Create a web activity that displays categories

We can create a web activity that displays one or more categories in an e-Marketing Spot on a store page. For example, we can display featured categories or a list of a customer's recently viewed categories.


Before starting

Make sure that a site administrator has configured the site to support Management Center marketing features. See Configure marketing for Management Center.


Procedure

  1. Open the Marketing tool.

  2. From the toolbar, click the arrow on the right side of Create New; then select Web Activity. The New Activity From Template window opens.

  3. In the right pane, double-click one of the following web activity templates:

    Option Description
    Category Recommendation Displays a list of categories that you specify.
    Display Recently Viewed Categories Displays a list of the categories that a customer recently viewed while shopping.

    The Activity Builder opens. The top half of the page is the work area. The bottom half of the page is the properties view.

  4. In the properties view, set the following properties for the activity:

    Property Description
    Name Enter a name. This name displays in the Activities - List page, and identifies the activity.
    Description Enter a description. This description displays in the Activities - List page, and it explains what the activity is intended to do. This description helps business users understand the activity at a glance without having to open the Activity Builder.
    Priority Optionally, assign the activity a priority with this list. The priority can be assigned with a number between zero and 1000. The higher the number, the higher the priority. When multiple activities are scheduled for the same e-Marketing Spot, they are evaluated in priority sequence.
    Start date Specify a start date and time for the activity. If you do not specify a start date, the activity is available on the storefront as soon as it is activated.
    End date Specify an end date and time for the activity. If you do not specify an end date, the activity runs indefinitely.
    Repeatable Specify whether the activity is repeatable. This means that a customer who views the e-Marketing Spot multiple times can see the content each time. This behavior is generally desirable for Web activities.
    Campaign To organize this activity under a campaign, specify the campaign.

  5. Select the e-Marketing Spot in which to display the categories:

    1. In the work area, click the E-Marketing Spot element. The properties view for the e-Marketing Spot displays in the lower half of the page.

    2. In the E-Marketing Spots table, specify one or more e-Marketing Spots in which to display the categories.

  6. In the work area, click the action element (Recommend Category or Display Recently Viewed) to display its properties.

  7. Complete the instructions in the row of the following table that corresponds to your action element:

    Option Description
    Recommend Category In the Categories table, specify one or more categories.
    Display Recently Viewed

    1. From the Type of list list, choose Categories.

    2. In the Maximum number field, specify the maximum number of recently viewed categories to display in the list.

  8. Optional: Add target elements to your activity. Targets define what more criteria a customer must meet to see the information you specified for this e-Marketing Spot.

    1. From the Targets section in the palette, drag a target element onto a flow connector in the work area to the left of the action element to target.

    2. Click the target element to display its properties in the properties view.

    3. Complete the properties for the target element.

  9. Optional: Add branch elements to your activity. A branch element splits a single path in the activity into two or more paths. We can then use different target and action elements on each path within the same activity.

    1. From the Branches section in the palette, drag the Branch element onto a flow connector at the point where we want to split a single path into multiple paths.

    2. If we want more than two paths, right-click the Branch element in the work area; then click Add Path.

    3. Click the Branch element in the work area to display its properties in the properties view.

    4. Complete the properties for the Branch element. See Use the branch element in web and dialog activities.

    5. Make our changes to the elements on the paths that extend from the Branch element. These changes can involve adding or changing targets and actions on each path until we get the result we want.

  10. Optional: Add additional branches, targets, and actions to complete your activity. We can right-click on any element to open a context-sensitive menu that has tasks that we can perform. This menu includes an option to Delete unwanted elements.

  11. Click

    Save and then click Close.


Results

The new activity is created in the Inactive state.


What to do next


Related concepts
E-Marketing Spot widget


Related tasks
Creating page-specific e-Marketing Spots for the E-Marketing Spot widget