SoftSlate Commerce's Built-In Categories
SoftSlate Commerce has four special Built-In Categories that you can use to display special
products throughout the store. If you've created any of these categories in your store,
SoftSlate Commerce will automatically load their products into memory, so you can use them to
display special products on any screen. By default, the categories will be displayed on the
right-hand side of the Welcome Screen.
The four Built-In Categories that SoftSlate Commerce looks for have the following category
codes:
- _features
- _popular
- _favorites
- _new
These categories can be used, respectively, for featured products, most popular or
bestselling products, favorites, and new products. (You can actually name the categories
whatever you like, so long as the category code is one of the four codes.
As an example, let's add the "_features" category to the store, and then add some products to
it.
Example 13.1. Adding a Built-In Category
- To add a Built-In Category to your store, log into the administrator and
navigate to the
Products ->
Categories screen. Click the "Add New Record"
button on the right hand side of the screen to go to the add category
form. - Add a category whose name is "Featured Products" and whose code is
"_features". Make sure the code is entered correctly, including the underscore
"_" at the beginning. If you enter it incorrectly, SoftSlate Commerce will not
think it's one of the Built-In Categories and won't load its products into
memory. For now leave the rest of the text fields empty. At the bottom of the form,
for the "On Category Tree" field, select no, so the category does not appear on the
store's category tree. Be sure to leave the "Active" field marked yes. Click "Add
New Record" when you're done.
- Now that you've added the category, let's assign some products to it. We'll
assume you have already added one or more products, but if you haven't, refer to
the Adding Your First
Product section.
- Navigate to
Products ->
Categories. You'll see the new "_features"
category in the table in the center of the screen. Click the "Products" link next
to it to view the products assigned and not assigned to the category. Click the
"On" button next to "Edit Mode", check the checkboxes under the "Assigned"
column next to the product you want to assign to the category, and click
"Update/Delete" to save the change.
