The Category Page renders an introductory page for the individual categories in the Category hierarchy. It includes a category-specific banner image, a merchandiser-ordered list of products from the category, a set of featured products, and a list of recommended products.
The Category Page is triggered when the current query includes the CategoryOnly user segment. Commerce Reference Store adds the CategoryOnly user segment to the current query when the query is composed solely of a dimension value from the Category dimension, for example:
Category = Women
Category = Men > Pants
Typically, this type query occurs in one of the following ways:
The customer selects a category from the menu bar across the top.
The customer selects a Category refinement from the menu on the left and no other refinements or search terms have been selected.
In both cases, Commerce Reference Store detects that the query consists solely of a Category dimension value and adds the CategoryOnly user segment to the query, thereby triggering the Category Page to render.
The purpose of the Category Page is to allow a merchandiser to control the order of products in the product list on a category’s initial page using the Business Control Center and Visual Merchandising. Product ordering is possible on the Category Page because the cartridges that have been placed on it retrieve their content from ATG repositories, where the category and product configuration is stored. The Default Browse Page and the Style by Zhanna Brand Landing Page, on the other hand, retrieve their content (that is, search results) from the Oracle Endeca Commerce MDEX engine and take advantage of the engine’s guided navigation and search functionality.
It is important to note that, for each of the sections on the Category Page (ordered product list, recommended products, featured products), if no data exists, then the section is not rendered. For example, the Women category does not contain any products itself; all of the Women-related products are organized under sub-categories such as Shirts, Pants, and so on. Therefore, when the Women category is selected, the product list is empty and not rendered on the resulting Category Page. Also, some cartridges, such as HeaderBanner-ATGCategory and ProductSpotlight-ATGCategoryRelatedProducts, are specific to the Category Page. If you place these cartridges on a page other than the Category Page, their contents will not be rendered.
For information on how Commerce Reference Store determines if a request is for a Category Page, see Identifying Category Page Requests. For details on how Commerce Reference Store appends the CategoryOnly user segment to the query, see Tracking a Customer’s Catalog Navigation. For details on the individual cartridges that make up the Category Page, see Commerce Reference Store Cartridge Hierarchy.
