Categories

Categories are not labels. They are the filter users navigate with, so the tree you build here is exactly what appears on the left side of the marketplace.

Display order is what puts a category on its level. Devices at the top, Smartphones below it, iOS below that. Three levels turn a full catalogue into a short path: broad area, device type, platform. A user looking for an iPhone gets there in three clicks instead of scrolling past printers and licences.

That makes the shape of the tree more important than the naming. A flat list of twenty categories is a wall of choices, and users pick the first thing that looks close enough. Keep the top level small and let the depth do the work.

Build it the way users search, not the way your asset list is organised. Nobody looks for a phone under a procurement class.

There is a second reason to set categories up early. A category can define which fields every product inside it should carry, for example serial number or IMEI for devices. The category does not hold the values, it decides that those fields exist on each item later in inventory. Deciding that before you add fifty services saves you from filling the gaps afterwards.

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Organising services with categoriesCategory Attributes

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With the structure in place, fill it: Creating a service.