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Categories are managed in the "Categories" page of the "Catalog" menu. This page displays a table with the currently existing categories, with the main information displayed.
Using the icons icon in the "Displayed" column of the table, you can indicate the ones you want hidden from the customer by clicking on the "Yes" green check-mark icon, thus turning it into a red "Nox" mark.
All the categories are actually sub-categories of the "Home" category.
To edit the "Home" category (or any currently selected category), click on the "Edit" button in the button bar when the table displays the root categories.
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- Name. Give your category a name, then indicate . Make it very short and descriptive, and choose your words wisely: your customers will rely on it when browsing your shop.
- Displayed. Indicate if it is "displayed" (i.e., whether or not it will be available to your customers). For example, you may want to postpone displaying a new category to your customers because you have not quite completed it.
- Parent Category. Does not appear when creating a root category. If you wish to create a subcategory belonging to a category other than the home page, choose the category under which it will appear.
The form is the same when creating a root category or a sub-category. The only difference is that when clicking "Add New" from a sub-level of categories, PrestaShop understands that you want to create a sub-category, and therefore sets the "Parent category" option accordingly. Root Category. You might want to use this new category as the new root category, instead of "Home". If so, check the radio button that applies.
Info The root category is very useful in multi-shop mode. Imagine you have 3 stores with different or partly different products and categories: you might want to use a different root category for each store.
The root category thus reflects the "home" category of each store so if you do not want to have the same products in the homepage category of each store, you need different root categories.
This way it is easier to assign categories to each store and you can have different products in the home category.- Description. You should fill this field, because not only will it be useful to you or your employees, but some themes might also make use of it, displaying it to your customers.
- Image. Click on "BrowseAdd file" to upload an image from your computer which will represent this category.
Then, the form presents you with a few Search Engine Optimization (SEO) fields. This information will help you improve the visibility of your catalog on search engines.
- Meta title. The title that will appear on the search engines when a request is made by a customer
- Meta description. A presentation of your category in just a few lines, intended to capture a customer's interest. This will appear in search results
- Meta Keywords. Keywords that you must define in order to have your site referenced by search engines. You can enter several of them, separated by commas, as well as expressions, which must be indicated in quotation marks.
- Friendly URL. Enables you to rewrite the addresses of your categories as you wish.
For example, instead of having an address such as http://www.myshopexample.prestashop.com/category.php?id_category=3, you can have http://www.myshopexample.prestashop.com/123-name-of-the-category.
In this case, all you would need to do is indicate in the field marked "Friendly URL" the words that you wish to see appear instead of "name-of-the-category" separated by dashes. - Group access. Restricts access to the category and its products to certain shoppers. To see these categories, your shoppers must belong to a user group. Check out the "Groups" page in the "Customers" menu for more information.
Root Category. Only appears when creating a root category. You might want to use this new category as the new root category, instead of "Home". If so, check this option that applies.
Info The root category is very useful in multi-shop mode. Imagine you have 3 stores with different or partly different products and categories: you might want to use a different root category for each store.
The root category thus reflects the "home" category of each store so if you do not want to have the same products in the homepage category of each store, you need different root categories.
This way it is easier to assign categories to each store and you can have different products in the home category.
Once you have finished configuring your category, save it, and you are ready to fill it with products.
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Importing and exporting categories
Besides the "Add new" , and the "Edit" and the usual "Help" buttons, the list's button bar also features two three buttons:
- Export. Enables you to download the list of all categories, in CSV format.
Import. Opens the "Advanced Parameters > CSV Import" page, with the expect data type set to "Categories". Go to the "Understanding the Advanced Parameters" chapter to learn more about importing CSV files.
You will need your CSV file to follow this format:Code Block ID;Name;Description;Position;Displayed; 3;iPods;Now that you can buy movies from the iTunes Store and sync them to your iPod, the whole world is your theater.;1;1; 4;Accessories;Wonderful accessories for your iPod;2;1; 5;Laptops;The latest Intel processor, a bigger hard drive, plenty of memory, and even more new features all fit inside just one liberating inch. The new Mac laptops have the performance, power, and connectivity of a desktop computer. Without the desk part.;3;1;
The category identifier is the ID, not the category's name.
- Refresh list. Reloads the list of categories with all the changes that you made.
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