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Updated on:
March 2, 2026

Categories

Categories help you structure and organize your product catalog in a logical and scalable way. In KatanaPIM, categories are flexible. You create them individually and connect them using parent categories to build structured category trails, from broad groups to very specific product types.

on this page:

Understanding category trails

A category trail shows the path from a broad group to a specific product type.

Example:

Fashion
Fashion > Clothing
Fashion > Clothing > Shirts
Fashion > Clothing > Shirts > Short sleeve

Each level becomes more specific.

Important:
You do not create the full trail at once.
Each category is created separately first. Then you link them using a parent category.

Creating or editing a category

Go to:

Categories → Add new

You will see three tabs:

  • Info
  • Products
  • Limitations

Info tab

This is where you define the category itself.

  • Name: Enter the category name. You can add translations per language.
  • Description: Optional description. Useful for ecommerce or SEO.
  • SEO settings: Expand this section to add Meta title and Meta description
  • Parent category: This is how you create category trails (If left empty → the category becomes a top-level category. If selected → the category becomes a subcategory)
  • Code: Optional internal identifier.
  • Published: Enable this if the category should be available for distribution.

Save your changes after editing.

Products tab

Open a category and go to the Products tab.

Here you can manually assign products to the category.

Adding products

  1. Click Add a new product
  2. Select the product(s)
  3. Save the category

The selected products will now belong to this category.

You can:

  • See all linked products
  • Open a product directly via Edit
  • Remove products if needed

This gives you full control over product categorization.

Limitations tab

Open the Limitations tab inside a category.

Limited to store, when enabled:

  • The category is restricted to selected store(s)
  • It will not be available in other stores

This is useful when:

  • You manage multiple stores
  • Certain categories are market-specific
  • You need different category structures per store

Always save after making changes.

Category Automations

What Category Automations are

Category Automations let you automatically assign Specification groups to products based on their category.

Instead of manually adding specification groups per product, you define the structure once on the category level. When a product is assigned to that category, KatanaPIM automatically links the right specification groups to that product.

This helps you keep product data consistent, scalable, and structured — without manual work.

Automations follow the category hierarchy (nested logic)

Category Automations respect the category trail.

This means:

  • Automations set on parent categories are inherited by child categories.
  • When you assign a category to a product, the product receives automations from:
    • the selected category and
    • all parent categories above it

Example trail:

Fashion → Women → Dresses

If automations exist on:

  • Fashion
  • Women
  • Dresses

Then assigning Dresses applies automations from all three levels.

It stops at the selected category level and does not go deeper than that.

When do Category Automations run?

Automations do not run instantly on every small change. They run based on specific triggers:

  • When an automation is published
  • When a category that contains an automation is added to a product
  • When a category’s parent category is changed
  • When a background task runs to process category automations

Product type limitations

You can optionally limit an automation to one or more product types.

This is useful if a specification group should only apply to specific product structures.

Rules and behavior

Category Automations follow these rules:

  • Automations can only be configured on the category level
  • You cannot add the same category + specification group automation more than once
  • The same automation may exist on different levels in the category hierarchy
  • A specification group is never linked to the same product more than once

How to set up Category Automation

Step 1: Open the category

Go to Categories, open a category, and click Edit.

Step 2: Open the Automations panel

Click Automations (top-right). A side panel opens.

Step 3: Add an automation

Click Add automation and select the Specification group you want to assign automatically.

Optionally, select one or more Product types if the automation should only apply to certain product types.

Step 4: Save the automation

Save the automation so it appears in the automation list.

(At this point, it is configured but not active yet.)

Step 5: Publish the automation

Click Publish to activate the automation.

After publishing, the automation will run based on the triggers described earlier.

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