Cloning an Existing Category

ProductCart offers you a quick way to duplicate (clone) an entire Category Tree (including Sub Categories). For example, you could setup a category tree for “Men's Clothing” that looks something like this:

Now you need to set up “Women's Clothing” and the category tree is very similar…

Do you have to re-do it from scratch? No, the Clone Category feature allows you to replicate the category tree you've already setup, then edit it as you wish.

From the Products menu, select Manage Categories > View & Edit Categories to view a list of Categories in your store. On this page, locate the Category that you would like to duplicate, and then click on the Clone link out to the right.

On the new page (AddDupCat.asp), you will need to update/edit the various Fields that will be different for the new Category (Name, Parent & Images | Descriptions | Display Settings | Other Settings | Meta Tags | Search Fields). Then, BEFORE you click on the button titled “Clone”, decide whether you also want to: Duplicate the Products from the Original Category (the same products are assigned to the new categories that you are about to create), and also whether you want to Duplicate the Sub-Categories.

If you want to Clone a Category Tree and also clone products from the original Category, so that they are not simply assigned to the new category, but rather created as new, cloned products in the new category, follow these instructions:

1. Clone the Category (and Category Tree – e.g. Sub Categories if desired), but do NOT check the box to 'Duplicate Products', as this will simply assign the same Products from the current Category to the Cloned Category.
2. Use the Reverse Import Wizard to Export the Products from the original Category to a CSV/Excel file.
3. In the CSV file, make sure to change the SKU Number in Column A to something different than the original one, and also edit the Category Assignment to reflect the new (Cloned) Category.
4. Use the Import Wizard to quickly add the new Products to the Cloned Category. As you import the data, make sure to indicate that you are adding new product, and not updating existing products.