Duplicate Categories?

Store Builder Questions
1

Is it possible to duplicate categories?



I have one category that has tons of sub categories and I don’t want to re-do them all. Each category has the same sub categories just different products in each.

2

and i have no products added currently soooo

3

You can clone categories, but I doubt it will inherit the sub-categories from the cloned category.

4

How? That's why I made this post was to know how.

5

do it by CSV, then just delete the products in it,



John

6

When I try to export categories and sub categories when I open the CSV it only shows one of my main categories and that is it.



Can you explain how?



Thanks=)

7

Export the products not the categories, the cats will then come out with the products.



CS-Cart Documentation — CS-Cart 4.15.x documentation



Then import them backk in without the products or even with the new products, just change the name of the main category first bfore you bring them back in.

I remember there may have been problems with having identical sub cat names in the past so you may want to consider for instance if you have a main cat called



Blue

then sub cats of

10cm

20cm

30cm



You may want to change them in the next main cat of say main cat



RED

then sub cats of

Red 10cm

Red 20cm

Red 30cm



. I think it got fixed but check it out first.



Also you dont have to export all the columns of data …just the ones you want in the select box move over all the ones not needed before export, makes it a bit faster



John

8

I don't have any products added yet

9

Hello Curtism,



You cannot clone your categories by default, also you cannot import only categories, you can import them only via product import.



The category delimiter - is “///” by default.



So in your case, if you do not want to import products, but you want to import only categories, your CSV-file should be like this one:


Product code, Category
"", "CATEGORY ///SUBCATEGORY"
"", "CATEGORY"


Please refer to these articles in our Knowledge Base in order to learn more information about the import fields format:



CS-Cart Documentation — CS-Cart 4.15.x documentation

CS-Cart Documentation — CS-Cart 4.15.x documentation



But we do not recommend you follow this way. In this case it is more convenient to create necessary categories via the administration panel of your store. To do it, please take these steps:


  1. Log in to the administration panel of your store.
  2. Open the “Catalog” tab.
  3. Click on the “Categories” link.
  4. Click the “Add category” button to add several categories or click on the red “bulk category addition” button to add the necessary categories.



    —

    Anastasiya Kozlova

    CS-Cart Support team
10

well off to another shopping cart system

11

[quote name=‘curtism’ timestamp=‘1310143889’ post=‘116601’]

well off to another shopping cart system

[/quote]



Cya :rolleyes:

12

I'm sure your patience and respect will be rewarded with appropriate responses wherever you land.



Did you forget that most of us get NOTHING out of being here and trying to help you? Some of us get some residual business, but most just think this is the best cart for the money and realize that parts of it are hard to digest in one swallow so we try to give advice where we know answers. We also regularly read simply to learn.



It is a community where everyone has their own experiences. No individual has done it all and no one knows all the answers given different situations. So we rely on each other to fit the pieces of the puzzle together.



I learned something here… I didn't know you could import with a blank Product code field… Good tidbit for the future.

13

Here here tbirnseth



Hopefully curtism will give us a fair shake.

14

[quote name='curtism' timestamp='1310143889' post='116601']

well off to another shopping cart system

[/quote]

Hey maybe u let us know which cart u gonna use and well send em some andrex to help wipe u arse there too

15

Having researched many shopping cart software, cs-cart, overall turned out best. BUT it does have limitations in some areas, as does all software.



I have been battling with the same problem. The way Im setting up the store requires more than 300 categories or subcats, to allow customers to find easily the products that they need. (I wont go into why here, just trust me this method will give the customer a excellent experience)

There are only about 5 different product.

Many Cats have subcats without any products assigned because the Cat/Subcat/subcat/… are simply a product filter.



I have the same issue that Cs-cart has very limited edit-ability of Category definitions.

  1. You cant clone a category and its subcats.
  2. You cant Bulk-edit category “root category” definitions.

    ie There is no check-box for root category in the “Edit Selected” function of [admin.php?dispatch=categories.manage]
  3. When Adding “Secondary Categories” def's to a Product, there in only very limited info displayed (only Cat name) about the Cats that you may want add.

    Ideally the [Editing product:>>Subcategories:>>Add categories] popup should also display the “Category Description”, “Root Category” making is so so much easier to manage the store.
  4. And combining a “Category Search” function similar to the products.manage Products page in combination with the above would also go along way !

    I only post here out of the frustration of spending weeks and weeks on tasks that, given a small amount of additional admin functionality, could be done in just a few hours.

    Maybe there is an addon for this??

    Maybe theres an easy way to re-code admin to display a little more info.?

    I'd be keen to know.



    I wont be going to another cart software, but certainly would be interested in a solution.

    My eyes are spirals.
16

[quote name='remoteone' timestamp='1312695666' post='119042']

The way Im setting up the store requires more than 300 categories or subcats, to allow customers to find easily the products that they need.

[/quote]



Hard to give advice when we don't know why you need to duplicate categories. It is about about year/make/model? Then what you need is a combo selector or dependent filters.



You could contact alt-team. They could help you customize filters (dependent filters) so you don't need to create or clone many subcategory children. Another forum member, Joe, did a nice work on dependent filters too.



Also you can check the cscartrocks addon “dynamic Menu” it allows you to create independent subcategories menus. It helps when you have many categories. They also code it with “emenu” options.



Seems like Cs-cart will be working on improving filters. Check the roadmap page.

17

5 products and 300 categories? Seems a bit out of balance. Would think that 'filters' might be a better choice for your customers (like sequential options) than using categories. There's always more than one way to skin a cat.

18

[quote name='tbirnseth' timestamp='1312700894' post='119047']

5 products and 300 categories? Seems a bit out of balance. Would think that 'filters' might be a better choice for your customers (like sequential options) than using categories. There's always more than one way to skin a cat.

[/quote]

No …filters wont do it. Ive got a custom multicolumn template for categories. … much better customer experience. Have a look at panorama-antennasand you'll see what I mean. Every Cat and Sub-cat is just a filter to direct customers to the small variety of products. Each product might be assigned to hundreds of secondary products.

The customer can just click on the pretty pictures to get where they need to be.

19

I will look into the Filters and intend to have a a Side-box Filter Block, but this will be just supplementary.

Its not the main method by which customers will find the products.

20

We now have modified our cart giving the ability to Clone Categories from the Admin side in our website.

Its currently just a Mod that we may develop into an Addon.



It has the ability to duplicate selected Categories and all of its Subcategories, using “Clone selected” dropdown on the catgories.manage page.

Retaining images and all other settings, as well as product secondary assignments etc



[size=5][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#b22222]If you like such an addon, please register your interest at[/color]

[color=#0000ff]duplicate clone categories addon for cs-cart [/color][/font][/size]



If we get enough interest we'll move forward with its development.