How to create and edit categories

This page is for administrators: the operations described require access to the administration area.

Create categories within a family, write their text in each language and delete those you no longer need. You need access to the Categories administration area.

Category families are the values in the CategoryFamily reference data list: to add a family, add a value to the list as described in How to manage a reference data list.

Create a category

You cannot change the family or parent category after creation. To move a category, you must create a new one in the correct location.

  1. From the menu, select Admin, then Categories.
  2. Expand the family in the tree.
  3. To create a subcategory, select the parent category in the tree.
  4. Click Add new category.
  5. If you have selected a category, choose Root category for a top-level category or child of '…' for a subcategory of the selected category. If no category is selected, the new category is a top-level category.
  6. In Name, enter the name in the language you are using in openlane.
  7. Click Confirm.

The message Category saved appears and the new category is selected. Categories are listed alphabetically in the tree: you cannot change this order.

Write category text

  1. Select the category in the tree. Edit category appears on the right.
  2. In Locale, choose the language.
  3. Fill in the fields. These are described in Category fields.
  4. Click Save.
  5. Repeat for the other languages.

The message Category saved appears. If you switch languages before saving, openlane asks for confirmation and any unsaved changes are lost.

To write text for multiple categories at once, use the Excel import described in How to import and export categories in Excel.

Update breadcrumbs

When you save a category, openlane updates its breadcrumb but not those of its subcategories. After renaming a category that has subcategories, or after an Excel import that changes names, update all breadcrumbs. You need access to the Maintenance administration area.

  1. From the menu, select Admin, then Maintenance.
  2. In the Recalculate all category breadcrumbs row, click the Run icon.
  3. Confirm.

The message Event fired appears and the breadcrumbs are recalculated in the background.

Delete a category

openlane does not check whether the category is linked to any products. After deletion, the products are not updated and the category no longer counts towards channel requirements: if a channel requires a category, products that had only that category will show an error.

  1. Select the category in the tree.
  2. Click Delete category and confirm.

The message Category deleted appears. You cannot delete a category that has subcategories: the message This category has sub categories. It can't be deleted appears. Delete the subcategories first.