Categories
Organize products into browsable categories with thumbnails, SEO URLs, pricing assignments, and access control.
Categories let you organize your product catalog into a navigable hierarchy on the storefront. Each category can have a parent category (for subcategories), a pricing assignment, an attribute set, a thumbnail image, and its own SEO-friendly URL. Categories also control storefront permissions — you can set whether customers can browse, upload, create, or customize products within each category. Products are assigned to categories via the Products page.
- From your Unified Admin, go to Products > Categories.
- The category list displays all categories sorted by display order. Use the Search button to filter categories by name.
- To reorder categories, drag any row using the sort handle and drop it into the desired position. The new display order is saved automatically.
- To toggle published status, click the Published checkbox directly in the grid. The change saves immediately.
- To import categories, use the import button in the header to upload an Excel file. You can import all categories (replacing existing) or import new categories only.
- To export categories, use the export button to download all categories as an Excel file.
| Column | Description |
|---|
| Id | Unique category identifier. |
| Preview | Thumbnail image for the category. Displays on the storefront in category navigation and overview pages. |
| Sort | Drag handle for reordering. Drag a row up or down to change its position in the display order. |
| Name | Category name as it appears on the storefront. |
| Friendly Url | SEO-friendly URL path for the category page, managed via the SEO system. |
| Product Count | Number of published products assigned to this category. |
| Published | Checkbox indicating whether the category is visible on the storefront. Toggle directly in the grid. |
| Action | Menu with Edit, Edit CMS, Preview, and Delete options. |
| Action | Description |
|---|
| Edit | Opens the category edit form to change name, parent, pricing, thumbnail, and other settings. |
| Edit CMS | Opens the CMS content editor for the category page, where you can manage page content, layout, and display options. |
| Preview | Opens the category page on the storefront in a new browser tab. |
| Delete | Permanently removes the category. Deleting a category also removes all product-category mappings, CMS content, SEO records, and user group exceptions. Products assigned to the deleted category are unpublished. |
- From the Categories list, click Add to create a new category, or click Edit in any row's action menu.
- Fill in the fields below and click Save.
The edit form has a two-column layout. The left column contains the core category settings, and the right column shows alternate views and tag assignments.
| Field | Description |
|---|
| Name | Required. The category name displayed on the storefront and in admin listings. |
| Description | Internal description for the category. Used in CMS content and category overview pages. |
| Parent | Dropdown of top-level categories. Select a parent to make this a subcategory. Leave empty for a top-level category. |
| Pricing | Dropdown of pricing categories. Assigns a pricing structure to all products in this category. Products inherit pricing rules from their category's pricing assignment. |
| Attribute | Dropdown of attribute sets. Assigns a set of product attributes (e.g., size, paper type) to products in this category. |
| Published | Checkbox. When checked, the category is visible on the storefront. Unpublished categories are hidden from customers. |
| Thumbnail | File upload for the category image. Accepts JPG, JPEG, PNG, BMP, and SVG files. The thumbnail displays on storefront category navigation and overview pages. |
| AccuZip Config | Dropdown of AccuZip configurations. Only visible when an AccuZip API key is configured for the storefront. Assigns a mailing list processing configuration to the category. |
| Use Alternate Master | Checkbox. Only visible when alternate master page files exist on the storefront. When checked, the category page uses an alternate layout template instead of the default master page. |
Tags let you label and filter categories on the storefront. The tag panel shows all tags currently assigned to the category.
| Field | Description |
|---|
| Tag dropdown | Select from available tags that are not yet assigned to this category. |
| Add button | Assigns the selected tag to the category. |
| Tag grid | Lists all tags currently assigned to this category with a delete action to remove each tag. |
- From the Categories list, navigate to Add Tags to manage the global list of category tags.
- Type a tag name and press Enter or comma to add it. Click the remove icon on any tag chip to delete it.
- Click Save to persist changes.
Deleting a tag removes it from all categories that use it (cascading through the tag-to-category mappings).
| Area | Effect |
|---|
| Category navigation | Published categories appear in the storefront navigation. The category hierarchy (parent/child) determines the menu structure. Category thumbnails display on overview pages. |
| Category pages | Each category has its own storefront page at its SEO-friendly URL. The page layout is controlled by the CategoryOverview or SubCategoryOverview master page, showing products assigned to the category. |
| Product organization | Products are assigned to categories via ProductCategoryMap records. A product can belong to multiple categories. The display order within a category is set per product-category mapping. |
| Access control | User groups can be restricted from specific categories via UserGroupException records. The storefront's AvailableCategories property filters categories based on catalog assignments, user group exceptions, and published status. |
| Pricing | The Pricing Category assignment on a category determines the pricing rules applied to products within it. Pricing is resolved per category via the PricingCategoryId foreign key. |
| SEO | Each category creates a SeoCore record (content type: Category Page) that manages the friendly URL, page title, and SEO metadata for the category page. |
| Area | Effect |
|---|
| Category CMS | Each category has a corresponding CMS entry (accessible via the "Edit CMS" action) where you can manage the page content, control which sections are visible (Browse, Upload, Create, Customize), set login requirements, and configure the category layout. |
| CMS permissions | The CMS category editor controls storefront page sections: Homepage visibility, Browse (show products), Upload (allow file upload), Upload Later (deferred upload), Create (allow product creation), and Customize (allow customization). These map to the ProductCategory flags: canBrowse, canUpload, canUploadLater, canCreate, canCustom. |
- Products — manage the products assigned to each category
- Pricing — configure the pricing rules inherited by products in a category
- Tags — assign tags to categories for cross-category labeling
- Collections — build curated product groupings that include entire categories
- Content (CMS) — edit the page content and layout for category pages
- Users — control category visibility through user group exceptions
