How to Use Product Categories in a Storefront

In this document, you’ll learn how to use product categories in a storefront.

Overview

Using the product category store REST APIs, you can list categories in your storefront.

Scenario

You want to add or use the following store functionalities:

• List and filter categories.
• Retrieve a single category.

---

Prerequisites

Medusa Components

It's assumed that you already have a Medusa backend installed and set up. If not, you can follow the quickstart guide to get started.

It's also assumed you already have a storefront set up. It can be a custom storefront or one of Medusa’s storefronts. If you don’t have a storefront set up, you can install the Next.js Starter Template.

JS Client

This guide includes code snippets to send requests to your Medusa backend using Medusa’s JS Client, among other methods.

If you follow the JS Client code blocks, it’s assumed you already have Medusa’s JS Client installed and have created an instance of the client.

Medusa React

This guide also includes code snippets to send requests to your Medusa backend using Medusa React, among other methods.

If you follow the Medusa React code blocks, it's assumed you already have Medusa React installed and have used MedusaProvider higher in your component tree.

@medusajs/product Module

This guide also includes code snippets to utilize the @medusajs/product module in your storefront, among other methods.

If you follow the @medusajs/product code blocks, it's assumed you already have the @medusajs/product installed.

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List Categories

You can list product categories by sending a request to the List Product Categories endpoint:

• Medusa JS Client
• Medusa React
• @medusajs/product
  beta
• Fetch API
• cURL

medusa.productCategories.list()
.then(({ product_categories, limit, offset, count }) => {
  console.log(product_categories.length)
})

import { useProductCategories } from "medusa-react"
import { ProductCategory } from "@medusajs/medusa"

function Categories() {
  const { 
    product_categories, 
    isLoading,
  } = useProductCategories()

  return (
    <div>
      {isLoading && <span>Loading...</span>}
      {product_categories && !product_categories.length && (
        <span>No Categories</span>
      )}
      {product_categories && product_categories.length > 0 && (
        <ul>
          {product_categories.map(
            (category: ProductCategory) => (
              <li key={category.id}>{category.name}</li>
            )
          )}
        </ul>
      )}
    </div>
  )
}

export default Categories

import {
  initialize as initializeProductModule,
} from "@medusajs/product"

// in an async function, or you can use promises
async () => {
  // ...
  const productService = await initializeProductModule()
  const categories = await productService.listCategories()

  console.log(categories)
}

fetch(`<BACKEND_URL>/store/product-categories`, {
  credentials: "include",
})
.then((response) => response.json())
.then(({ product_categories, limit, offset, count }) => {
  console.log(product_categories.length)
})

curl -L -X GET '<BACKEND_URL>/store/product-categories' \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer <API_TOKEN>'

This request does not require any query parameters. You can, however, pass query parameters to filter the list of categories, such as the passing the q query parameter to search categories by title or handle. You can learn about available query parameters in the API reference.

The request returns an array of product categories along with pagination fields.

Including all Nested Categories

By default, the categories are not retrieved along with their nested children. To retrieve categories with their nested children, make sure to pass the query parameter include_descendants_tree with the value true. Nested categories will be available inside each category object under the property category_children, which is an array of categories.

---

Get a Category by ID

You can retrieve a single product category by its ID using the Get a Product Category endpoint:

• Medusa JS Client
• Medusa React
• @medusajs/product
  beta
• Fetch API
• cURL

medusa.productCategories.retrieve(productCategoryId)
.then(({ product_category }) => {
  console.log(product_category.name)
})

import { useProductCategory } from "medusa-react"

function Category() {
  const { product_category, isLoading } = useProductCategory()

  return (
    <div>
      {isLoading && <span>Loading...</span>}
      {product_category && <span>{product_category.name}</span>}
    </div>
  )
}

export default Category

import {
  initialize as initializeProductModule,
} from "@medusajs/product"

// in an async function, or you can use promises
async () => {
  // ...
  const productService = await initializeProductModule()
  const categories = await productService.listCategories({
    id: productCategoryId,
  })

  console.log(categories[0])
}

fetch(`<BACKEND_URL>/store/product-categories/${productCategoryId}`, {
  credentials: "include",
})
.then((response) => response.json())
.then(({ product_category }) => {
  console.log(product_category.name)
})

curl -L -X GET '<BACKEND_URL>/store/product-categories/<CAT_ID>' \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer <API_TOKEN>'

This request requires the product category ID as a path parameter. You can also pass query parameters such as expand and fields as explained in the API reference.

The request returns the category as an object.

---

Get a Category by Its Handle

On the storefront, you may use the handle of a category as its page’s path. For example, instead of displaying the category's details on the path /categories/pcat_123, you can display it on the path /categories/women, where women is the handle of the category. This type of URL is human-readable and is good for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

You can retrieve the details of a category by its handle by sending a request to the List Categories endpoint, passing the handle as a filter:

• Medusa JS Client
• Medusa React
• @medusajs/product
  beta
• Fetch API
• cURL

medusa.productCategories.list({
  handle: "women",
})
.then(({ product_categories, limit, offset, count }) => {
  if (!product_categories.length) {
    // category does not exist
  }
  const category = product_categories[0]
})

import { useProductCategories } from "medusa-react"
import { ProductCategory } from "@medusajs/medusa"

function Categories() {
  const { 
    product_categories, 
    isLoading,
  } = useProductCategories({
    handle: "women",
  })

  return (
    <div>
      {isLoading && <span>Loading...</span>}
      {product_categories && !product_categories.length && (
        <span>No Categories</span>
      )}
      {product_categories && product_categories.length > 0 && (
        <ul>
          {product_categories.map(
            (category: ProductCategory) => (
              <li key={category.id}>{category.name}</li>
            )
          )}
        </ul>
      )}
    </div>
  )
}

export default Categories

import {
  initialize as initializeProductModule,
} from "@medusajs/product"

// in an async function, or you can use promises
async () => {
  // ...
  const productService = await initializeProductModule()
  const categories = await productService.listCategories({
    handle,
  })

  console.log(categories[0])
}

fetch(`<BACKEND_URL>/store/product-categories?handle=women`, {
  credentials: "include",
})
.then((response) => response.json())
.then(({ product_categories, limit, offset, count }) => {
  if (!product_categories.length) {
    // category does not exist
  }
  const category = product_categories[0]
})

curl -L -X GET '<BACKEND_URL>/store/product-categories?handle=women' \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer <API_TOKEN>'

As the handle of each category is unique, when you pass the handle as a filter you’ll either:

• receive an empty product_categories array, meaning the category doesn’t exist;
• or you’ll receive a product_categories array with one item being the category you’re looking for. In this case, you can access the category at index 0. You can then display the product category as expected.

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See Also

• How to manage product categories.