under the three-dots menu of one of the rows, to remove that particular product from the category:

When adding a new Product Category (ie, assigning a product to the category), after clicking the plus icon, on the following screen select both the product and the category, and then click Add New Record.

When deleting a Product Category (ie, unassigning a product from the category), after clicking "Delete...", on the following screen confirm you want to delete the record by clicking "Delete Permanently".

Carousel of Subcategories

Categories Pages vs. Content Pages