Featured Entities

Modified on Mon, 12 Jun 2017 at 10:29 AM

Your homepage includes a section which can showcase specific product groups, or "entities" (read more about product groups). You can choose which product groups appear on the homepage, and control the header text to say 'Featured Categories' or 'Popular Departments', and you can decide how many items you want to appear, and in how many columns.

Displaying specific product groups on the homepage

First, locate the topic where you'll apply your changes. Go to Content > Manage Topics in your admin console, and find the topic called '0-home-featured-entities'. Click the topic name to open it for editing.

You'll see a token that will look something like this:

(!XMLPackage Name="featuredentities.xml.config" featuredentitytype="category" cssclass="featured-categories" headertext="Shopper's Favorites" usecommadelimitedentitylist="true" commadelimitedentitylist="80,79,81,142" !)

We've used red text to show you the three things that will matter most to you:

Which entity do you want to show up? You can only choose one (it's not possible to mix and match).
What is the header that you would like to use? Remember that if you use a reeeeeeeeally long header, it is likely to 'wrap around' on a narrow mobile device!
What are the IDs of the entities that you want to show up?

Changing the IDs in the entity list will automatically change the image, text, and link that appears on the homepage. To locate the entity ID, go to Products > Product Groups in your admin console. Use the buttons along the top of the page to switch between entities (categories, departments, manufacturers). Use the filters to find an entity, and note the ID in the left column of the grid. Once you've got a list of IDs you'd like to feature, go back and edit the '0-home-featured-entities' topic, and add your IDs to the commadelimitedentitylist value.

Advanced Configuration

Below are code samples you may want to use to feature product groups:

manufacturer icon image bar:

(!XMLPackage Name="featuredentities.xml.config" cssclass="brandbar" imagesize="icon" featuredentitytype="manufacturer" headertext="Icon Manufacturer Bar"  numberofitems="6" columns="6" !)

popular categories:

(!XMLPackage Name="featuredentities.xml.config" cssclass="customer-favorites" featuredentitytype="category" headertext="Featured Categories" numberofitems="8" !)

CSV list of items:

(!XMLPackage Name="featuredentities.xml.config" cssclass="customer-favorites" featuredentitytype="category" headertext="Featured Departments" usecommadelimitedentitylist="true" commadelimitedentitylist="1,2,3,4" !)

default options - 4 columns, 4 items, medium images:

(!XMLPackage Name="featuredentities.xml.config" featuredentitytype="category" headertext="Default Category List" !)

Configuration Option	Description	Default
columns	This is the number of columns that will span the homepage for featured product groups.	4
numberofitems	This is the number of featured product groups that will display on the homepage.	4
headertext	The text that shows up in the header.	N/A
featuredentitytype	The type of entity to use. Example: "category" or "section" or "manufacturer".	category
cssclass	The css class name that will be used for product groups - this will allow you to customize the display using stylesheets.	N/A
imagesize	The size to display images underneath the featured product group title. Example: "icon", or "medium", or "large"	medium
usecommadelimitedentitylist	Whether or not to use the comma delimited product group list. Accepted values are "true" or "false".	false
commadelimitedentitylist	The specific product groups you want to feature. These override the entity products. You can't do both. For Example "1,2,3,4,5"	N/A
randomorder	Whether or not to randomize the order of product groups. "true" or "false"	false