Turn NEW categories into Subcategories

[polygone]

I have a Category that I want to change into a TOP category of four subcategories. I understand that I cannot add subcategories until the Top Category is empty of products.

I was hoping there was a way to move all the products into new categories and then make them subcategories of the original now empty one.

THE REASON for wanting to do this is to preserve the NAME and ID of the original category.

If there is no method for making a new category a sub category - do I have to MOVE all the products to a temp category, unlink them (if they are linked) - and then move them again into the new subcategories under the original top category?

[mc12345678]

If you temporarily disable all of the product in the top category, then you can create a sub-category(ies) to which you can then move the product, then reenable the product.

Otherwise you could through SQL create a category with a master/parent category of the root, and then change all of your product to have products_master category to point to that first sub-category and then create/move product from there.

Of course could also do a combination of the two (disable all product, create the first sub-category, then use SQL to change all of the product's master category to this first sub-category and then reenable all of the product as well with that SQL).

[polygone]

WOW - everything I have read until now suggested that a category must be EMPTY of Products to ADD a Category - Not merry Disabled

THANK YOU!

[mc12345678]

WOW - everything I have read until now suggested that a category must be EMPTY of Products to ADD a Category - Not merry Disabled

THANK YOU!

I guess you could say empty is a matter of perspective. :) from the store front, if all products are disabled, then the category is empty. :) and in a way, let's face it, it's all about the store front. :) (I'm sure there are exceptions like there always are.) for example, store owners have spoken out about the admin panel, so there have been changes there as well. Some make getting things to the store front easier, some just to spice things up. :)

[mc12345678]

Ohhhh, and forgot to mention, if you do already have some categories setup and are wanting to shift around product within some category branch, by temporarily disabling the "parent" category, you will be asked if you want to disable all of the product below it, so it can be a one shot deal rather than one at a time... been a while but I thought the reverse was also possible (enable all under a category that is to be reenabled)...

Big thing in all this is if you 1) have a development version of your site, then you can test this stuff all you want and not affect your live site and 2) make backups of your database (and your files) routinely so that mistakes can be corrected on the spot.