4.1.5.Virtual Categories

ElasticSuite allows to create Virtual Categories. Virtual Categories contain products that are added based on certain rules set and so Virtual Categories are computed dynamically. You can use this feature e.g. for a dedicated category for bestseller products or new products which are displayed automatically.

In order to set up a Virtual Category access CATALOG / INVENTORY / CATEGORIES and click “ADD SUBCATEGORY” above the category tree on the left-hand side. If you are using a multi-store setup firstly make sure that you have chosen a specific store in the STORE VIEW switcher (using Virtual 
Categories in the ”ALL STORE VIEWS” mode will lead to errors in computing products for the 
Virtual Category). Fill out all the standard settings. After this is done, scroll down to the PRODUCTS IN CATEGORY section and expand it. Now you can do the following:

• VIRTUAL CATEGORY: Tick the checkbox to enable the Virtual Category feature. If the checkbox is 
  unticked (“NO”) the products from the manual selection are contained in the category.

• VIRTUAL CATEGORY ROOT: Here you can select the category to compute the products based on. 
  Select the “Default” category in case you want to potentially add all products contained in the store’s root category. Also the filter configuration will be used based on this root category.

• VIRTUAL RULE: Here you can set the rules that compute the products to be contained in the Virtual Category. Please note that you can only use product attributes that were configured as filterable (STORES / ATTRIBUTES / PRODUCTS / STOREFRONT PROPERTIES / SEARCH CONFIGURATION and then set USE IN LAYERED NAVIGATION to “YES”).

Open

Figure 172 Setting up Virtual Category (admin panel)

When the changes are made click “SAVE” in the top section on the right-hand side.