VirtualCategories
ElasticSuite allows you to create Virtual Categories : They are categories based on rules.
A Virtual Category will display all products matching the rule you have defined. The engine will automatically refresh products matching the selection in Front-Office and will prevent you from having to re-assign products manually.
On a category edit page, you can access the Merchandising tab. Please note this tab only appear on existing categories. You will not see the Merchandising tab when creating a category.
Then you have some options to configure :
| Parameter | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Virtual category | Yes | Yes : Will show up the rule form to define the category's rules. No (standard behavior) : Category will display the products associated in the "Category products" tab. |
| Virtual rule | Yes | This fieldset let you configure the rule to associate with this category. |
| Virtual category root | No | This field let you choose a category to map your virtual category on. Virtual category products will be contextualized related to this category. The filters displayed in Front-Office will too. |
On a multi-store instance, you may encounter an empty preview for virtual categories, with a message indicating that no products have been found for your selection and the current store view.
This may be due to the fact that you are currently previewing your category on the All Store Views.
In this case, ElasticSuite tries to use the store which is configured as Default Store View to render the preview, but it can lead to inconsistent results :
- the current category may not exist on this Default Store View : the categories can be store scoped or the store himself can have a different category tree.
- products may be de-activated on this store view, or even not associated to the website holding this store view.
- and so on...
If you are using a multi-store setup, you must ensure to choose first the store you want to preview on the Store Switcher block. Then you will be able to preview the products of the virtual category correctly.