Event & Business Categories
IN THIS ARTICLE
Organizing your Event and Business listings with categories & subcategories will make it easier for visitors to find what they're looking. It allows site users to filter all events or businesses into smaller groups, while also making it easier for you to manage the information in Spark.
- Categories can be Active or Inactive. Deactivated categories will prohibit the visibility of connected events and businesses.
Events and Businesses can be associated with multiple categories and subcategories if applicable.
Example: a Harlem Globetrotters performance could be categorized as both a Sporting Event and Family Entertainment.
Spark location: Events or Businesses > Categories which will redirect you to your Site Map.
The specific Site Map location will be unique on your site because these dashboards can be moved from section to section, the same as your dynamic pages.
Category Control
You can click on this image to enlarge it:
The top level of your Event Categories
Click the (+) icon to expand and display categories.
Click the (-) icon to collapse categories.
- This is a main category which has subcategories collapsed. Subcategories appear indented below the top level.
- This is a main category which does not have subcategories.
- This is a main category with the subcategories visible.
- The number of events associated with each category and subcategory is shown here.
Never delete a category which has events associated with it! The events will be removed.
Add a Category
Hover over the Event Categories and select Add New Category. Or scroll to the bottom of the Categories and click the Add New Category button.
The below popup will appear. The Category Name is the only required field - but adding the Friendly URL, SEO Title and SEO Description is recommended. These are the same fields detailed in SEO Tools
- You have the option of showing or hiding the category to your customers - and if you have Member tools (which may not be included on your site) you can choose the visibility in that section as well.
- If the category needs to use subcategories, or if you want to add text and/or image content to the category header, choose Save & Continue.
- If you don't need to add subcategories, nor add content to the header, choose Save & Close.
Add a Subcategory
Subcategories provide another layer of organization your event and business listings. For example, if you have a Concert category in your events, you could add subcategories for Rock, Country, and Pop.
When a category is created, choosing Save & Continue will refresh the window and display the Allow Subcategories button. If you're adding subcategories to an existing category, you'll need to edit before selecting Allow Subcategories.
After you enable subcategories, you'll need to go back to the Site Map to begin adding the new selections. An Other subcategory will auto-generate once subcategories are enabled. You can edit this to repurpose it or simply add more by hovering over the Category and selecting Add New Subcategory.
Note: All categories which have subcategories enabled will always require a subcategory to be selected when new events or businesses are added to the category.
When editing categories, there is a rich text editor that supports uploading images or videos. Any content added in the this section will be displayed at the top of the page when the category is selected by the end user. This feature is typically used to showcase category-specific information or advertisements.
