FAQ
How is this different from a normal category?
Section titled “How is this different from a normal category?”A normal category is filled by hand. A collection category is filled by rules and kept up to date: products that start to match are added, products that stop matching are removed. For your shoppers it is a normal category with filters, SEO URL and menu entry.
Does the add-on change my products’ main categories?
Section titled “Does the add-on change my products’ main categories?”No. It only adds additional category links and removes only the links it created. Main categories and links you made yourself are never changed.
A product I removed from the collection category came back.
Section titled “A product I removed from the collection category came back.”It still matches the rules, so the next sync added it again. Add it to Excluded products of the collection instead.
How do I show the collection in the order I chose?
Section titled “How do I show the collection in the order I chose?”Pinned products and the chosen sort order are written to the product positions of the category. Sort the category by position (the store’s default sorting, or the shopper’s choice) to show it in that order. Blocks with the Smart collection filling always use the collection order.
How fast does a new product appear?
Section titled “How fast does a new product appear?”When you save a product in the admin panel it is checked at the end of the same request. Collections with a product limit (top N) and time-based rules are refreshed by the scheduled sync (every 15 minutes with the recommended cron job, otherwise at most every 10 minutes after an admin page view) and fully re-synced at least once a day.
Is it safe for a large catalog?
Section titled “Is it safe for a large catalog?”Yes. The rules run as one indexed SQL query per collection and every run changes at most the configured number of links per collection, continuing on the next run. In our tests a collection of 12,000 products was evaluated in under 0.1 seconds and fully linked in three runs of 5,000 changes.
Does it work with the full page cache of CS-Cart 4.21?
Section titled “Does it work with the full page cache of CS-Cart 4.21?”Yes. Collection categories are core category pages, and the block filling is cached like other product blocks; both are refreshed when the collection changes. Storefront visits never write to the database.
Can I use it for a seasonal sale?
Section titled “Can I use it for a seasonal sale?”Yes. Set Active from and Active until. Outside the dates the collection is empty and, if you tick Hide the category while inactive, its category is hidden too.
Can vendors create collections?
Section titled “Can vendors create collections?”Not in this version. The marketplace administrator manages collections and can limit them to vendors with the Vendor rule.
How do I remove everything the add-on did?
Section titled “How do I remove everything the add-on did?”Use Clear links and disable on a collection, or uninstall the add-on: uninstalling removes every link it created. Categories stay and can be deleted in Products → Categories.
The admin panel shows a license notice.
Section titled “The admin panel shows a license notice.”Open Add-ons → Manage add-ons → Smart Collections → Settings → License. The status line says what is wrong: no key, a key for another add-on, a revoked license, or a domain that the license does not cover. Fix it and click Check now. See License.
Does the add-on work on my staging copy?
Section titled “Does the add-on work on my staging copy?”Yes. Subdomains of your licensed domain (for example staging.yourstore.com) and local development hosts (localhost, private IP addresses, *.local, *.test) are covered by the same license.
What happens if your license server is down?
Section titled “What happens if your license server is down?”Nothing changes for 14 days: the add-on keeps working and retries every hour. Only if no check succeeds for 14 days is it switched off until the next successful check.
Does the license check slow down my storefront or checkout?
Section titled “Does the license check slow down my storefront or checkout?”No. The check runs in the admin panel or from cron, once a day. The storefront never runs it.
Still stuck?
Section titled “Still stuck?”Work through the troubleshooting guide, then contact support with your CS-Cart version, edition, PHP version and the add-on version (1.0.0).