You can import and export categories by clicking Import/export in the shop admin panel menu.
Import template
Category codes
To use the import and export functions, every category must have a category code. If you have categories without codes, you can either edit the categories to give them category codes of your choosing, or click Create category codes. After clicking Create category codes each category will be assigned a code of the form CATEGORY-n, where n is a number.
Exporting categories
To export your existing categories, click Export categories. If there are no categories in your shop this will produce a minimal template file that you can use. Alternatively, download one of the template files:
Editing the category file
If you are using Microsoft Excel, please read the note on the Import/export help page.
The category file consists of a row of column headers, followed by a row for each category. The columns, which correspond to the fields on the category editing page, are:
Code
The code for the category.
Parent code
The code of the parent category for the category. Leave the cell blank if the category should be at the top-level.
Visibility [optional]
The category visibility. Set to Public for the category to be listed in the shop. Set to Unlisted for the category to be hidden from navigation and shop category listings, but still be accessible to anyone who knows its address (in the same way as when hiding pages). Set to Private for the category (and its subcategories and products) to be entirely inaccessible. If this column is omitted, all categories are set to be Public.
Name
The name of the category.
Image
The name of the image file for the category. Images can be uploaded by clicking Manage images on the Import/export page. The special value Keep can be used to keep the existing image for the category.
Description
The description of the category. Leave the cell blank if the category should not display a description.
SEO title
The SEO title for the category. If the cell is left blank, the category name will be used.
SEO description
The SEO description for the category. If the cell is left blank, the category description will be used.
Importing categories
To import your category file, use the File field to select the file, choose an action using the Action field, and click Import categories. There are three actions available:
Create and update
This action will create new categories and update existing categories. If a category in your shop is missing from the uploaded file then it will not be changed.
Create, update, and delete
This action will create new categories and update existing categories. If a category in your shop is missing from the uploaded file then it will be deleted, as long as it contains no subcategories or products.
Check import file only
This action will check that the import file is in the correct format and report any problems. It will not make any changes to the shop.
