A category groups products that share the same extra details. A product belongs to one category at most, and it can belong to none. Pick the category when you create the product. Its fields appear on the form with the right input for each type, such as a country list or a date picker. The values are stored with every tag of the product.
A category can have no fields. It then only records which products belong to it.
Categories have their own place in the sidebar, next to Products and Entities: Categories.
See products, categories, and entities for how the three fit together.
Why categories
Custom data on a tag used to mean writing JSON by hand (see custom data). A category turns that into a form. Everyone on the team fills in the same fields, spelled the same way, and the form suggests values other tags already carry.
Fields
Each field has a label, a type, and an optional default. The type decides the input on the product form and how the value is stored:
- Text and Multiline Text: free text, up to 1,000 and 10,000 characters. When other tags already carry values for the field, the form suggests them while you type.
- Email, Phone, and URL: TAGBASE checks the value when you save. A
URL must start with
https://orhttp://. - Number: stored as a number, not as text, optionally between a minimum and a maximum.
- Date: a date picker.
- Checkbox: a yes or no.
- Select: one of the options you define on the field, one per line.
- Country: a searchable country list, stored as the two-letter country code.
- Entity: links each tag to one record of an entity, such as the partner that sells the product. Add it from the Entities part of the Add Field menu. A category can link to several entities, one field per entity, and the field keeps the entity’s name.
The label sets the field’s key, the name its value is stored under. “Best
Before” becomes best_before. Keys stay fixed once you save the category, so
renaming a label later does not move existing data.
The preview on the right of the dialog shows the product form as you edit.
Starters
A new category starts empty and offers three starters: Cosmetics, Spirits, and Apparel. Pick one, change what you like, and save. The starter itself never changes.
Using a category
- Creating a product: choose the category under Details and fill in the
fields. The values go to every tag of the product.
{{number}}and{{total}}work in a field, so a number field set to{{number}}counts the tags. The Custom Data field of Advanced Options steps aside while a category is chosen. - Editing a tag: the same fields appear on the tag with that tag’s values, so one tag can carry a different batch than the rest.
- Placeholders: field values work in the title and description, for
example
{{batch}}. - API: a product response includes the category it belongs to. A verification fetched through the API carries the tag’s data, which is how a page on your own domain shows the field values.
Tasks
- Ask the agent: the way we recommend. Tell the TAGBASE Agent what your products are about, for example “We sell hand-made leather bags. Each one needs the artisan, the leather type, the production date, and the retailer that sold it. Build a category for that.” When a detail names an entity the team already keeps, the agent links that entity. When it names a person, a company, or a place with no matching entity, the agent suggests a new entity with a unique field such as an email or a code. If a category such as Bags already exists, the agent shows buttons, for example Update Bags and Create Simple Bags. It opens the category for you to fine-tune.
- Create a category: name it and add fields by hand. Save it with no fields when you only want to group products.
- Manage categories: edit or delete a category. Deleting one keeps the data already written to tags.
Next: where the values go and how to number items, under custom data.