5.8.1. Vendor Categories
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#### 5.8.1. Vendor Categories

Vendor categories are a way to classify the types of goods and services that vendors offer on your site. For example, you may have an online mall for buying and selling furniture. You may want to create vendor categories such as "Antiques", "Office Furniture", and "Patio Furniture".

Note that a vendor on your site can only be associated with a single vendor category, so it is important to use categories that are broad enough to represent the shopper's choice of storefronts. For example, "Antique Furniture" and "Vintage Clothing" would not be broad enough categories if you have a vendor that sells both types of items. In this case, you might want to use "Antiques" as your vendor category.

##### Viewing Vendor Categories

[TODO: access the vclist]

[TODO: search]

##### Adding Vendor Categories

mambo-phpShop creates the vendor category name "-default-" upon installation. It is not necessary to change this unless you choose to fully utilize the vendor category functionality.

To create a new vendor category, select "Vendor | Add Vendor Category" from the mambo-phpShop admin interface.

Add a Vendor Category

This will bring up the Vendor Category Form.

Vendor Category Form

##### Vendor Category Form Fields

Vendor Category Name

  The name used to identify the vendor category.

Vendor Category Description

  The description of the vendor category.

Click on the "Save" icon.

You will be redirected to the "Vendor Category List" page, showing the "-default-" category, and the new category you just entered.

Vendor Category List

You may also add a new vendor category with the Vendor Category Form by clicking on the "New" icon from the Vendor Category List Screen.

##### Editing Vendor Categories

To edit an existing vendor category, select "Vendor | List Vendor Categories" in the mambo-phpShop admin menu.

List Vendor Categories

This will return the Vendor Category List screen (shown above).

Click on the linked text showing the name of the vendor category you would like to edit to bring up the Vendor Category Form.

Access a Vendor Category

When you have finished making changes, click on the "Save" icon.

You will be redirected back to the "Vendor Category List" screen.

##### Deleting Vendor Categories

In older versions of mambo-phpShop, all vendors associated to a vendor category had to be removed or re-associated to a different vendor category before mambo-phpShop would allow deletion of the vendor category.

This is no longer the case. In mambo-phpShop 1.2b3, if you remove a vendor category all vendors in that category will be reassigned to the "-default-" vendor category that was created upon installation. You can then re-associate the affected vendors if needed, as described below under "Vendors".

There are two ways to delete a vendor category. The first way is to access the vendor category record by clicking on its name in the "Category Name" column of the Vendor Category List.

Vendor Category Deletion

This will bring up the Vendor Category Form.

Click on the "Remove" icon.

You will be redirected back to the "Vendor Category List" screen.

The second way to delete a vendor category is from the Vendor Category List screen. Click on the trash can icon in the "Remove" column next to the name of the vendor category you would like to delete.

Click 'OK' to confirm deletion of this category.

When you are ready to proceed, you may easily navigate to the vendor list by clicking on the linked text "list" in the "Vendors" column of the Vendor Category List.

This will open the Vendor List page.

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