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Category

Overview

Describe main entities definitions, navigation, indexation, etc.

Main Entities

Category data are managed in Catalog module. Native VirtoCommerce functionality contains the following types:

Type Description
Category A container for other Categories and Products or Variations with own parameters. It collects products in a certain way.
Product An orderable item of merchandise for sale, can be used for targeted promotions, etc.

It is important to understand the relations between entities:

Type Relations
Category (many) categories <-> (one) physical catalog; (one) category <-> (many) products; (many) categories <-> (many) properties; (many) categories <-> many tags; (many) categories <-> (many) properties; (many) categories <-> (one) tax type;
Product (many) products <-> (one) physical catalog; (many) products <-> (one) category;

Where (many) entity1 <-> (one) entity2 means that entity1 can be related with only one entity2, and entity2 can have many relations with entity1.

Applying of properties and relations:

Type From where Description
Product property created in Catalog property inherited through Categories to their products
Product property created in Category property inherits and appears for products only in this Category
Variation property created in Catalog property inherited through Categories > through their products to products variations
Variation property created in Category property inherits and appears for products variations only in this Category

You can assign tags to Category. Tags help personalize pricing and access for users. Tags in Category have the same meaning as customer user groups.

The following policies exist for tag distribution:

Setting Description
TAGS DOWNTREE propagates all tags assigned to categories for all their descendants.
TAGS DOWNUP propagates tags up to hierarchy from descendants to parents.

Indexation

Categories and Products are kept in the index. You need run Product and Category Indexation to put into index their changes.

Atomic functions / scenarios

Description Module Link
How to create Category Catalog module
How to manage Category Catalog module
How to create Subcategory Catalog module
How to run indexation for categories Search module
How to add properties in Category Catalog module
How to add tags in Category Catalog module
How to hide and show Category Catalog module
How to set priority Catalog module
How to manage tax type Catalog module
How to manage policy for tags propagation Settings

Code extensibility

Name Module Description Link
Extend Category Catalog module Add custom field

XAPI built-in scenarios

Following built-in business API scenarios can be used by front-end developers "as is" when create registration user experience

Name Description Link

User scenario examples

Name Description Link
How to add property for products in selected category Create product property in needed category
How to set access for users to Category Manage tag and user group relation
How predefine Categories order of displaying Set Priority fields

Last update: June 9, 2021