Linking categories between catalogs

Linking a category creates a reference to that category in the catalog to which it was linked. All subcategories and catalog entries in the category are also linked.

About this task

  • This icon master catalog link icon indicates that the linking is between a master category and a sales category.
  • This icon sales catalog link icon indicates that the linking is between two sales categories.

A sales category can have multiple parent categories in the same catalog. For more information, see Adding a child category to a parent category.

Note: You cannot create a link that includes a rule-based sales category. You can only copy rule-based sales categories into other categories.
Note: After you link categories, do not use Catalog Upload, or have an administrator use the Data Load utility, to change the parent or child categories for a category that is linked. The Catalog Upload feature and the Data Load utility do not support synchronizing hierarchy data across linked categories. If hierarchy changes are loaded for a category, the load process does not synchronize the data for any linked categories. For example, if you delete a child category or change the parent category, the changes are not reflected in any linked categories. The linked categories continue to have the original hierarchy. If the linked categories are not updated with the changes separately, you can encounter errors when you browse the categories on your store.

You can use Catalog Upload to add or remove catalog entries from a linked category. When you load changes to the catalog entry assignments for a category, the load process does synchronize the changes across any linked categories.

Procedure

  1. Open the Catalogs tool.
  2. HCL Commerce Version 9.1.16.0 or later Open Management Center tools and from the left navigation menu, click Business Tools > Catalog > Sales Catalog.
  3. From the explorer filter, select Sales Catalog Categories.
  4. Click View > Show Utilities View or click Show Utilities View.
  5. Search or browse for the category you want to use as the source in the link.
  6. Drag the category from the utilities view onto the target category in the list view.
    A dialog is displayed.
  7. In the dialog, click Link Category.
    A reference to the category is created in the sales catalog.
  8. Click Save; then click Close.