Category Administration

Categories allow you to group one or more catalog items in a hierarchial tree.

Categories List

Selecting Categories from the Linkbar will present you with a list of the categories defined in Catalog.  Categories are indented in the list accroding to their relative position, or depth, in the tree.

Toolbar

In conjuction with selecting one or more checkboxes in the list, the Toolbar provides the following functions:

• Publish the selected category(ies).
• Unpublish the selected category(ies).
• Edit a selected category.
• Add a new category
• Delete the selected category(ies).  Please note that in order to delete, you must remove all catalog items from the category(ies).

Filters

You can filter the list by the following:

• Part of a string in the title of a category.
• The published state of the categories.

List Interaction

You can interact with the list of categories in the following ways:

• Click the linked column headers to change the sort order of the list and to reverse the sort direction.
• In the Title column, click the first link to edit the category.
• In the Published column, click the icons to toggle between published and unpublished states.
• In the Order column, click the up and down arrow icons to weight the ordering in different directions.
• Use the list pagination features as you would for any other component.

Related Information

The table also shows how many items have been created in each category.

Batch Update

You are able to batch change the parent that categories belong to.  Select any number of categories from the list, then select the new parent category that you want them to belong to, then click Process.

Quick Add

The quick add feature allows you to generate many new categories in one operation.

First select a parent category from the list of categories.  This will be the category that the new catagories are placed under in the tree.

Then type as many list names in the text box, each list name on a new line.  Click Add and the categories will be created automatically for you.

Adding or Editing a Category

Toolbar

The Toolbar provides the following functions:

• Save the current item but as a new copy of the original item (Save To Copy).  Any change made are saved with the new item, not the original.
• Save the current item and then returns you to add another (Save & New).
• Save the current item and return to the list.
• Apply the changes made to the current item and return to the same page to continue edits.
• Cancel the edits without saving and return to the list.

Main Page

The add/edit page is divided into two main areas: a Title Block and a tabbed section.

The Title Block allows you to manage the following fields:

• Title - The title for the category.
• Alias - The alias for the category used in URLs when Search Engine Friendly URLs are activated.
• Subtitle - An optional subtitle for the category.

General Tab

This tab allows you to manage the following fields:

• Description - The description for the category.
• Parent - The parent category under which this category will be placed in the tree.
• Published - Allows you to set the item to a published or unpublished state.
  
• Order - The weighted order for the item.  Negative numbers rise to the top of lists, and positive numbers sink to the bottom.  The order values do not need to be sequential.

Media Tab

This tab you to manage the following Media settings for the category:

• Thumb - An option image path that could relate to a thumb sized image.
• Small - An option image path that could relate to a small sized image.
• Medium - An option image path that could relate to a medium sized image.
• Large - An option image path that could relate to a large sized image.
• Full Size - An option image path that could relate to a full size sized image.
• Caption - An optional caption that will be used for the any of the other preset sizes listed above.
• Gallery Folder - An optional path that will be examined for images to use in a popup gallery.
• Custom Code - Optional custom code to be used for media such as Flash or other web objects.

For the five preset sizes, you can use the Media Manager to select the image by clicking the Select button beside each field.

This tab you to manage the following Map settings (supported by Google Maps) for the category:

• Longitude (X) - The latitude (X coordinate) for the map point.
• Latitude (Y) - The longitude (Y coordinate) for the map point.
• Map Width - The display width of the map (in pixels).
• Map Height - The display height of the map (in pixels).
• Initial Scale - The initial map scale (smaller numbers show more of the Earth).
• Map Zoom Control - Whether to display the zoom controls on the map.  A number of variations are available.
• Map Type Control - Whether to display the map type controls (Map, Satellite, etc).
• Map Overview Control - Whether to display an overview (birds-eye view) map within the main map.
• Map Scale Control - Whether to show the scale controls on the map.

If you have a Google Map key defined for your Administrator path (because Google looks at the path, you will need to obtain a map key for both the website and the administrator), then a simple location finder is provided beside the map fields.  Type in an address and click the Find button.  Use the zoom controls on the map to fine tune your location.  Pan around by clicking on the map and dragging it around (while holding the mouse button down).  Move the map marker by clicking on it and dragging it around (while holding the mouse button down, then release the button at the desired location).  When you are happy that the marker is in the correct location, click the Use This Point button and the coordinates will be updated.

Parameters Tab

There are not parameters supported by categories yet (this may change in future versions).

Metadata Tab

This tab you to manage the following settings for the category:

• Keywords - An optional set of keywords (separated by commas) that will be inserted into the actual web page (good for Search Engine Optimization).
• Description - An optional description that will be inserted into the actual web page (good for Search Engine Optimization).  This description will usually be display as a part of the search results in search engines.
• Reference - An optional external reference to an external datasource.

The path is built up from the alias values of all parent categories going back up the tree.

Additional Comments

There must be one, and only one, "Root" category.  That is, the whole tree must start with one category.  You cannot delete this category but you can change its title to suit the needs of your web site.

The category tree has an unlimited depth and catalog items can be placed in any number of categories.

The category view allows you to set a starting point in the tree.  Therefore you do not always have to start at the "Root" category.  If you have a number of different classes with different category needs, the you may like to use the first level of categories as "containers" for category sub-trees.  For example, if you have a class for "Events" and a class for "Contacts", and want to have different category structures for each, start the category tree with two sub-categories and then fill out the tree as you need for each type of class.  In addition, you could add a further sub-tree to relate catalog items to places.  For example:

ROOT
- Events
- - Conferences
- - Festivals
- - Joomla! Days
- Contacts
- - Business
- - - For Profit
- - - Non-profit
- - Friends
- Places
- - Australia
- - - Brisbane
- - - Sydney
- - United States
- - - New Orleans

The Reference field (see the Metadata Tab) can be used in conjuction with importing data with our Exchange extension and would allow you to update particular dataset.