Categories

In the category management you administrate the category structure of your shop, and in Shopware 6 the categories are also used to organize the shop pages and the service menu.
You can find the module under Catalogues > Categories.

Category overview

Categories are the menu items in the main navigation but also in the service navigation or the footer navigation.

On the left side you will find the category structure displayed as a fold-out menu. There you have the possibility to change the sorting by drag & drop - this is possible on every category level and you can also move a category into another category as a subcategory.
As mentioned at the beginning, the categories are also used for footer navigation and the service menu. For a clear administration it can be useful to work with two or three category trees, as you can see on the screenshot above.

Context menu

For each category, the context menu can be opened with the "..." button, which can be used to execute further functions.

• New category before: Creates a new category on the same level before the selected category
• New category after: Creates a new category on the same level after the selected category
• New subcategory: Creates a new category a level below the selected category
• Edit: Opens the display on the right side for editing the selected category
• Delete: Deletes the selected category including all subordinate categories

In the examples section for creating new categories, we explain the differences between the category options from the context menu.

Create category

To create a new category, open the context menu of an existing category and select one of the menu items New category before,New category after or New subcategory.
Afterwards a mask will be displayed in the menu at the appropriate place, in which you enter the name of the new category and confirm with the check mark.

Please note that a newly created category is inactive and is not displayed in the frontend.

You define the content of the category in the editing menu, here you can also activate the category.
You will find more information in the next section Edit category.

Edit Category

To open the editing view of a category, you can either click directly on the name of the category in the list on the left or open the context menu of the category and select Edit.

The editing area is split into four tabs. General, Products, Layout and SEO. However, these are only required in the default category type Page/List. For the other category types, only the General tab is needed.

General

The General tab is divided into several items for better clarity.
Please note that the available configuration options depend on the selected category type

General
In the General section, you define the type of category you want to use.

Name (1): The name of the category that's given when creating the category, although it can still be changed here later.
Category is active (2): This switch toggles the category active and inactive. The active category is shown in the frontend and is used, if switched to inactive it's not in use and won't be shown in the frontend.
Tags (3): Here you can store keywords these can be used in other programs areas (e.g. products, customers).
Category type (4): Select the category type here, this has an effect on the behavior of the category.
Page / List: A standard page that is used, for example, for a product listing or a shop page.
Structuring element/entry point: A sorting element is used to structure the category tree, such a category cannot be called up, but only provides a menu entry with further sub-items.
Link: Enables direct linking to an entity of the shop or a freely definable page. You can find more information below in the Link section.

Customisable link
If you have selected Link as the category type, these options available to specify where link should go.

Link type (1): Select you if you want the link to link to an external page or to an entity within your shop.
Entity/link target (2): If you select External as the link type, you can enter the URL to the target. If you select Internal as the link type, you can select the entity to be linked to here. This can be a category, a product or a landing page, for example.
Open in new tab (3): Activate this checkbox if the link should open in a new tab instead of in the same window.

Entry point
If you have selected Page/List or Structure Element/Entry Point as the category type, these options are available to you.

Entry point (1): Here you define the point in the navigation where this category is to be reached. The category with its subcategories can be displayed in three different forms on the storefront: Main Navigation, Footer Navigation and Service Navigation. The entry point is therefore important because your category as well as the subcategories determine how the respective navigation is structured.

Main navigation: This is always the best choice if you want to display a classic category structure with products or shopping experiences. By default, the navigation is located in the upper area of the storefront, below the shop logo. So if you have your category with the respective subcategories with products and content, choose this navigation.

Footer navigation: With this navigation you can determine the structure in the lower area of the storefront (footer). This navigation is useful if you want to include pages such as your imprint or privacy policy. The  footer navigation is structured and ordered according to your category and subcategories.

Service navigation: This is located at the top right of the storefront and, like the footer navigation, are again displayed on the basis of a category with the respective subcategories.

Sales channels (2): Select the sales channels for which the category should be available. You may select multiple sales channels.
Configure home (3): If additional the category functions as the home page for another sales channel, you can configure this here. These configurations only take effect if the category is opened as the start page in the selected sales channel.
As a sub-category, the settings made here continue to apply.

Menu settings
In the menu settings, you can enter further information on the category. For example, this information can used in an Shopping experience page using the data assignment function.

Hide in navigation (1): If you activate this switch, the category is hidden from the navigation bar.
Display image (2): The display image is shown in the drop-down menu, for example, but can also be automatically integrated into an shopping experience page using the data assignment function. 
Description (3): Enter a useful category description to provide your customers with information about the category. The description can also be integrated into the into an Shopping experience page using the data assignment function without having to manually maintain the text there again.

Products

You can assign products to the category by using the product assignment.

Type (1): You can either fill the category manually or have it filled by a dynamic product Group. You can find out how to create a dynamic product group here.

If you have already assigned articles manually, but then subsequently set the type to Dynamic product group, the articles are no longer displayed in this category. However, they will still be displayed in the categories above. 

Products / Dynamic product group (2): If you have selected manual selection as the type, you can assign the products manually here. If you have selected Dynamic product group as the type, select the dynamic product group you want to assign here. 
Product list (3): Here you see a list of the currently assigned products.

Layout

Here you define the appearance of the category. To do this, you assign a layout created in the shopping experiences under assign layout. You can also use the create new layout button to switch directly shopping experiences editor and create a completely new layout there. (information on how to use the editor in the shopping experiences can be found in this article).

After selecting a layout, all segments of the selected shopping experience are displayed in the Layout area. Initially, the content of the layout is presented grouped by blocks, so the type and number of blocks varies depending on the layout. Here you have the option to change the shown content without having to switch to the shopping experience and create a separate category page for each category.
 

Please note that the settings in the layout selection can overwrite your shoppping experience configuration.

 

Visibility

If you have added a layout, you can see in which viewport the layout is visible (1).
Below that you can see if the respective block element is visible (2). In this case the block will be hidden in the mobile viewport. You define whether a layout or a block should be shown or hidden in a specific viewport directly in the configuration of the Shopping Experiences.

Sorting 

Here you have the option to assign a sorting order to the products in the listing under Category listing. If you enable the "Show Product Sorting" option, a drop-down menu will be created in the frontend, providing customers with sorting options.

If you enable the "Use Custom Sorting" option, two new options will be unlocked. In the Default Sorting, you can specify which sorting should always be used as a fallback and be pre-selected for the user. Through the Product Sorting option, you can add custom sorting orders that will also be available in the frontend. You can set the order of priority to determine the sequence.

SEO

In the SEO section, here you enter search engine relevant meta data for this category. In addition to an SEO title and an SEO description, you can enter additional keywords that are taken into account in search engine searches. 
Under the heading SEO URLs you can define an SEO URL category for every sales channel. These are based on the SEO settings you have made. 

Examples of how to create new categories

We are going to show you some examples on how to correctly create new categories for your shop.
 

Example 1:
You want to add more categories (Food, Clothing, Leisure & Electrical) for your products to your top category "Home", which is already assigned to your sales channel.

In this case, you must add new subcategories to the top category "Home" using the context menu so that the categories are created at the lower level of your previous category. The subcategories will then be displayed in your shop as categories for your products.

Example 1:
You want to create your own categories for your subshop.

The best way to create a new category is to open the context menu of your previous category "Catalogue #1" and then click on New category after. This will create a new category at the same level, which you can call "Catalogue #2", for example. Next you need to create new subcategories - as explained in example 1.

Landingpages

Landing pages are pages that do not appear in the shop's navigation. They can be reached externally under the URL of the sales channel + the individual URL of the landing page.

Below the category overview you will find the overview of the landing pages that have been created. Unlike the categories, the order is not important here. You can remove, duplicate or edit the corresponding landing page via the context menu (1) on the right-hand side. 
You can create a completely new landing page using the add landing page (2) button.

General

In the general area, you must first configure the basic settings.

Name (1): The name of the landing page is used in the overview and is used as the title of the landing page.
Landing page is active (2): Only if this tick is active, the landing page can be reached under its URL.
Sales channels (3): Select the sales channels here in which the landing page is to be embedded. The landing page is only accessible in combination with the URL of the selected sales channels.
Tags (4): Here you can assign tags to the sales channel to make it easier to find in the admin.

SEO

In the SEO section, here you enter search engine relevant meta data for this landing page. In addition to an SEO title and an SEO description, you can enter additional keywords that are taken into account in search engine searches.

The SEO URL is a mandatory field. This is the URL under which the landing page can be called up directly. If you enter the value start here, for example, as in the screenshot, the URL of the landing page is www.mysaleschannel.co.uk/start, depending on the sales channel.

Please enter only the name of the landing page, like on the image start. The URL will be generated automatically.

Layout

Here you define the appearance of the ladningpage To do this, you assign a layout created in the shopping experiences under assign layout. You can also use the create new layout button to switch directly shopping experiences editor and create a completely new layout there. (information on how to use the editor in the shopping experiences can be found in this article).

After selecting a layout, all segments of the selected shopping experience are displayed in the Layout area. Initially, the content of the layout is presented grouped by blocks, so the type and number of blocks varies depending on the layout. Here you have the option to change the shown content without having to switch to the shopping experience and create a separate category page for each category.