Definition of a category
In Akeneo, a category is used to classify products. A category is always part of a main category tree (or classification tree).
You can have one or more category trees in Akeneo with an unlimited number of levels (categories, subcategories, sub-subcategories...).
Learn more at Akeneo Akademy
Deepen your understanding of Categories in this interactive course.
Differences between families and categories
Categories
- Trees and categories are a way to classify your products
- A product can be in several or no categories
Families
- A family is a set of attributes used to enrich a product
- A product can only belong to one family
How to create a new category?
A category or a category tree only needs a code to be created. You can name your category or category tree and this name can be translated to any activated locale in the PIM.
From the user interface
Go to Settings/Categories. To create a new category tree, click on Create button.
To add a new category or subcategory in this tree, select your tree in the list. Once the tree is selected, hover on the tree name to add a new category or on a category to add a new subcategory.
Please note that you should not create more than 30,000 categories. If you exceed this number, you might experience performance issues.
Through imports
Akeneo comes with import jobs that allow you to create or update category trees and categories. You can use them to create a new tree, update a category tree or a category labels, or add new categories or subcategories for instance.
To do so, use the search bar to find the existing job from Imports or click on Create Import Profile to add a new import. You can choose to use a CSV or XLSX import profile.
If you do not know the file format to import, go to Exports, use an existing XLSX or CSV category export profile (or create a new one) and use the exported file as a template!
To learn how to create/update a category through the API, see the API documentation.
Root category import
Please be aware that to prevent products from being assigned to a category tree via a rule, setting the category to a root category tree is not an option. Categorization needs to necessarily be done under a sub category.
Sort categories
From the UI, you can drag & drop categories to reorder them within the tree.
If you do not have the permission to see the categories (which is a permission defined for your user role in System/Roles), you will not be able to access the category panel displayed on the left side of the screen and access to the Settings/Categories menu.
You cannot sort category trees, only categories. Trees are displayed by date of creation: new trees are displayed first.
In the Enterprise Edition, you can define specific user rights on categories, to give ownership on products. For more information about permissions on categories see the following page: Set rights on your catalog.
Delete categories
To delete a category tree and all its subcategories, go to Settings > Categories, hover on the tree name, and click the Delete Tree button.
To delete a specific category and its subcategories from a tree, select the tree in the list and click the Delete button.
Please be aware that a category and its subcategories cannot contain more than 100 products for deletion. If you need to delete products, please unclassify them first. For more information on how to unclassify products from categories, see the following page: Categorize a product.
Note that you cannot delete a category tree or category with more than 1,500 subcategories. However, you can still delete parts of a category tree with fewer than 1,500 subcategories.
How to categorize a product?
Learn more about product categorization on the following page: Categorize a product
A product can be categorized in none, one or several categories. An uncategorized product will not be exported.
category, categories, categoryId are used for internal purposes, you cannot use these words as "codes" in the PIM.