Organizing Product Categories

To manage your product categories, navigate to Catalog > List or Catalog > Tree view within the administration area of SmartStore.NET. You can add, edit or delete your categories here. The list view allows you to see all created categories in a clearly arranged list and provides a search widget so you can easily find the category you are searching for. The tree view allows you to rearrange the structure of your categories and subcategories by drag & drop.

List View

The list view offers you a search widget where you can search for a category by Category Name or by Alias. The list view also offers the option to export your categories into an XML file.

Tree View

The order of categories you see in the tree view will be applied to the category structure in the frontend of the shop and will be the main navigation that your shop visitor uses to find products in your store. To rearrange your categories you can simply drag them to the designated place and drop them there.

Category Details View

When adding or editing a category, you'll be forwarded to the category details view as shown on the screen below. Here, you can enter all the data that's related to this category in six different tabs. With the buttons in the upper right corner, you can preview the work you've done, save it or delete the category. When you select the option to delete a category, a new window appears asking you whether the subcategories should be deleted or placed in the root.

Category Info Tab

250px\|Field	Description
Name	This is the default value for the category name that's also shown to the shop visitor in the frontend of your shop, as long as you haven't entered differing values for other languages. For more information about languages, see the topic Managing Languages.
Description	This is the default value for the category description that is shown to the shop visitor in the frontend of your shop. The description field is also multi-language enabled.
Alias	An optional, language-neutral reference name for internal use.
Category Template	The category template defines how the category and its products will be displayed to the shop visitor.
Picture	This picture will be shown in the frontend wherever categories are shown in an overview e.g. the overview of subcategories within a parent category.
Parent Category	You can select the parent category here.
Show on Home Page	Defines whether the category will be shown on the start page of your shop. The categories that are defined to be shown on the homepage will be displayed below the introductory text on the start page.
Published	Defines whether this category is visible to your shop visitors.
Display Order	Defines the display order in which the categories are ordered within their parent category. The display order will automatically be adjusted when ordering your categories within the tree view explained above.

Search engines (SEO) Tab

In this tab, you can enter specific SEO values for the category e.g. Meta title, Meta keywords or a SEO friendly URL alias. For more information about the fields in the Seach engines tab, read the topic SEO.

Products Tab

In this tab you add existing products to your category. When clicking the button Add A New Product a new window opens which contains a structured list of all products where you can mark several products at once to add them to this category. You can also use the search widget to search for specific products you want to add.

Discounts Tab

In this tab, you can choose the discounts that should be active for this category. Keep in mind that only discounts of the Discount Type Assigned to Categories can be managed here. For more information about discounts, read the topic Managing Discounts.

ACL Tab

In this tab, you can manage access rights that define to whom the category is visible. For more information about access rights, read the topic Access Control Lists (ACL).

Stores Tab

In this tab, you can manage which store the category should be published in. For more information about multiple stores, read the topic Working with Multiple Stores.

Other Tabs

There may be other tabs depending on the plugins you've installed. For information about these tabs, refer to the plugin developer.