Categories
The categories are containers of products and are also used for navigation.
It is possible to set Actions, Forms and Access policies on the category level, and all products in the category will inherit these settings.
Categories can also be added as Sub categories to make navigation and grouping of products easier.
Add a category
To add a new category, click the Add category button on the front page or in a category view.
When adding a new category from within an existing category, there is also an option to add a new Root category. Adding a Category within an existing category will create a child category, and a Root category will create a new main category. Note that new root categories can only be added from the Catalog Home page
Add a title, short description and description.
Compact view
The Use Compact View option can be set if the products in the category should be displayed as a list or as tiles.
An example with compact view enabled:
The display mode can be set by the user as well, see above.
An example with compact view disabled:
Category image
Read more about image uploads, selection and manipulation here.
In the Images tab, you can upload one or more images to the category.
A category can have a Thumbnail image and a Banner image. One image can have both roles.
Use the Thumbnail and Banner selection buttons on the images to define the image roles.
The banner image is placed above the product list in the category view:
The thumbnail image can be displayed on the slides on the front page of the Catalog:
Read more about image uploads, selection and manipulation here.
Category actions
Read more about the action system here.
Actions can be defined on a category level. This allows managers to set actions, like input forms, approver and submit actions that will be inherited by all products that are placed in the category.
Each product will inherit the actions from the category level and can include more product-specific actions.
The category actions can also be ignored by a product.
In the following example, we will see two actions defined on the category level:
- Approval step
- Email to service desk
We have also configured a form, including a dropdown for access type, and a optional comment field.
Then, in the products action configuration, we see that the product or sub category inherits the actions from the parent category.
In this example, there are two more actions for the specific product. These actions will be displayed/triggered before the category actions.
Click the Disable inheritance checkbox if the category actions should be ignored. The same goes for sub categories.
Read more about the action system here.
Category access policies
It is possible to set access policies on a category level. All products and sub categories in the category will inherit the access policies.
- Who can access: Specify which groups can see the category and its products.
- Who is denied access: Specify which groups are denied access to the category and its products. This is useful if you want to allow access to a large group but exclude a smaller group, like employees at a specific location that requires other products.
The access policies can be set in the Access restrictions module in Category edit mode:
The category can also be hidden completely from the catalog and only be accessible via a direct link. This is done by enabling the Hide for everyone option.
