Product Categories
Group products on the storefront, set a category type and provisioning model, and control colour, icon, feature tags, billing cycles and custom fields.
What categories are for
Categories group your products on the storefront and decide which provisioning model applies to the services inside them. Each category has a type that shapes how its products are presented and what happens when an order is placed, plus its own colour, icon, feature tags, and billing-cycle setup that customers see on the order page.
How to reach it
Open Products in the admin sidebar. The page opens on the Products tab; click the Categories tab at the top to see your category list. The other tabs on this page (Products, Options, and Allocation) cover related catalogue tools.
The Categories list
The Categories tab shows four summary tiles across the top, a filter bar, and a sortable table.
- Summary tiles — Total Categories, Active, Inactive, and Total Products.
- Filters — a search box (matches the category name) and a status dropdown (All Status / Active / Inactive).
- Show archived — a checkbox above the table that brings archived categories into view.
- Table columns — a selection checkbox, Order (display number), Categories (name plus URL slug), Type, Description, Products (count, with the active count noted when it differs), Status, and Actions.
- Row actions — Edit (pencil), Archive or Unarchive, and Delete (trash). Delete is disabled while a category still has products.
Click the Status badge on any non-archived row to toggle the category between Active and Inactive directly from the table. Tick the selection checkboxes to reveal a bulk Delete Selected bar.
Category types
The Category Type is chosen as a card at the top of the category form. It governs which provisioning options are offered and how products in the category behave. Up to four types are available; types tied to a feature you have turned off will not appear.
| Type | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Dedicated Servers | Physical or virtual dedicated servers. Products can be paired to a machine through the Allocation engine and your Inventory. |
| Colocation | Rack space, power, and connectivity, with automatic rack-unit reservation. |
| IP Transit | Internet connectivity and bandwidth products with port allocation. |
| Plugin / Other | Any plugin-provisioned service — VPS, game servers, web hosting, and more. The matching plugin handles the service lifecycle. |
Adding a category
Click Add Category (top right of the Categories tab). The form is organised into sections:
- Category Type — pick one of the type cards.
- Basic Details — Name (required), URL Slug (auto-generated from the name, editable), Description (shown to customers), Display Order (leave blank for Auto), and Visibility (Active or Hidden).
- Order Page Display — Color Scheme, an Icon picker, and Feature Tags shown on the order page.
- Provisioning — choose how services in this category are delivered (see below).
- Welcome Letter Template — the email template sent when a service in this category is activated.
- Billing Cycles — turn billing periods on or off and set per-cycle discounts.
Click Create Category to save. When you later reopen the form on an existing category, the button reads Save Changes and an extra Custom Fields section appears at the bottom.
Order Page Display
- Color Scheme
- Choose Blue, Purple, Green, or Orange. Click the selected colour again to clear it.
- Icon
- Pick from a grid of 32 icons (servers, network, security, gaming, and general shapes). Click the chosen icon again to clear it.
- Feature Tags
- Type a short tag (for example High Performance) and press Enter or click Add. Tags appear as removable chips and are displayed on the order page.
Provisioning
The Provisioning dropdown adapts to the category type:
- None (Manual) — staff activate services by hand. Available for every type.
- Dedicated (Automated) — for Dedicated Servers categories, pairs orders to hardware automatically.
- Colocation (Auto RU Reservation) — for Colocation categories.
- IP Transit (Port Allocation) — for IP Transit categories.
- A plugin — for Plugin / Other (and Dedicated Servers) categories, every enabled infrastructure plugin appears here so it can own the service lifecycle for products in this category.
Welcome Letter Template
Leave this on Default (Service Activated) to use the standard activation email, or pick one of your service or custom email templates. This template is sent when a service in the category is activated.
Only templates classified as service or custom appear in the dropdown. Create or edit templates from the email settings if the one you want is missing.
Billing Cycles
The section header has a toggle that enables or disables billing-cycle selection for the whole category. When billing is off, customers do not choose a billing period.
With billing enabled, click each cycle chip to turn it on or off. Monthly is always enabled and cannot be switched off (it is marked (always)). Quarterly, Semi-Annual, and Annual can be toggled freely; Hourly appears only when hourly billing is enabled across your platform. For any enabled non-monthly cycle, a Discount per cycle field accepts a percentage from 0 to 99. Two extra controls appear here:
- Show discount badge on order page — displays the saving as a badge to customers.
- Starting price shown on order page — when Hourly is enabled, choose whether the headline price is shown as the hourly or monthly rate.
Custom Fields (existing categories only)
After a category is saved, edit it again to find the Custom Fields manager. Click Add Custom Field and set:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Field Label | The label shown next to the field (required). |
| Type | Text Input or Dropdown. Dropdown fields need at least one option (each option has a label and a value). |
| Visibility | Admin + Client (shown in both panels) or Admin Only. |
| Required | Whether the field must be filled in. |
Existing fields can be edited or deleted from the same list.
Reordering categories
Click Reorder (top right of the Categories tab) to open the Reorder Categories dialog. Each category is listed with up and down arrow buttons — use them to move a category higher or lower, then click Save Order. The storefront grid follows this order.
Archiving and deleting
- Archive hides the category (and its products) from the storefront while existing services keep running and renewing. Archived categories show an Archived badge and an Unarchive action; tick Show archived to see them.
- Delete removes the category permanently. The delete button stays disabled until the category has no products, so move or remove its products first.
The slug becomes part of the storefront URL — keep it short and stable after launch, since changing it later breaks existing links and bookmarks.