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.
The Categories screen
Section titled “The Categories screen”Categories are one tree table. Each row has a status (blank when enabled, Disabled when not), the name, the number of subcategories and listings (a parent counts the listings of everything below it), and how long its listings live.
- Tabs show All, Enabled and Disabled, each with a count.
- Find a category searches names. Matches are highlighted and their parents stay visible in grey. When nothing matches, you can clear the search or add the text as a new category.
- The arrow beside a name opens or closes its subcategories. Expand all and Collapse all do the whole tree.
- The footer shows how many categories, groups and listings you have.
Row actions appear when you hover a row or Tab into it: Edit, Add subcategory, Move to…, Disable (or Enable), and Delete. On a phone every row has a ⋯ button that opens the same actions in a sheet.
Adding a category
Section titled “Adding a category”Add category makes a top-level category. Add subcategory on a row makes one inside it. In the edit panel, Parent can be changed at any time. A category needs a name per active language; the URL slug is derived from the name.
Put listings in the leaf category, not the parent. Nesting can go as deep as you like, unless your theme sets a limit (see Too deep).
Reordering and nesting
Section titled “Reordering and nesting”Drag a row by its handle. A dashed slot shows where it will land and says Inside Vehicles or Top level. Drag up or down to pick the place, and left or right to change the depth, one level at a time. A row moves with its subcategories. Hover over a closed group for a moment and it opens. Press Esc to cancel.
- Keyboard: focus the handle, then use ↑ and ↓ to move within the group, → to put the category under the one above, and ← to move it out. The arrows swap in right-to-left languages.
- Phone: press and hold the handle for a moment, then drag.
- Move to… picks a parent and a position from a list. Use it for long moves.
- Every move is announced, and a toast offers Undo. If saving fails, the row goes back.
Reordering is off while a search or a tab other than All is on, because a partial list makes the order ambiguous. Clear the search and filter first.
This is the order visitors see when browsing, so put your busiest categories at the top rather than leaving them alphabetical.
Too deep
Section titled “Too deep”Some themes show only a few levels of categories. A theme that says so sets the limit for the whole site: dragging deeper shows Too deep, the keyboard and Move to… refuse, and Add subcategory is greyed out on a row at the limit. The REST API agrees. Categories already deeper than the limit stay where they are and are marked. Nothing moves by itself. Developers: see theme chrome.
Bulk actions
Section titled “Bulk actions”Tick rows, then choose Bulk actions: Enable, Disable, Move to…, Set expiry… or Delete. If you tick a category and one of its subcategories, the subcategory is counted once, inside its parent.
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, in the footer, counts them again now.
Disabling versus deleting
Section titled “Disabling versus deleting”| Action | What happens to listings in it |
|---|---|
| Disable | The category, every subcategory at any depth and their listings stop appearing on the front end. Nothing is destroyed, and enabling it brings it all back. |
| Delete | The category is removed along with its subcategories and every listing in them, including expired and unapproved ones. |
Disabling a category that has subcategories or listings asks first and says how many are affected. A category with neither is disabled at once. A disabled or enabled category can be undone from the toast. A category cannot be enabled while its parent is disabled.
Deleting asks first and states the cost on the button, for example Delete 8 categories and 30 listings. When there are listings, it offers Disable instead.
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”Edit opens a panel with the category’s own rules:
- Listings expire: how long a listing in this category lives. This is where listing expiry is set, not in the global listing settings. Choose Never, 30, 60 or 90 days, or Other. Never means listings in this category do not expire.
- Listings already posted appears when you change the expiry. Keep their end dates (the default) changes only new and renewed listings. Give them new end dates sets each listing to end that many days after it was published, and Never removes the end dates. The panel counts how many listings would end at once.
- Also apply to its N subcategories: off by default. Tick it to give every subcategory the same setting, and the same choice for its listings.
- Show the price field on listings in this category: whether the price field appears at all.
Set expiry… in Bulk actions does the same for many categories at once. It shows the current value, or Mixed when the selection differs. Saving a category no longer re-dates its listings unless you choose Give them new end dates.
Plugins can add their own per-category settings to the panel 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.