Categories
Every listing belongs to exactly one category. Categories drive browsing, filtering, forms and much of your URL structure. They are the most consequential structural decision on the site.
Listings → Categories in the admin panel.
Adding a category
Section titled “Adding a category”Categories → Add category. A category needs a name per active language; the URL slug is derived from the name.
Nesting is one level in practice: a top-level category with children under it. Put listings in the leaf category, not the parent.
Reordering
Section titled “Reordering”Drag categories into the order you want. This is the order visitors see when browsing, so put your busiest categories at the top rather than leaving them alphabetical.
Listing counts
Section titled “Listing counts”The number of listings shown for each category is recounted once a day. It can go wrong in between after an import or a direct database change. Recount listings, at the top of the list, counts them again now.
Disabling versus deleting
Section titled “Disabling versus deleting”| Action | What happens to listings in it |
|---|---|
| Disable | The category and its listings stop appearing on the front end. Nothing is destroyed, and re-enabling brings it all back. |
| Delete | The category is removed along with the listings in it. |
Renaming and URLs
Section titled “Renaming and URLs”Renaming a category changes its slug (the name as it appears in web addresses), and therefore the URL of its browse page. ShopClass keeps a slug history so old category URLs keep working, but external links and your own search rankings still point at the old address for a while.
Rename early, or not at all.
Per-category settings
Section titled “Per-category settings”Editing a category exposes its own rules:
- Expiration (days): how long a listing in this category lives. This is where listing expiry is set, not in the global listing settings. Zero means listings in this category never expire.
- Show the price field on listings in this category: whether the price field appears at all.
- Apply the expiration and price changes to all subcategories: the option that saves you editing each child by hand.
Plugins can add their own per-category settings here too.
Fields per category
Section titled “Fields per category”Fields are attached to categories through forms, not directly. A Vehicles form holding Make, Model, Year and Fuel Type is attached to your vehicle categories, and its fields then appear on the publish form and in filters for those categories only.
Designing the tree
Section titled “Designing the tree”A few rules that hold up:
- Match your visitors’ words, not your industry’s. “Cars” beats “Automotive vehicles” every time.
- Do not create a category you cannot fill. Twelve empty categories look abandoned; three busy ones look alive. Add more as volume justifies them.
- Keep it shallow. Every extra level is another click between a visitor and a listing.
- Fewer, broader categories plus good filters beats a deep tree. Filters are what actually narrow a search: that is what forms and fields are for.