Dynamic Category Expressions

The dynamic category expression controls the product membership of the dynamic category. You can find the expression of a dynamic category in the Expression section on a dynamic category page.

You can create and edit the dynamic category expression either using the visual expression builder or the advanced expression editor. If you choose to use the visual expression builder, you'll need to create containers and filters using dialog boxes in Admin. If you choose to use the advanced expression editor to create and edit the expression you'll need to write either a JSON styled tree, or write a plain text string.

Refer to following sections for more information about either manually writing the dynamic category expressions, or using the visual expression builder.

Visual Expression Builder

The visual expression builder allows you to visually create groups and conditions that specify the details of your expression. A group specifies whether any or all of the conditions within it need to evaluate as True in order for products to be added to the dynamic category. A condition contains an expression field, an operator, and a value, for example Product code is equal to BLUE-SHIRT.

Add a Group

To add a group:

1. Under the Expression section, expand the actions menu and select Add Group.
2. Specify whether Any or All of the conditions in the container must be True by clicking Edit. Any acts like an or, and All acts like an and. For example, you have a condition that includes the categories Prada and Women's. If you specify Any, any products that belong to the Prada or the Women's category will be included in the dynamic category. However, if you specify All, only products that belong to both the Prada and Women's categories will be included in the dynamic category.

For example, you add a group that includes four conditions and allow any of the conditions to be True.

Add a Condition

To add a condition:

1. Under the Expression section, expand the actions for the applicable group and select Add Condition.
2. Select a condition Field.
3. Select an Operator.
4. Specify a Value.

For example, you want the dynamic category to include any product with a list price of $50. To accomplish this, you create a condition that states List price is equal to $50. Some fields allow for null, or no values. The asterisk on the Value drop-down menu determines whether the selected field requires a value. For example, you can create a condition that states Sale price has no value.

Add an Existing Condition to a Group

To add an already existing condition to a group, click and drag the condition into the desired group.

Advanced Expression Editor

The advanced expression editor allows you to manually write either JSON equivalent text or plain text to create the expression.

To create or edit an expression manually:

1. In the Expression section, click Advanced.
2. In the Advanced Edit Expression window, select either the JSON view or the Text view to write your expression.

Preview the Expression Results

Before saving the dynamic category, you can preview the results of the expression. This gives you the opportunity to view the products that will be included in the dynamic category before saving the category. When previewing the results of the expression, you can specify the site and either the Live or Staged version of the site.

If your product publishing settings are set to Live for a catalog, you can only preview the live matching results. To view both the live and staged matching results, you need to set your product publishing settings to Staged. Refer to Publishing Settings for more information about setting your product publishing settings.

Only products that appear on your storefront are returned in the preview expression results. If, for whatever reason, including out of stock, a product does not appear on your storefront either currently or on the staged preview date then it will not appear in either the live or staged preview expression results.

To preview the results of an expression:

1. Under the Expression section, click Preview.
2. In the Preview Expression modal, the results of the expression are shown in the Preview grid on the right.
3. Select the Site you wish to preview products for as well as the site's State. Tip:  If you select Staged as the site's state, you can specify the date you wish to preview. This allows you to preview the products that will be included in the dynamic category on the specified date.
4. If the product results do not match your desired results, you can edit the expression using the Expression frame on the left.
5. If you edit the expression in the Preview Expression modal and you wish to save your changes, click Done. Otherwise, click Cancel to disregard any changes and close the Preview Expression modal.

The total matched results are shown in the bottom-right corner of the Preview grid. You can use this total to quickly determine whether your expression meets your desired criteria.

Expression Fields

When you write a dynamic category expression, you define values for the supported fields in order to build out the expression.

Refer to the following table for the supported expression fields and their operators:

Precomputed and Realtime Categories

Realtime Categories Only

Sale Type Values

The realtime sale type field has three different values that each apply to a product's various sale types: Catalog Sale Price, Discounted List Price, and Discounted Catalog Sale Price. Refer to the following table for more information about each of these values and their relationship to a product's various sale prices.

Expression Examples

These four examples provide visual builder and advanced editor samples for different expressions.

{
    "type": "container",
    "logicalOperator": "or",
    "nodes": [
        {
            "type": "predicate",
            "left": "daysavailableincatalog",
            "right": 30,
            "operator": "le"
        }
    ]
}

daysavailableincatalog le 30

{
    "type": "container",
    "logicalOperator": "or",
    "nodes": [
        {
            "type": "predicate",
            "left": "properties.tenant~color",
            "operator": "eq",
            "right": "Red"
        }
    ]
}

properties.color eq "Red"

{
    "type": "container",
    "logicalOperator": "and",
    "nodes": [
        {
            "type": "predicate",
            "left": "Categories.CategoryCode",
            "operator": "eq",
            "right": "apparel"
        },
        {
            "type": "predicate",
            "left": "properties.color",
            "operator": "eq",
            "right": "Red"
        }
    ]
}

Categories.CategoryCode eq "apparel" and properties.color eq "red"

{
    "type": "container",
    "logicalOperator": "and",
    "nodes": [
        {   
            "type": "container",
            "logicalOperator": "and",
            "nodes": [               
                {
                    "type": "predicate",
                    "left": "Price.SaleType",
                    "operator": "eq",
                    "right": "DiscountedList"
                },
                {
                    "type": "predicate",
                    "left": "Categories.CategoryCode",
                    "operator": "eq",
                    "right": "apparel"
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

(Price.SaleType eq "DiscountedList" and Categories.CategoryCode eq "apparel")