Product Categories

You may add as many Categories and/or Main Categories as you like. If you are not going to be using 2 Category levels, you will place all Categories under the default Main Category "General", which has an ID of "0". Due to the database relationships, all Categories must be related to a Main Category. so you must leave this Main Category "General" intact when you delete the demo inventory and are ready to add your own Categories.

For the purpose of this document, we will refer to Categories as simply Categories. Please note that if you use Main Categories, then Categories will ACTUALLY be Sub Categories.

You must enter administration to add Categories.

Adding Main Categories

1. Click Main Categories in the Black Menu.
2. Enter the numeric Main Category ID (See Sorting Categories at bottom of page) and Main Category Name.

Adding Categories

1. Click Categories in the Black Menu.
2. Enter the numeric Category ID (See Sorting Categories at bottom of page) and Category Name. There are several reserved IDs and IDs that are used in certain situations...
   • 1: Used for Product options. Do not delete this Category or use ID 1 for any other Category.
   • 100: General Items: Any Product placed in Category 100 will show up in all Categories. This may be used if you have catalogs, or other items that you always want to be available. If you only have a single Category you can also use this. You may rename this Category but do not give it a new ID.
   • 1000: Gift Certificates. There are 2 types of gift certificate in this Category. Electronic, and Traditional. If you do not want to offer gift certificates at this time, we recommend changing the ID to an ID of 7000 or above. Then you may change it back to 1000 later if you decide to offer gift certificates, without having to re-enter the certificates into the Products table (we have pretty extensive descriptions that will be easier to edit than to re-enter). If you re-number this Category, remember not to use 1000 for any other Category. More on this in the Gift Certificates section.
   • 5000 thru 6999: Items in these Categories will NOT show up when browsing, but WILL be available when searching. More on this in the Integration With Your Site section.
   • 7000 and up. By default, items in these Categories will neither be available for browsing or in a search, but you may still query these categories to use them for Product specials, etc. More on this in the Integration With Your Site section.
3. If you are charging Sales Tax, check the box if items in this category will be taxed.
4. Choose the Main Category from the menu.
5. Enter a Category Name. Category Names may be duplicated, but IDs may not, although you probably won't want to name 2 categories the same if they are both under the same Main category. There is one reserved Category Name, "Specials". More on this in the Integration With Your Site section.

We have several options for showing Product "Specials", one of which is to simply name a Category "Specials". The 5000 and up rules still apply. The "Specials" Category would show up in your regular Categories menu if numbered under 5000. Other methods of showing Specials are covered in the Integration With Your Site section.

To edit any Category or Main Category, click the ID from the respective page, then either change the entry and click Update, or clieck Delete to delete the entry.
CAUTION! WARNING! DANGER! Deleting a Main Category will "cascade delete" every Category and Product under that Main Category. Deleting a Category will "cascade delete" every Product under that Category. Please Be Careful!

Sorting Categories: By default, all Main Categories and Categories are sorted by ID in the standalone version, and in search.cfm if using that page in the integrated version. If using Custom tags or writing your own queries and using the integrated version, you'll be able to specify to sort by Name or ID. In the standalone version you may change to sort by Name by changing...
attributes.sortmancat = ""
to...
attributes.sortmancat = "Name"
in the "Product display and search" section of Application.cfm. Sorting by ID gives more flexibility in the order you wish to display your Main Categories and Categories. You may also "skip" IDs, and enter them such as 10, 20, 30, etc., leaving enough unused IDs to add new Main Categories or Categories in the proper position at a later date. Main Category IDs and Category IDs may also be changed at any time if you wish to re-arrange the displayed order at a later date.