Video Summary
This video explains the Category Tree structure and shows you how to create Category Sets and Categories. The purpose of Category IDs and Entity Identifiers is also explained.
Video Transcript
Welcome to Comestri. To begin, let’s sign in to the Comestri application.
In this video, we will be covering Category Sets and Categories. Let’s start by clicking Product Configurations on the main menu. Next, click Category Sets on the expanded menu.
Click the ‘New Category Set’ button to create a new Category Set.
Type a name into the Name field in the New Category Set dialog box.
Once you’re happy with your New Category Set name, click the Save button. NB: You will not be able to edit the Name of the Category Set once it has been saved, or once Categories have been assigned to it.
You can click the ellipsis and select the Delete option, provided the Category Set contains no Categories. A Category Set containing Categories cannot be deleted.
After creating a Category Set, click Categories on the Product Configuration menu.
Each Category Set is represented as a Category tree. You can click on ‘Open All’ to fully expand the Category tree.
The Category Set ‘Demo’, that we have just created, doesn’t have any Categories assigned yet. We can now start assigning Categories to it.
You can load Categories via CSV or an API call, or you can manually create them.
Let’s manually create Categories via the Comestri user interface.
Choose the Category Tree that you want to update and click the New button. In the New Category dialog box, enter a Name for your Category. Let’s call it “Sale”. The Description entry field is optional.
This is our first category, so we can’t select a parent Category.
Click Save. This refreshes the page. We can see the Sale Category now exists in our Category Set.
Now, let’s create a “Shoe” Category and save it.
Once again, click the New button. Name the new Category “Boots.” Select “Shoes” as the parent Category, make sure it’s highlighted, and click Save.
The structure of the tree has changed a little. Now there is a little plus symbol that indicates there are subcategories of this main Category. If you click the plus sign, it will open the tree to reveal your subcategory.
We also have an Open All and Close All function, which is more interesting to watch on a bigger tree.
Moving over to this Sample Apparel AU category tree, you can see that it tells you how many products are assigned in any particular category.
You can also hover your mouse pointer over a Category and the Comestri ID will display in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen.
An important feature: If you select a Category at the top of the tree, or just under the name of the Category Set, the Comestri ID for that Category will display at the top of the Category Set’s pane.
We can also add an Entity Identifier for this Category. This is an alternative ID that you can store against a Category.
You could use the Entity Identifier to store your online kind of platform Category ID that corresponds with this Comestri tree Category ID.
Let’s add an Entity Identifier. Select your category, then click the Entity Identifiers button.
When the Entity Identifiers dialog opens, click the Add button to open the Name and Key entry fields. Enter a name. The name you specify could be your Big Commerce ID. Enter a key. A key must be unique.
Click Save.
You cannot edit Entity Identifiers, but you can delete them and create new ones.
When editing your products, you will find Categories under the Categories tab.