---
title: Catalog Categories
slug: v111/catalog-categories
icon: {"faIcon":"fa-solid fa-arrows-split-up-and-left"}
docTags:
createdAt: 2025-06-10T04:11:04.829Z
---
Categories within the [Portal](docId\:oFlcYQnXL85d8kz2vL8cU) allow for organisations to strucutre their Portal Catalogs into logical clusterings, and apply visibility rules and details to drive user experience.
Categories act as the **Parent **to [Catalog Items](docId\:sEO_GuzpP3kTI7VpQjQq5), creating a taxonomy for self-service that becomes visible to end users when navigating the appropriate portal.
Categories can either be directly paired to Catalog Items, or can include sub-categories additional categories to further drive the taxonomy.
## Portal Taxonomy
The options surrounding how you strucutre your portal are endless, however here are a few suggestions to consider:
- Business-Unit Centric Taxonomy
- Each Business Unit has it's own Category, and relevant sub-categories, with BU specific Catalog Items underneath
```mermaid
---
title: [Portal Categories]
## Do not modify the Theme Variables
config:
theme: base
themeVariables:
primaryColor: '#AFD3F0'
secondaryColor: 'white'
---
flowchart TD
classDef portal fill: #FDAA43
classDef subcat fill: #02012D, color: white
class Z category
Z{Service Portal}
Z:::portal --> A(Accounting):::subcat
Z --> B(Finance):::subcat
Z --> C(IT Services):::subcat
A --> A1((Expense
Reimbursement))
A --> A2((End of Month
Summary))
C --> CA(End User
Compute):::subcat
C --> CB(Service &
Storage):::subcat
CA --> CA1((Request New
Hardware))
CA --> CA2((Report a Fault))
```
- Capability Centric Taxonomy
- Instead of dividing by Business Unit, the Taxonomy is structured by Capabilities across the Organisation
```mermaid
---
title: [Portal Categories]
## Do not modify the Theme Variables
config:
theme: base
themeVariables:
primaryColor: '#AFD3F0'
secondaryColor: 'white'
---
flowchart TD
classDef portal fill: #FDAA43
classDef subcat fill: #02012D, color: white
Z{Service Portal}
Z:::portal --> A(Human Resources):::subcat
Z --> B(Customer Support):::subcat
Z --> C(Operations):::subcat
Z --> D(Marketing):::subcat
A --> A1((Employee
Onboarding))
A --> A2((Policy &
Compliance))
B --> B1((Troubleshooting))
B --> B2((Request for
Assistance))
C --> C1((Logistics
Management))
C --> C2((Vendor
Management))
D --> D1((Campaign
Management))
D --> D2((Social Media
Monitoring))
```
## Category Configuration
Each Portal Category has the following fields for configuration:
| **Field Label** | **Field Type** | **Purpose** |
| ------------------ | --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Name | String | The name of the Category - visible to end users when navigating the Portal, and indexed for Search. |
| Parent Category | Reference | (Optional) Parent Field to create a multi-level taxonomy of categories. |
| Key | String | (Optional) Unique identifier for advanced scripting |
| Active | Boolean | Flag to enable or disable the entire category (and it's childen [Catalog Items](docId\:sEO_GuzpP3kTI7VpQjQq5)) from the portal. |
| Order | Integer | Numerical order of appearance for categories within the parent - smallest number will be the first appearing Category. |
| Highlight | Boolean | Allows for visual distinction of Categories within the Portal - useful for new offerings or changes to Portal Taxonomy. |
| Show Items | Boolean | Items of subcategories can be shown along with subcategories on a category page. |
| Summary | Text | Summary text of the category. This will be used as part of the category display in the portal. |
| Image | Attachment | Image for category. This will be used as part of the category display in the portal. |
| Icon | Attachment | Icon for the category. Used in the portal. |
| Roles | Multi-Reference | Only users with these roles will have this category available. If no roles specified, category is available for all. |
| Groups | Multi-Reference | Only users who are members of these groups will have this category available. If no groups specified, category is available for all. |
| Entitlement Script | Script | Complex entitlement rules may be scripted. The script should result in a boolean true/false, or set the the answer variable. |
| Subcategories | Related List | Related List of all Categories with the current Category listed as the Parent. |