Admin Page: Categories > Categories

This page added in version 7.4.0

At the top of the page it will show what category you are viewing. The items in the breadcrumb are clickable so that you can navigate back "up" the category tree if you have navigated several levels deep.

If you are at the top level, you will see an entry on the right hand side just below the breadcrumb that looks like this:

This tool allows you to enter the ID number of a category, if you know the ID and wish to quickly navigate to that category.

If you are viewing the sub-categories in a particular category, the "navigate to category #" tool is replaced by the buttons:

This allows you to edit the category or use any of the manage tools for that category, without having to navigate back up to the parent category like you might have to do otherwise.

You will notice that within the table on this page, there are several columns associated with each category that will allow you to perform a variety of different functions. Each of these are explained below:

The first column just has a checkbox. This allows checking a single category or multiple categories to use the With Selected: buttons on. Note that the checkbox in the header allows to "check / uncheck all" by checking or un-checking just the box in the header of the category table.

This column displays the name of the category that was assigned when the category was originally created. Next to each category is the category id issued to that category when it was created. Each category id is unique to that category. This category id is how the system navigates to a category on the client side. When navigating to a specific category you will see the category id in the url whether using the Geodesic SEO module or not. With the SEO module OFF a standard link to a category with the category id of 20 would look like this:

index.php?a=5&b=20

or

http://www.mysite.com/index.php?a=5&b=20

The category id can be useful if you wanted to create your own link to a specific category from another site or when creating a category link within your site. You will use the form above and the category id for that specific category to be linked to create that category link.

SEO module note: Specific links to categories will still have the category id within them unless you create specific definitions within your htaccess file to link to specific categories. We do not suggest this unless you are very familiar with creating the "rules" within the htaccess file that mod_rewrite can understand.

You can also use this category ID in the top right corner of this page in the admin (when not already viewing a specific category) to quickly navigate to a specific category if you have the ID of that category.

To the right of the category name and ID, you will see a list of icons. Some of them will be grayed out. Any that are grayed out means that category does not have any of the associated thing attached to that category.

These icons let you quickly see which categories have things set in them, for instance you can quickly see if there are any category specific "fields to use" settings, or any category questions, just by looking at those icons. Note that the icons only represent that category, they do not take into account anything that might be attached to a "parent category".

When you hover on each icon, it will show a title describing what that icon represents.

Addon Developers: Note that addons can also add their own icons if needed, developers see the hook admin_category_list_specific_icons for more information. The core display addon uses this to show categories that have browsing filters set.

This column shows the total number of live listings in that category. This count is generated "on the fly" meaning that it is as accurate as possible (the count is not showing the "cached" count).

This column shows whether the category is enabled or not.

Disabled Categories:

• Can NOT be viewed on the front side. Even with a "direct link" it will behave as if the category does not exist.
• Can NOT be selected when placing a listing.
• If there are listings in a disabled category, those listings CAN sometimes show elsewhere on the site. Disabling a category does NOT hide all listings in that category.

Categories will be displayed in the numerical order set here. Note that there are some settings that might overwrite this option.

If there are several categories with the same display order number, those categories will appear in alphabetical order in relation to each other.

Clicking this button will have the same effect as clicking on the listing title, it will show all sub-categories of that category.

Clicking on the edit button will allow you to edit the details about the category.

Clicking on the manage button will bring up the manage dialog, which includes more buttons to do things like edit category specific fields to use, or category questions, etc.

Addon Developers: Note that addons can add their own buttons in the manage category dialog. Addon developers, see the addon hook admin_category_manage_add_links (documented in the example addon) for more info.

When you check one or more categories, there are several tools you can use for the checked categories listed below:

This tool allows you to change a few things about multiple categories. Specifically, you can change:

• Enable / Disable All
• Display Order # - can reset, with options:
  • Reset, increment starting from _ : This allows you to reset all of the numbers, and increment them starting from a specific number. For instance, if you had selected 5 categories, and set it to reset starting from 1, the first category would be set to 1, second set to 2, and so on. * Set all to same number _ : This lets you set all of the selected categories to the same display order number that you specify. Those would then be sorted alphabetically since they have the same display order.
• Listing Types Allowed - Only if you have at least 2 different listing types turned on (MAX only).
• Category Image - allows to remove all category images
• Category Description - allows to remove all descriptions
• Add extra to {head_html} from - allows to change to either "Parent Category" or "Default Site-Wide"

Note that for each option you can change, you have the option for "no change" and that is the default when you first open the dialog. Without making any changes on the dialog, there would be no changes made to any of the categories (so you do not need to worry about accidentally applying something, it will only change what you tell it to change).

The Copy tool will bring up a dialog similar to the screenshot below.

When copying, you have 2 ways to choose where the categories will be copied to. Either enter the ID # if you have the ID, or use the option Select Category as it shows in the screenshot above.

When using the Select Category option, you would use the links to "navigate" to the parent category you would like to copy the selection of categories to. The category displayed next to "Parent Category" will be the one that the categories are copied to.

There are also options for whether to include various "category specific" items when copying. Each item is explained below.

<tip c n>Note: You will not see an option to copy browsing filters in the category. This is because the way the browsing filter system works is not able to be copied in this manner. The browsing filters for each category rely on a number of factors and are just not able to be easily copied when making a copy of a category.</tip>

Additional options available when copying:

• Copy Category-Specific Questions
• Copy Category-Specific Fields to Use - Note: un-checked by default
• Copy Category-Specific Price Plans - Note: un-checked by default
• Copy ALL Sub-Categories Recursively - Warning: Using this option on category with lots of sub-categories can take a very long time. Also note that whatever options are enabled to copy, would apply to the sub-categories being copied as well.

Once you have made your selections and verified that you are copying what you want, click the copy button.

There are a few built-in restrictions for copying categories:

• Cannot copy to the same parent category.
• Cannot copy into "itself" or a sub-category of one of the selected categories. This is to prevent a loop, would be like trying to stuff a box inside itself, just not possible. If you really need to do this, make a copy first to somewhere else, then move that copy in.

This option is identical to the Copy tool, except that you do not choose things "attached" like category specific fields, as all of that is automatically moved "with" the category.

This allows you to delete the selected category(s), all sub-categories, and any listings in the category or sub-categories. Once they are removed, they are gone for good, you would have to re-add the categories if you wanted them back.

This will also remove all listings in the category and sub-categories.

To help prevent accidental deletion, you must select an option to "really" remove the category(s) and click the button to delete them.