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How-To Guide

This guide provides step-by-step workflows for the most common tasks with Category Sorter.

How the Plugin Works

Pick a category from the tree → Apply sorting → Subcategories in A–Z order
  1. You select a category on the plugin page.
  2. The plugin orders its direct subcategories alphanumerically (recursively if requested).
  3. The new order is immediately visible in the category tree under Catalogues → Categories.

Common Workflows

How to: Sort a category's subcategories

Goal: Put a category's direct subcategories into alphanumeric order.

Steps:

  1. Open the plugin page
  2. Navigate to: Settings → Plugins → Category Sorter
  3. Pick a category
  4. In the Category field, expand the tree and click the category you want.
  5. Start sorting
  6. Click Sort subcategories.

Result: The chosen category's direct subcategories are in alphanumeric order (A–Z). A message reports how many categories were reordered.

How to: Sort the entire subtree (recursive)

Goal: Sort not just the direct children, but every level below them.

Steps:

  1. Open the plugin page and pick a category (see above).
  2. Enable Sort recursively.
  3. Click Sort subcategories.

Result: The selected category and every level beneath it are sorted down to the deepest level.

How to: Sort multiple categories at once

Prerequisite: The multiselect In-App Purchase (multiselect) is active.

Steps:

  1. Open the plugin page.
  2. In the category tree, select several categories via their checkboxes.
  3. Optionally enable Sort recursively.
  4. Click Sort subcategories.

Result: The subcategories of all selected categories are sorted.

If multiselect is not unlocked, click Unlock multiselect to start the In-App Purchase.

How to: Set up automatic sorting

Prerequisite: The automatic sorting In-App Purchase (scheduled-sort) is active.

Steps:

  1. Open the plugin page and select the categories to sort.
  2. In the Automatic sorting card, set the Run interval (seconds) (e.g. 86400 for once per day).
  3. Click Save in the top right.

Result: The saved selection is sorted automatically at the defined interval. Interval changes take effect immediately on save.

Important: Automatic sorting only runs while a message queue worker is active (admin worker or bin/console messenger:consume).

Quick Reference

Task Key steps Requires
Sort one category Pick category → Sort subcategories –
Sort recursively Enable Sort recursively → sort –
Multiple categories Select several in the tree → sort multiselect
Sort automatically Selection + interval → Save scheduled-sort

Best Practices

  1. Check names before the first run: Sorting follows the category name exactly (natural A–Z order), so verify the names first.
  2. Use recursive deliberately: On large trees, recursive mode reorders a great many categories — apply it consciously.

What to Avoid

  • ❌ Expecting automatic sorting without a running worker — without a worker the scheduled task will not execute.
  • ❌ Assuming multiple categories are sorted without the multiselect purchase — without it, only the first category is taken into account.