# Categories **Categories** organize items into a navigable tree. **Attributes** describe variant dimensions (Color, Size) on those items. Both originate in NetSuite — the Client Admin **views** them and **selects** them inside catalogs, but neither is created or edited from the Client Admin's Categories page. ## When you'd use this page * Confirming which categories exist on this subsidiary before you select them in a catalog. * Checking a category's name or thumbnail before referencing it in a workflow. * Spotting categories that are missing or misnamed so you can ask your NetSuite Admin to fix the underlying record. ## Open the Categories page Click **Categories** in the sidebar. The page heading reads *Categories* with subtitle *View available product categories for this subsidiary*. ![Categories tree on the Categories page](/files/thMzCALc9d8i445j8JHz) ## What the page shows A single tree of every category configured for this subsidiary. Each row shows: * A **thumbnail image** (or a folder icon if no image is set). * The **category name**. * A **short description**. Categories with sub-categories show a folder icon and can be expanded to reveal their children. ### Controls | Button | What it does | | ---------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | | **Expand All** | Opens every category, including all sub-categories. | | **Collapse All** | Closes everything back to the top-level. | You can also expand or collapse a single category by clicking its row. If no categories have been configured for the subsidiary, the page shows: *No categories have been configured for this subsidiary. Please contact your NetSuite Administrator.* ## Read-only here, configured upstream The Client Admin's Categories page is view-only by design. Creating, renaming, restructuring, or deleting a category happens in two upstream places: * **NetSuite** — the source of truth for the category records themselves. * **Available Categories** — a NetSuite-Admin-only screen in this same portal that picks *which* categories from NetSuite are exposed to Client Admins on this subsidiary, and offers a CSV bulk-import. See [Managing Available Categories](/client-admin-guide/categories-overview/managing-categories.md). {% hint style="info" %} If the *Available Categories* selection is restricted on this subsidiary, only the allowed subset appears in the Client Admin's Categories tree. {% endhint %} ## How categories flow through to your portal Category selection has a chain of effects that runs all the way from this page to what end users see. ### Step 1 — You select categories in a catalog When you open a catalog (Create or Edit), the **Categories** section presents the same tree — but with checkboxes. You pick which categories' items to include. Only items belonging to the categories you select end up in the catalog output. Items in unchecked categories are invisible in that catalog, even if they exist in NetSuite. Search by name, **Expand All** / **Collapse All**, **Select All** / **Unselect All**, and a **{count} selected** badge are all available there. See [Creating a Catalog](/client-admin-guide/creating-catalogs.md) for the full walkthrough. ### Step 2 — The Catalog Categories toggle must be on For category information to travel with each item in the catalog output, the **Catalog Categories** toggle in the catalog's Settings section must be enabled. Without it, the catalog carries the items but strips the category data — portal pages that rely on category structure won't be able to group or filter items correctly. ### Step 3 — Page Builder components use the category data Once a catalog includes category data, the following Page Builder components can use it: | Component | What it does | | ----------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Category Sidebar** | Shows the category tree as a side navigation. End users click a category to filter the product list. | | **Category Filter Bar** | Shows categories as a horizontal tab or chip bar. End users pick a category to narrow the results. | | **Category Display** | Shows a grid or list of category tiles. End users click a tile to browse items in that category. | | **Category Modal** | A pop-up category picker. Used in some workflows to let end users jump to a specific category. | If a category is not selected in the catalog, it will not appear in any of these components — end users have no way to navigate to it. ### What happens when you remove a category from a catalog If you uncheck a category in the catalog and rebuild (Save & Update): * Items in that category are removed from the catalog output. * End users can no longer find those items by browsing, filtering, or searching in that portal. * The category disappears from the Category Sidebar, Filter Bar, and other navigation components. * The underlying NetSuite items are untouched — they still exist; they're just no longer reachable from this catalog's portal. ## Attributes — what they are and where they live Attributes describe **variant dimensions** on a product — Color, Size, Material, and so on. Unlike categories, attributes don't have their own page in the Client Admin. They're configured in two places:
WhereWhat you do there
NetSuiteEach variant value is stored on the item record in a NetSuite custom field (e.g. custitem59 for Color, custitem60 for Size). Your NetSuite Admin sets these up./pages/NLvgHWsKNUjEv3EYKqzr
Catalog → Attributes sectionMap each variant dimension to its NetSuite custom field, give it a display label, and choose how it renders (Horizontal / Vertical / Dropdown / None)./pages/NwQFMmcIsjECOIEI6IA9
For variants to render in a portal, both **Enable Matrix Items** (in the catalog's Settings section) *and* at least one Attribute row need to be configured. ## Attributes vs variants These two get mixed up often: * **Attributes** are *dimensions* — what kind of variation an item has (Color, Size). They power filters and selectors in the portal. * **Variants** are the actual orderable combinations — *Red / Large* is a variant with its own NetSuite SKU and its own inventory. You configure attributes in the catalog so the portal knows how to *display* variant choices. The variants themselves come straight from NetSuite matrix item records. ## Best practices * **Lean on the existing NetSuite category tree.** Don't restructure NetSuite just to suit a portal — use Catalog-Specific Criteria to narrow what each catalog includes instead. * **Keep category names portal-friendly.** They appear as navigation labels — *Men's T-Shirts* reads better than *T-Shirts - M*. * **If a category looks wrong here, fix it in NetSuite or in Available Categories.** The data flows one way; the Client Admin's Categories page can't edit it. * **For variants, configure attributes once per catalog.** A catalog reuses the same attribute mapping across every matrix item it contains. ## Related
Managing Available CategoriesNetSuite-Admin screen for picking which categories appear here, plus CSV bulk-import./pages/pznAfC0OlZyvGy460hH0
Creating a CatalogWhere you select categories and configure attributes inside a catalog./pages/sqKV6Gm0WqBRQeT9aFbs
Product VariantsHow matrix items show up in the catalog output./pages/NwQFMmcIsjECOIEI6IA9
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