Dynamic Filters are Catalog Filters for grouping together items that are created on demand, based on any Item field you require, and for all Items that have values for that field.

Whereas regular Filters would have needed to be individually created for each value, Dynamic Filters are based on the values in the data. When additional values are loaded, additional Filters are automatically created. Conversely - when values no longer exist (ie Items deleted or assigned to another subcategory), the corresponding Filters are not created for any values until you reduce to 100 or less. 

NOTE: Dynamic filters are limited to 100 filters. If you have more than 100 unique values in your data dynamic filters will not be created at all until you reduce to 100 or less unique values.

Dynamic Filters can be positioned in a hierarchical tree layout, with multiple levels, making them a powerful navigation tool in your catalogs.

They also prevent empty Filters from being created, because only Filters with the criteria that exist in the Item data will be created.

They come in really handy when you have a large number of items in your Pepperi data or periodically add a lot of Items to your Pepperi data via integration/uploads, because all the newly required Filters are created on the fly. Read on to get the full picture and instructions.

Introduction

Dynamic Filters may be set up in a "Tree" layout, where each sub-level is contained within the higher level. The levels are unlimited, so you can have as many levels of categories as you need.

Example of 3-level Filter Tree on WebApp:

NOTE: On mobile devices Dynamic Filters will only show 2 levels deep - the first level in the Menu and second level across the top of the Order Center (where Filters are typically located). On the Web Storefront all levels in the Filter Tree will be shown.

For example:

If you have 5,000 items divided into Main Category and a custom field called TSASubCategory

20 Main Categories

4 Sub Categories

- Natural

- Organic

- Gluten Free

- Vegan

You need to create only 2 Dynamic Filters:

1 based on Main Category

1 based on SubCategory

Create these 2 Dynamic Filters and position them in the tree as follows:

The filters will automatically be created for the 20 Main Categories and underneath each of them filters for the 4 SubCategory values.

NOTE: Dynamic filters are limited to 100 filters. If you have more than 100 unique values in your data dynamic filters will not be created at all until you reduce to 100 or less unique values.

Whenever you add Items to Pepperi via integration which may contain additional SubCategories other than the initial ones you have loaded (above - Natural, Organic, Vegan, etc...), those SubCategory Filters will be created automatically.

For example, if you added items with the following new Main Categories and new SubCategories:

2 new Main Categories

3 new SubCategories

- Flavors added

- Allergans

- No Allergans

Those 2 new Main Categories and 3 new SubCategories filters would be created automatically. 

How to Create Dynamic Filters

In this example we'll create dynamic filters for Main Category and SubCategory.

Go to Settings -> Items -> Filters -> Add New Filter

Select "Dynamic Filter" (if you don't see the Dynamic filter option then contact Pepperi support will turn it on for you).

Group by Main Category.

This will create a Main Category filter for each Main Category value in your data. 

You can also add rules below the Group By option, to filter out Main Categories you do not wish to show, or to show only specific items within those Main Categories. These are the same rules as in the non-dynamic, static filters.

In this example a filter for each Main Category will be created, except for the Main Category "Brushes"

Create another dynamic filter, this time group by SubCategory (a custom field in this example). A filter will automatically be created for each SubCategory that exists in your data. You can also add rules below the Group By option to determine which items appear in this Dynamic Filter.

For example: Item Formulation Contains "parabenFree" AND Item stock > 0.

This means that the items in the filter will contain paraben free formulation and be in stock. Items that don't fit these criteria won't be displayed in the SubCategory dynamic filter.

NOTE: Items that don't have a value for the field SubCategory won't be displayed. 

A filter called "N/A" will be created for the items with no value indicated in this field.

To avoid this, you can add a filter rule excluding all items with an empty SubCategory field.

How to Position Dynamic Filters in the Catalog Filter Tree

Next, you'll need to assign the filters to the relevant Catalogs. If you are not using Multiple Catalogs, assign them to the Default Catalog. (You may need to enable the Multiple Catalog feature for the "Catalogs" configuration to be enabled).

Edit the Catalog and go to the Filters tab.

Add the 2 filters created above to the tree, indenting (by dragging right) the SubCategory Filter so it is underneath the MainCategory.

SubCategory Filters will be created for the Items in each Main Category that have a value for SubCategory. For example, if a Main Category does not contain any Items in the SubCategory "Gluten Free", that Filter will not appear under that Main Category.

On the Web Storefront the Filters will look like this:

In this example the first 4 Main Categories are opened for illustration -

When the additional 200 Items in the example above are loaded, the filters for their SubCategories "Flavors added", "Allergans" and "No allergans" will automatically be created and will include the Items in the Main Categories that have Items in those SubCategories.

Tip: You can create another non-Dynamic Filter called "All" and position it below Main Category, but above the SubCategory. This way when you click on a Main Category you will first see "All" items in that Main Category, rather than the first SubCategory of Items in the second level.

Your Filter Tree would then look like this, where ALL is simply a regular Filter (not Dynamic), that includes All the items at that level of the hierarchy: 

On the Web Storefront the Filters would then look like this:

Adding more than 2 levels of Filters in the tree will result in each of the subCategories opening up into another level of Filters based on the field you grouped by when you created the Dynamic Filter (remember mobile devices show 2 levels only, any levels beyond that will be displayed on the WebApp only).

On mobile devices the first level in the Filter Tree is presented in the Main Category Menu on the left, as with regular Main Categories, and the second level in the Filter boxes to the right.