Collections and looks
Datum treats collections in three ways: ordinary collections, categories for large ranges, and looks for small styled sets. Each comes from the template you assign to the collection.
Collection templates
Open a collection in Products › Collections and choose its theme template in the Theme template box.
| Template | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Default collection | Most collections. |
| category | Large ranges, typically 50 products or more. A category page's breadcrumb reads Home / All products / the category. |
| look | Small curated sets of about 2 to 8 products, styled together. Looks show on the product page, in the Lookbook section and on their own Look page, and never in collection lists. |
Any template whose name starts with category or look counts, so you can make variations of either.
Looks
- Create a collection with the products of the look and assign it the look template.
- Give it an image. For control over how the picture is cropped, create a collection metafield in Settings › Custom data › Collections: name it Look picture, with namespace and key
custom.look_pictureand type File (images). Pick the picture there for each look, and set its focal point in Content › Files › the image › Edit › Focal point. - The product page's Looks section shows the looks a product belongs to. The Lookbook section shows the newest looks, or the ones you choose with Look blocks.
Theme settings › Looks sets how many looks show, how many of their products are listed, and how the picture is laid out. A look shows its picture in this order of preference: a Look block's image, the Look picture metafield, the collection's own image.
Shopify keeps no focal point for a collection's own image, so a look that uses it shows the whole picture instead of cropping it.
Collection links
A line of links above the product grid lets shoppers move between related collections. It comes from a menu:
- In Online Store › Navigation, create a menu whose items are collections, nested up to three levels (for example Women › Clothing › Dresses).
- Pick it in Theme settings › Collections and filters › Collection navigation, or name the menu so its handle is
collection-navigation.
On All products the top level shows. A collection with children shows "All" and its children; one without children shows its siblings. Only links to collections count; collections with no products are left out. Without a menu, All products lists your categories automatically.
Editorial images
Large pictures can sit among the products of a collection, every so many products, to break up long grids.
- Create a menu whose items are collections or products, in the order they should appear.
- Pick it in the collection section's Editorial images menu. To give one collection its own, name a menu
editorial-followed by the collection's handle (for exampleeditorial-summer); All products useseditorial-all.
A collection item shows the collection's image and title. A product item shows the product's second picture; add the tag grid-image:3 to show its third picture instead (any number works). A picture 3:2 or wider spans the whole row with its words on it; other pictures take two cards' space. Editorial images hide while filters are in use.
Theme settings › Collections and filters sets where they appear (First image after this many products, Then one every, Images per page at most) and what shows without a menu.
Filters
Filters are set up in Shopify's free Search & Discovery app (Apps › Search & Discovery › Filters): add, name and order them there. Datum shows each filter as a row that opens its values:
- Availability is a single "In stock only" switch; Price has a slider with From and To fields.
- Values of five characters or fewer, such as sizes, show as buttons (Theme settings › Collections and filters › Show short values as buttons).
- For a Color filter, turn on Include swatch in the app so the values show as swatches.
- Long lists end in Show all; lists over 20 values get a search field.
Turn filtering and sorting on or off in Theme settings › Collections and filters › Collection and search pages.
Shopify limits
- Collections with more than 5,000 products can't be filtered; the theme then shows Sort only.
- Shopify shows at most 100 values per filter and 25 filters per store.
- Automatic look and category discovery reads at most 50 collections. Stores with more should choose looks in the Lookbook and use a collection navigation menu.