Magento 1 How to use the Dynamic Category extension for Magento?
When using Magento default installation, products can only be assigned to categories manually.
With Dynamic Category, products can be dynamically assigned to categories based on product attributes.
This extension allows you to define product conditions (general and special conditions) for each category, as well as custom product positions and to select matching products.
Follow this guide to know how to use the Dynamic Category extension.
STEP 1: Define conditions on the categories
Dynamic Category allows you to define your own conditions from:
CatalogManage Categories
Select the category for which you want to define conditions and go in the below tab:
Category ProductsDynamic Products
General Conditions
With Dynamic Category, you can define conditions based on the products attributes of Magento.
Click on the arrow from the Dynamic Products subtab.
From the product attributes list, choose the attribute you want to create a condition for (color, size..).
Attribute Set is Clothing
By clicking on Refresh Matching Products, you should get all the products that match the condition.
Special Product Conditions
Besides the product attributes conditions, Dynamic Category comes with very useful additional conditions that allow you to customize product conditions easily.
- Is salable
Add the products if they are salable or not.
Is Salable is Yes - In promo
This condition uses the product price index table populated by Magento when the indexation process is over.
It checks if any modification has been made on the product price through either catalog price rules or special prices.
In the case of promotions (catalog price rules), the reduced price will appear only on the frontend.
In Promo is Yes
- Is new
Add the products if they are new or not.
Is New is Yes - Created
Add the products depending on the date of their creation.
Created during the last 5 days - Quantity in stock
Add the products depending on their quantity.
Quantity In Stock is 100 - In stock
Add the products depending on their availability.
In Stock is Yes - Special price applied
Unlike the above condition, this one only checks if a special price has been applied to the product for a specific period of time.
Therefore, any other price reduction or modification won't be included (for example: catalog price rules).
Special Price Applied is Yes
- Product type
Define a condition based on product types.
You can select one or multiple product types for matching products.
Product Type is one of Simple Product, Virtual Product, Downloadable Product - Has image
Add the products if they have an image or not.
Has Image is Yes - Total child products quantity in stock
Sometimes, it is useful to filter configurable or grouped products by the quantity the assigned simple products have in stock.
Note that each simple product quantity is added to its parent product.
Total Child Products Quantity In Stock is 10
- Replace matching simple products by parent products
Thanks to this condition, you'll be able to replace a simple product by its parent. The attributes previously stored with the simple product will then be retrieved.
Regarding simple products that don't have any parent (orphan products), you'll be able to either keep or discard them.
Replace Matching Simple Products By Parent Products and Keep Orphans - Attribute Set (multiselect)
Add the products depending on their attribute set.
Attribute Set is one of Clothing, Eyewear, Jewelry, Shoes - Attribute Set (regular expression)
Add the products depending on their attribute set.
You have the choice between matches regexp and does not match regexp.
Attribute Set matches regexp bath|decor
STEP 2: Import categories conditions
In the case where you already have created some categories conditions and that you want to assign the same rules for another category, you can directly import these conditions from the Import Category Conditions tab.
All you need to do is to choose the category from which you want to retrieve the conditions and then click on Import.
The conditions will then be displayed in the Dynamic Products tab. You still have the possibility to change some values if needed.
STEP 3: Index your products
For better frontend performances, the products that match conditions are indexed in the native Magento database table.
Products are then retrieved in the frontend just like Magento default behavior and in the order that you have defined in the backend.
Because products may not match defined conditions anymore (attribute has changed, the promotion has expired), they have to be indexed periodically in order to refresh the products list both in the backend and in the frontend.
There are several ways of indexing your products:
- manually
- via a command line
- via a cron task
Manual indexation
You can manually index your products and categories in:
CatalogManage Categories
Choose a category from the Category Products tab, click on Refresh Matching Products.
Indexation via the Command Lines Interface
You have the possibility to reindex all your categories using the following command line:
php shell/Wyomind_Dynamiccategory.phpAutomatic indexation
The matching products are indexed for performance purposes.
If a product does not match the defined conditions anymore, you’ll have to wait until the scheduled task has finished (by default, every 24 hours) for the product to be removed from the list.
You can change the configuration of the scheduled task and change the expiry date before refreshing the product list in:
SystemConfiguration Wyomind Dynamic CategorySettings
- Automatically Reindex Matching Products
Reindex the matching products via a scheduled task. - Reindex Matching Products Every
Define the frequency of the automatic indexation in hours.
24 - Enable Category Reindexation Logging
Choose to enable the categories indexation logging.
As a Magento 2 user, I love how the Dynamic Category extension keeps my categories up to date automatically based on product attributes. It's been a huge time-saver and has made managing my online store so much easier. Definitely worth trying out!
This dynamic category extension allowed us to create a very detailed backend with products filtered down to very specific attributes. By doing this, we allow products to use both the elastic search to filter products or they can go directly into the folder that already has all the filters applied.
As Ecommecrce agency we use this extension for most of our projects, Its simplify assigning products dynamically to their categories based on specific attribute values.
It works perfectly for grouped products with either visible or hidden simple products. It can properly match on simple product attributes and return the parent product, including for date based attributes like "new to/new from" and sales conditions - better than every other similar "merchandising tool" I had tested before this. Been able to use it for all sorts of scenarios including creating categories that are used solely so other marketing modules like "product labels" or "product highlight" and other "landing pages" that are unable to manage with grouped products. With this module, they can be pointed to "products in xyz category" instead. Anyone who has grouped products will understand the relief of that! There's the odd mystery and early on it was triggering too much cache reset when refreshing a category (with livemage), but considering every other "highlight" "merchanding" or similar tool out there is unable to accommodate grouped products, this is brilliant.
Easy installation and worked pretty much as intended straight away. Saving us a great deal of time!
I have used the Wyomind dynamic category extension on my M1 store for several years. This extension offers a great deal of advanced capability to add and remove products to categories based on the criteria that I define. This is particularly useful to update sale categories that change as products special price starts and ends. Thanks to this extension, I have been able to set up the criteria and not have to manually update the categories. I particularly like the flexibility in the attributes that I can use to define the categories' critera. I would recommend this extension.
All of our products come into Magento 2 from our inventory system with one category each. But we also want these products in a sale category, or a category for a specific type of activity, or maybe a time-of-year category This dynamic category extension allows us to populate many different categories with each of these products based on any number of attribute combinations. It's a game-changer, it's simple to use, and works extremely well.
This module is very easy to install, no problems at all. Once it is setup, it saves you a lot of time. It is definitely worth the money!
Very easy to use extension. Just add a filter of attributes to the categories and the extension does the rest! And when something is wrong, just contact the guys at support and they will help you very fast. Response time most times within 15 minutes!
Makes my life easier. Worth of its money.
Very good extensions and helpful support.