The category tree orders your articles hierarchically. You use it to:

- navigate in the [article overview](/products/article-overview.md) – a click on a category shows its articles including all subcategories,
- assign articles to a main category and further categories,
- link categories to marketplace categories.

Logisticians can create one main category per client, named exactly like the client's company. New articles of this client are then placed there automatically.

![Screenshot: Categories page with the category tree on the left and the details of the selected category on the right](/products/images/categories-page.png)

## Before you start

- Your user needs the permission for categories. Ask your administrator if the menu entry is missing.
- Categories apply to the company you have currently selected.

## Open the categories

Go to **Catalogue › Categories** (*Katalog › Kategorien*). The tree is on the left, the details of the selected category on the right.

## Edit the category tree

Click **Edit category tree** (*Kategoriebaum bearbeiten*). A dialog opens.

![Screenshot: Dialog "Edit category tree" with the selected category, the fields for a new subcategory and for renaming](/products/images/categories-edit-dialog.png)

### Create a category

1. Click the parent category in the tree. It is shown as **Selected category** (*Ausgewählte Kategorie*).
2. Enter the name under **New subcategory** (*Neue Unterkategorie*).
3. Click **Add** (*Anlegen*). You see "The new category has been created" (*Die neue Kategorie wurde angelegt*).

### Rename a category

1. Select the category.
2. Enter the new name under **Rename** (*Umbennen*) and click **Save** (*Speichern*). You see "The category has been updated" (*Die Kategorie wurde ge-updated*).

### Move a category

Drag and drop the category to its new place in the tree. You see "The category has been successfully moved" (*Die Kategorie wurde erfolgreich verschoben*) or "The new sorting has been saved" (*Die neue Sortierung wurde gespeichert*).

![Screenshot: Category being dragged to a new position in the tree](/products/images/categories-move.png)

### Delete a category

1. Select the category and click **Delete** (*Löschen*).
2. Below the question "Should this category and all subcategories really be deleted?" (*Soll diese Kategorie und alle Unterkategorien wirklich gelöscht werden?*), click **Mark for deletion** (*Vormerken*).
3. You see "The category has been marked for deletion and will be removed shortly" (*Die Kategorie wurde zur Löschung vorgemerkt und wird in Kürze entfernt*).

!!!warning
Deleting a category also deletes **all its subcategories**. Articles lose their assignment to these categories; translations, category texts and marketplace links of the categories are removed as well.
!!!

## Link a category to marketplaces

On the right, under **Portal Mapping Ids** (*Portal-Mapping Ids*), you can enter for each marketplace:

- **Parent Id** (*Übergeortnete Id*), marked **Parent category** (*Elterkategorie*) – the ID of the parent category in the marketplace,
- **Id** – the ID of the matching category in the marketplace.

Click **Save** (*Speichern*).

## Assign articles to categories

- For a single article: **Categories** tab of the article, see [Edit an article](/products/edit-article.md).
- For many articles: see [Bulk processing](/products/bulk-processing.md).
- When creating an article, the category selected in the tree is used, see [Create an article](/products/create-article.md).

## Good to know

- Categories can also be created automatically by imports, for example from JTL.
- If a client has a category named exactly like their company, new articles of this owner are placed there automatically.

## Troubleshooting

| Message / problem | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| **No categories available** (*Keine Kategorien vorhanden*) | The tree is still empty | Create the first category |
| A new category does not appear in the tree | The tree is kept in memory during your session | Reload the page; if needed, log out and in again |