Product Categories

The Shop menu is built entirely from the product categories in the cPanel. There is no separate menu to edit: change a category and the menu follows. It is how most customers get to product lists.

This page explains how the menu is generated and gives guidance on structure. For the step-by-step procedure (adding, hiding and reordering items, and checking the change live), see Edit the menus.

Changes can take up to 24 hours to show

The desktop and mobile menus are each stored as a saved copy that is reused for up to 24 hours. After you save a category, the live menu can keep showing the old version until that copy expires. Adding ?nc= to the address does not help. Check the next day before you assume a change failed. See Edit the menus for details.

Which categories appear

A category appears in the Shop menu when all of these are true:

• Active: the category is marked active.
• Shown on the menu: the category’s show-on-menu setting is on.
• Has products: products are assigned to it or to one of its subcategories. The Shop menu leaves out empty categories, on desktop and mobile.

To hide a category from the menu without deleting or deactivating it, turn off its show-on-menu setting (OnMenu in the content data). This is useful for categories that aren’t ready for customers. Six level 2 Roof Racks categories, such as Roof Baskets and Mounts & Legs, are active but hidden this way (2026-10-20 pull).

An empty category disappears silently

If you build a new category and it doesn’t appear, check that products are assigned to it or to one of its subcategories. The category saves without any warning, and the menu just leaves it out. On 21 October 2026, for example, the Aussie Summer Holiday Promotion category was active and set to show, but wasn’t in the menu.

Sort order

Items at every level are sorted the same way:

1. Sort Order, highest number first.
2. Name, A to Z, when two items have the same Sort Order.

That is the whole rule. Content ID is not used as a tiebreaker. To move an item up, give it a higher Sort Order than the items above it.

On the live site, Roof Racks (Sort Order 100) comes first, Current Promotions (1) second, and every other level 1 category is on 0, so they follow in alphabetical order.

What shows at each level

The menu goes three levels deep. Level 4 categories (for example the subcategories of Batteries) are never shown in the menu.

Level	Desktop	Mobile
Level 1	Tabs down the left. A category with subcategories is a tab that opens its panel; it doesn’t link anywhere itself. A category with no subcategories is a plain link to its page	A list. A category with subcategories opens its list instead of linking. A category with no subcategories links straight to its page
Level 2	Links in two columns in the panel, followed by a See All [name] link to the level 1 page	A list that opens from level 1. The first entry is See All [name] (not live yet, AUD-08)
Level 3	Listed under its level 2 link in the panel	A list that opens from level 2. The first entry is See All [name] (not live yet, AUD-08)
Content panel	On the right of each level 1 panel	At the end of a level 1 category’s list, if it has subcategories and related content. No fallback on mobile

Not live yet

On altapac.com today, the mobile Shop menu has no See All entries (checked 21 October 2026). A level 1 or level 2 category with subcategories only opens its list, so its own page can’t be reached from the mobile menu. The See All [name] entries arrive with the next theme release (AUD-08).

When the desktop menu opens, the first level 1 category that has subcategories is already selected, so customers see its panel straight away.

Related content: one list, two places

The Related Content you set on a category is used in two places:

• The menu content panel. On a level 1 category, the menu panel shows one item from its related content: that page’s Alt image 1, its name and a link. See Content Panel for image sizes and the fallback.
• The category page’s related cards. On any category page, up to 4 related content cards show below the description, but only when Description 1 has text and Label 1 has any text in it. See Choose a page template.

Adding cards can change the menu panel

The menu panel shows only one related item, and the theme doesn’t choose which one when there are several. Adding a second or third related page to fill the category page’s cards can change what the menu panel shows. Check the menu after you change related content on a level 1 category.

Plan a blog post or other content page for each level 1 category, so its panel and cards have something relevant to show. This also helps SEO and gives customers useful reading alongside the products.

How many items at each level

These numbers are guidance for a tidy, usable menu. The theme does not enforce them: extra items still show, the panel just gets longer and harder to scan.

Level	Guidance	Live count, 21 October 2026
Level 1	No more than 9	9, at the limit
Level 2	Ideally no more than 9 per level 1. Fewer if the level 2 items have long level 3 lists, because the panel gets tall	2 to 8. Vehicle Protection has the most, with 8
Level 3	Between 3 and 6 per level 2	1 to 8. Complete Towbar Kits has 8, over the limit. Dual Battery has 6. Ten level 2 items have only 1 or 2

Level 1 items should cover the core product areas of the site, ideally without overlapping each other. A short level 3 list keeps customers from facing too many choices at once.

Live counts are what the menu showed on the date above, so they leave out empty and hidden categories.

A category counts as empty, and drops off the menu, when it has no active products. Out-of-stock products still count.

When two categories share both Sort Order and name, the order is up to Maropost.

For developers

Theme files this page is based on

From Altapac-ReDev, branch development, under src/templates/:

• headers/includes/components/desk-Menu.template.html: cache type:'cmenu' id:'web_deskmenu-v2' ttl:'86400' (line 1). Shop is content_menu content_type:'category' sortby:'sortorder,name' show_empty:'0' (line 7) with *level_1 to *level_3 only. First parent with children gets active (lines 12-26). Panel is list type:'content' filter:'related_content=[@content_id@]' limit:'1' with the shop_menu_content zone as fallback (lines 50-80).
• headers/includes/components/mobile-Menu.template.html: cache type:'cmenu' id:'web_burgermenu-v2' ttl:'86400' (line 2). Same content_menu call (line 6), “See All” first entries (lines 35, 47), related panel with no fallback (lines 12-31).
• cms/category.template.html: related cards list ... related_content=[@content_id@] limit:'4' inside [%if [@content_description1@]%] (line 109) and [%if [@content_label1@]%] (line 120).

Live counts were read from the rendered #shop-menu on https://www.altapac.com on 21 October 2026.