Category Templates

The category body template is the product-listing layout. A page gets it when its Body Template is left blank on a Category or Brand page, or when category is typed in. For how to choose or change a template, see Choose a page template.

Pages that use it

Page type	How it gets category	Live, 20 October 2026
Category pages	Body Template blank	173
Brand pages	Body Template blank	84
Promotion pages	category typed in	1 active (/promotions/rhino-rack-november/), 1 inactive
Parts-finder pages under /parts-finder/	Matches the other parts-finder pages	Not in the content export. Live pages render this layout

Open decision: promotion pages

Live promotion pages use category, not the theme’s promotions template. Nobody has decided which is correct. Until someone does, keep using category. The two layouts show different fields: Run a promotion compares them.

Parts-finder pages

The store’s parts-finder content type code is parts-finder, which the product page uses. The unused parent-category template expects part-finder, so its parts-finder handling never runs. Don’t put parts-finder pages on parent-category. See Parts finder.

What the page shows, top to bottom

1. Heading. The SEO Page Heading, or the page Name if that is blank.
2. Description 1 and the Alt image 1, side by side. Only when Description 1 has content.
3. Related cards. Up to 4. Only when Description 1 and Label 1 are both filled.
4. category_ad banner. Shown on every page of results.
5. Filter sidebar and product area. On page 1 of the results only, the product area opens with a carousel of blank-group text adverts (adverts with no group set), then a “Featured products” row of blank-group product adverts.
6. Product list. Sort menu, product count and page numbers. With no products assigned, it says “This category is empty!“.
7. Description 2. Very bottom, after the product list. Only when filled.

The page’s main image and Short Description 1 don’t show on this template. Label 2 and Label 3 aren’t used either. On a Promotions page Label 3 still matters for the /promotions list.

Description 1 and Alt image 1

Description 1 sits in a two-thirds-width column with Alt image 1 beside it. Leave Description 1 blank and the whole block goes: no description, no image, no related cards.

Keep Description 1 short, because it sits above the products. The earlier version of this guide set a 250-word limit. The theme doesn’t enforce one.

Upload Alt image 1 at 450 × 450, square, as on every content page. On this template it’s cropped to 3:2 (wide), filling the column, so keep the subject in the middle where the crop won’t cut it off.

Alt image 1 is also used on other pages, cropped differently: as the card image when another page links here, in the desktop menu panel (3:2), and as a brand tile in the Connect menu (3:1). So an Alt image 1 is worth adding even without a Description 1. See Edit the menus and the image section of Choose a page template.

Note

The theme also writes Alt image 1 into a full-width banner strip at the top of every category page. That strip has no height, so it renders 0 px tall and nothing shows (checked live on /towbars-towing/, 21 October 2026). If a developer ever gives it a height, every category’s Alt image 1 will appear as a banner. Ask the web team before relying on it or “fixing” it.

Related cards

The Related Content picker (called “Related Categories” in older guides) links this page to other content pages. On this template it adds a row of up to 4 cards below the description, before the products. Each card shows the related page’s Alt image 1 (a placeholder if it has none), its name, the first two lines of its Short Description 1, and a “Read More” link.

To switch the cards on, put any text in Label 1. It isn’t a true/false field: any text counts, and the text itself never shows. Empty Label 1 means no cards.

Label 1 does nothing without Description 1

The cards sit inside the Description 1 block. With Description 1 empty, Label 1 and Related Content have no effect on the page, and nothing tells you why.

Related Content also feeds the menu

On a top-level Shop category, the same Related Content list fills the desktop mega-menu panel (one item). Adding pages to fill the category cards can change which page the menu panel shows. Menu changes can take up to 24 hours to appear because the menu is cached. See Edit the menus.

Promotion pages: the code is also the switch

On a Promotions page, Label 1 holds the promotion code. On this template that same text also switches on the related cards whenever Description 1 is filled. You can’t have the code without the switch.

Adverts on category pages

Three kinds of advert appear on this template. For the fields each one reads, image shapes and how to set Group and Location, see Adverts and content zones.

Advert	Where it shows	Limit
Text adverts in group category_ad	Wide banner above the sidebar and products, on every page of results. Rotates on its own, no arrows or dots. Cropped to 5:1 on desktop, 3:1 on tablets, 2:1 on phones, keeping the left edge	10
Text adverts with Group left blank	Carousel at the top of the product area, page 1 only. Shown whole in a 48:11 frame. Arrows and dots only with 2 or more	10
Product adverts with Group left blank	”Featured products” row above the product list, page 1 only	8

These adverts also show on promotion pages, because those use this template. If promotion pages move to promotions, they lose them.

Two carousels on one page

If a category has both a category_ad banner and blank-group text adverts, the two carousels can interfere: the second one’s arrows and dots may move the first. If a category needs both, ask a developer to check it.

Unconfirmed

• No live category showed a category_ad banner or related cards on 21 October 2026, so those parts were checked against the theme only.

Description 2

Description 2 prints at the very bottom of the page, full width, after the product list and page numbers. It sits inside the #_Custom-page-content wrapper, so it’s the field to use for content with its own styling. Description 1 is outside that wrapper. Description 2’s wrapper is a Bootstrap row, so wrap the whole field in one <div class="col-12"> or its paragraphs may sit side by side. See Custom CSS in content.

Description 3 isn’t used on this template.

For developers

Theme repo Altapac-ReDev, branch development, paths under src/templates/:

• cms/category.template.html
  • Heading: url_info name:'page_heading' with content_name default (105).
  • Description 1 block: [%if [@content_description1@]%] (109-217). Alt image 1 is img._services-content-image, aspect-ratio: 3/2; object-fit: cover (58-65, 116).
  • Related cards: [%if [@content_label1@]%] nested inside the Description 1 test (120), list type:'content' filter:'related_content=[@content_id@]' limit:'4' (121). Card image is the related page’s alt_1 with default_product.gif fallback (199); text is content_short_description1 with a 2-line clamp (176-182, 204).
  • category_ad: advert type:'text' template:'banner' limit:'10' ad_group:'category_ad' with its own *body (223-265). Aspect ratios 5/1, 3/1 (577-766px), 2/1 (576px and under) (229-242).
  • Page-1-only blank-group adverts: [%if ![@form:pgnum@] OR [@form:pgnum@] eq '1'%] (275). Text advert template:'carousel' inherit:'n' limit:'10' ad_group:'' (276), using thumbs/advert/carousel.template.html (48/11, object-fit: contain). Product advert type:'product' limit:'8' inherit:'n' ad_group:'' (303).
  • Duplicate id: both carousels use id="homepageCarousel" (225, 278). Both also write indicator <li>s to site_value id:'counter', which the second carousel loads into its indicators (255-257, 281), so category_ad slides add dots to the blank-group carousel.
  • Product list: thumb_list type:'products' limit:'[@config:THUMB_LIMIT@]' (314), empty message in *ifempty (435-442).
  • Description 2 in #_Custom-page-content class="col-12 row" (448-452).
• headers/template.html:267-276: when current_page_type is category, Alt image 1 is set as the background of div.category-banner. No CSS anywhere in the repo sizes .category-banner, so it renders 0px tall (measured live on /towbars-towing/).
• cms/includes/sidebar.template.html: filter sidebar loaded at line 272.
• Parts-finder type code: products/template.html:215 uses parts-finder; cms/parent-category.template.html:320-321 uses part-finder.
• Live template use: Altapac-Content/pages/**/meta.json (pulled 2026-10-20). Category (type 1) and Brand (type 10) pages have blank Body Template; both Promotions (type 16) pages have category.