Getting Started

Welcome to the Dynamic Category documentation.

Whether you are a new or an advanced user, you can find some useful information here.

Go ahead, dive in!

Firstly, please, find our extension in My Downloadable Products section of our store. Learn how to install extension, and proceed with Quick Start, which will guide you to set up your Dynamic Category service.

How to install the extension

How to install the extension using composer

Backup your store's database and web directory.
Login to the SSH console on your server and navigate to the root directory of the Magento 2 store.
Copy the installation instructions from the page My Downloadable Products to the SSH console and press ENTER.
Run command php -f bin/magento module:enable Mirasvit_Core Mirasvit_DynamicCategory Mirasvit_Merchandiser to enable the extension.
Run command php -f bin/magento setup:upgrade to install the extension.
Run command php -f bin/magento cache:clean to clean the cache.
Deploy static view files

rm -rf pub/static/*; rm -rf var/view_preprocessed/*; php -f bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy

How to install the extension manually

Backup your store's database and web directory.
Download archive from My Downloadable Products.
Unzip the extension locally.
Copy unzipped folder to the root directory of the Magento store.
Run command php -f bin/magento module:enable Mirasvit_Core Mirasvit_DynamicCategory Mirasvit_Merchandiser to enable the extension.
Run command php -f bin/magento setup:upgrade to install the extension.
Run command php -f bin/magento cache:clean to clean the cache.
Deploy static view files

rm -rf pub/static/*; rm -rf var/view_preprocessed/*; php -f bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy

Dynamic Category

The Dynamic Category extension automatically assigns products to categories. It frees up store managers’ time and reduces the potential for error when assigning products to categories.

Checking if the extension is active

In the Magento admin panel sidebar, navigate to Stores > Configuration > Mirasvit extensions > Developer. Verify that Mirasvit_DynamicCategory in ON.

If the extension is OFF, then run in the command line interface the fifth command in the list How to install the extension manually: bin/magento module:enable Mirasvit_DynamicCategory.

Automatically assign categories

Navigate to Catalog > Categories using the Magento admin panel sidebar. Locate the existing category or add a new subcategory where you want to use the automatic category assignment.

While editing this category, expand the drop-in menu Products in Category. Activate the Dynamic Category option and create the conditions for automatic product selection. Specify these conditions under the section Products Selection Conditions.

Press the Save button to commit changes.

Using additional custom product attributes

With the Dynamic Category extension, you can use product attributes beyond the standard list. To apply the attributes your store created, they must have activated the option Use for Promo Rule Conditions.

Navigate to Stores > Attributes > Products and select the attribute you need to use for dynamic categories. On the attribute page, open the tab Storefront Properties and scroll down the page to the option Use for Promo Rule Conditions. Move the option activation switch to Yes.

Using smart attributes and Multi Source Inventory

In addition to default Magento product attributes, the Dynamic Category extension creates a set of its own attributes to use in conditions for assigning products to the category. These are:

Is New
Has Active Special Price
Rating [1...5]
Number of reviews
Source

Is New

The attribute Is New monitors the product attribute Set Product as New From. It assigns the product to the category if the current date is between the dates specified in attribute Set Product as New From for the particular product.

The standard Magento New attribute is applied to products that have activated the attribute option New.

Has Active Special Price

With this attribute, a product can be assigned to a category if the current date is in between the dates of Special Price From parameter. This parameter is located on the Advanced Pricing page.

Rating [1...5]

Using this attribute, you can segregate products with the desired user rating. You can specify decimal fraction number from 1 to 5 and condition that the product rating was exactly that specified number, higher or lower.

Number of reviews

Assign products that have a specified number of user reviews.

Put only an integer number if you want to match the exact number of reviews using the condition is.

Source

For multi-channel inventories, you can select products that are located in the same physical location (warehouse, brick-and-mortar store, drop shippers, distribution centers, etc.).

When using the Source parameter, you can specify only one source at once. Add the new Source parameter to add one more source to condition.

Quickly distinguish dynamic categories

You can easily see which categories have the dynamic category option activated. Such categories in the category tree have a green dot in the left upper corner of the folder icon.

Updating indexers

Categories should be automatically updated as the changes are applied when the Save button is pressed.

If the category is still displayed as empty on the frontend of the store, navigate to System > Tools > Index Management. Check to see if the Category Products indexer needs reindexing.

To reindex in command line interface, execute the command bin/magento indexer:reindex. This command reindexes one time only. To keep indexers up-to-date, you must set up a cron job.

Note

You can reindex dynamic categories with the following command:

bin/magento mirasvit:dynamic-category:reindex

Dynamic category usage example

The task is to segregate available products for physical activity into their own category.

To do so, create a new category Activity as a subcategory of a Default Category. Read the Magento User Guide on Creating Categories for detailed instructions.

The new Activity category is empty for now:

To automatically fill it with products, activate the dynamic category switch in the drop-in menu Products in Category and this will activate the availability of the option Products Selection Conditions.

Specify the condition as:

Product attributes – Activity
is one of
exact value
specify the activity (Hike, Outdoor, Running, Gym, Climbing, etc.)

Press the button Preview Products to look at the item that will be automatically placed in the Activity category. If some products are missing or wrongfully present – edit the Products Selection Conditions accordingly.

When finished editing the conditions for automatic product assignment for the category – press the Save button.

How to upgrade extension

To upgrade the extension, follow these steps:

Backup your store's database and web directory.
Login to the SSH console of your server and navigate to the root directory of the Magento 2 store.
Run command composer require mirasvit/module-dynamic-category:* --update-with-dependencies to update current extension with all dependencies.
Note
In some cases, the command above is not applicable, or it's not possible to update just the current module, or you need to upgrade all Mirasvit modules in a bundle. In this case, the command above will have no effect.

Run instead composer update mirasvit/* command. It will update all Mirasvit modules installed in your store.
Run command php -f bin/magento setup:upgrade to install updates.
Run command php -f bin/magento cache:clean to clean the cache.
Deploy static view files

rm -rf pub/static/*; rm -rf var/view_preprocessed/*; php -f bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy

Disabling the Extension

Temporarily Disable

To temporarily disable the extension please follow these steps:

Login to the SSH console on your server and navigate to the root directory of the Magento 2 store.
Run the command php -f bin/magento module:disable Mirasvit_DynamicCategory Mirasvit_Merchandiser to disable the extension.
Log in to the Magento backend and refresh the store cache (if enabled).

Extension Removal

To uninstall the extension, please follow these steps:

Login to the SSH console on your server and navigate to the root directory of the Magento 2 store.
Run command php -f bin/magento module:disable Mirasvit_DynamicCategory Mirasvit_Merchandiser to disable the extension.
Run command composer remove mirasvit/module-dynamic-category to remove the extension.
Log in to the Magento backend and refresh the store cache (if enabled).

Change Log

1.3.22

(2024-04-15)

Fixed

Use default checkbox does not work on store_view level
Issue related with changing position on products grid on several pages

1.3.21

(2024-03-11)

Fixed

All products are assigned to the category when it is created

1.3.20

(2024-02-12)

Fixed

Issue with updating of category data

1.3.19

(2024-02-07)

Fixed

Description of dynamic category was not saved

1.3.18

(2024-01-17)

Fixed

Fix an error on product save - The category does not contain the specified product

1.3.17

(2024-01-03)

Fixed

Enterprise edition compatibility

1.3.16

(2023-12-18)

Improvements

Adding console command to check if product satisfies category conditions

Fixed

Changes to the category are not saved

1.3.15

(2023-11-29)

Features

Check and handle url_key_already_exists exception

Fixed

Cache invalidate during category assigment
Consider parent when saving child product

1.3.14

(2023-11-08)

Fixed

Enterprice edition compatibility
Error on preview button apply

1.3.13

(2023-11-01)

Fixed

Sorting issue with merchandizer m2.4.6
Fixed manual assigning from the category page

1.3.12

(2023-10-10)

Fixed

Sorting issue with merchandiser

1.3.11

(2023-10-02)

Fixed

additional check of product and category existence during reindex

1.3.10

(2023-09-25)

Fixed

compatibility with php82

1.3.9

(2023-09-25)

Fixed

issue related with updating product via API

1.3.8

(2023-09-13)

Fixed

Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in Mirasvit/DynamicCategory/Service/AttributeService.php on line 108

1.3.7

(2023-09-08)

Fixed

Smart Attribute "Is Salable"

1.3.6

(2023-09-06)

Fixed

If child product is assigned to dynamic category on product save parent product is assigned as well

1.3.5

(2023-08-29)

Fixed

Assign dynamic category from product page

1.3.4

(2023-08-25)

Fixed

Updated db_schemawhitelist.json

1.3.2

(2023-08-18)

Fixed

Issue with quantity condition

1.3.1

(2023-08-10)

Improvements

Added a brand-new sub-module "Visual Merchandizer", which provides a more user-friendly interface and allows for visually ordering products within the category
Added the ability to manually assign products to dynamic categories, allowing categories to contain both manually added products and products filtered by rules simultaneously
Queue status visualization

1.2.28

(2023-07-28)

Improvements

Ability to not automatically include the parent product if its child is included in a dynamic category

1.2.27

(2023-07-24)

Fixed

Category data is not saved under certain conditions

1.2.26

(2023-07-13)

Fixed

Products are not showing on the preview

1.2.24

(2023-06-13)

Fixed

Error "array_diff(): Argument #2 must be of type array, null given in Plugin/Backend/AddDynamicCategoryOnProductSaveM243Plugin"

1.2.23

(2023-06-07)

Improvements

Added a warning for manually assigning dynamic categories

Fixed

Compatibility with the Enterprise version

1.2.22

(2023-05-16)

Improvements

Speed up rule validation

Fixed

Reverting data during reindexing

1.2.20

(2023-04-27)

Fixed

Validation for multiselect attributes

1.2.18

(2023-04-18)

Fixed

Store ID during reindex

1.2.17

(2023-04-04)

Fixed

Error "Table mage_catalog_product_category_cl does not exist"

1.2.15

(2023-04-03)

Fixed

Compatibility with PHP 8.2
Compatibility with Magento 2.3.2
Issue with backlog products

Improvements

Speedup rule validation

1.2.14

(2023-03-07)

Fixed

Error "Unique constraint violation found"
Error "You cannot define a correlation name 'tbl_categoryids'"

1.2.13

(2023-03-02)

Fixed

Child product validation

1.2.12

(2023-02-22)

Fixed

The issue when reindex remove all products from a category

1.2.8

(2023-01-25)

Fixed

URL rewrites during dynamic category saving`
Console command stops reindex process on the first error

1.2.7

(2023-01-20)

Fixed

Removing rewrites

1.2.6

(2023-01-06)

Improvements

Memory usage during reindex

1.2.5

(2022-12-15)

Fixed

The error "Area code is not set"
Removing rewrites during reindex

1.2.4

(2022-12-05)

Fixed

The error "Integrity constraint violation: 1062 Duplicate entry for key 'CATALOG_CATEGORY_PRODUCT_CATEGORY_ID_PRODUCT_ID'"

1.2.3

(2022-12-04)

Fixed

Website filter (exclude products that do not assign to website)

1.2.2

(2022-11-27)

Fixed

Results for "Any" aggregator
Preview does not take in the consideration the option "Exclude Products"

1.2.1

(2022-11-08)

Improvements

Moved category reindex to Message queues

1.1.13

(2022-11-03)

Fixed

Smart conditions

1.1.12

(2022-10-25)

Fixed

Rule validation on reindex

1.1.11

(2022-10-10)

Fixed

Error "str_replace(): Argument #3 ($subject) must be of type array|string, Magento\Framework\DB\Select given"

1.1.10

(2022-10-07)

Fixed

The issue when reindex do not disable on save

1.1.9

(2022-10-05)

Fixed

Issue when category does not reindex on save

1.1.8

(2022-09-23)

Improvements

Speedup rule validation

1.1.7

(2022-09-05)

Improvements

Added option "Run with Reindex Process"

1.1.6

(2022-08-04)

Fixed

Condition "Has Active Special Price" does not include catalog rule discount

1.1.5

(2022-07-28)

Improvements

Added option "Reindex after save"

1.1.4

(2022-07-11)

Improvements

Added the ability to select products by pattern

Fixed

Dynamic Category icon for categories with children
Timeout issue when saving dynamic category

1.1.3

(2022-06-20)

Improvements

remove db_schema_whitelist.json

1.1.2

(2022-06-14)

Fixed

Compatibility php7.1

1.1.1

(2022-05-25)

Fixed

Assign category when saving product through API

1.1.0

(2022-05-23)

Improvements

Migrate to declarative schema

1.0.29

(2022-03-21)

Fixed

Issue when cannot disable dynamic category

1.0.28

(2022-02-10)

Improvements

Added parent/child conditions

1.0.26

(2022-01-19)

Improvements

Added option "Exclude Products"

1.0.25

(2021-12-24)

Fixed

Reindex category on save

1.0.24

(2021-11-23)

Improvements

Indexation workflow

1.0.23

(2021-11-19)

Fixed

Compatibility with m2.4.2

1.0.22

(2021-11-09)

Improvements

Decrease reindex time

1.0.21

(2021-11-03)

Improvements

Added smart attribute "Created"

Fixed

Condition "Has Active Special Price is No"

1.0.20

(2021-10-12)

Improvements

Added option "Reindex Mode"

1.0.19

(2021-08-05)

Fixed

Assign product to category on product save using REST API

1.0.18

(2021-06-29)

Improvements

Validation of the configurable products

1.0.17

(2021-05-28)

Improvements

Added new condition "Is Salable"
Added the ability to copy rules from other dynamic categories

1.0.16

(2021-04-13)

Fixed

Call to a member function isStatic() on bool in vendor/magento/module-eav/Model/Entity/Collection/AbstractCollection.php (deleted attribute)

1.0.15

(2021-04-12)

Fixed

JS error on the category tree (rules)

1.0.14

(2021-01-11)

Fixed

Apply Sale rule on configurable products too

1.0.13

(2021-01-07)

Fixed

Compatibility with PHP 7.1

1.0.12

(2020-12-22)

Fixed

Display of attributes of type "textarea"

Improvements

Speedup category reindex

1.0.11

(2020-12-11)

Fixed

Rename condition "On Sale" to "Has Active Special Price"

Improvements

Added command "mirasvit:dynamic-category:reindex"

1.0.10

(2020-12-01)

Improvements

New rule condition by product rating
New rule condition by number of reviews

1.0.9

(2020-11-26)

Fixed

Rule condition for the attribute "Quantity"

1.0.8

(2020-11-10)

Fixed

Compatibility with m2.3.2

1.0.7

(2020-10-16)

Fixed

Minor fixes

1.0.6

(2020-10-12)

Fixed

Issue with reindex

1.0.5

(2020-10-12)

Fixed

Issue with reindex

1.0.4

(2020-10-09)

Improvements

Added filter by Product Type

1.0.3

(2020-10-08)

Fixed

On sale feature

1.0.2

(2020-10-06)

Improvements

New conditions

1.0.1

(2020-09-23)

Fixed

Minor fixes

1.0.0

(2020-09-21)

Features

Initial release