PrestaShop Catalogue Management

Show Subcategory Products in the Parent Category PrestaShop 8 & 9

A product filed under Shoes > Running > Trail also shows up in Running and in Shoes.

In PrestaShop, a category only lists the products directly assigned to it. A product imported into a subcategory stays invisible in the parent category, and the top-level pages of your menu look empty or close to it. This module assigns every product to all the parent categories of the categories it already belongs to. A dry run counts the missing associations across the whole catalog, one click adds them in batches, then the automatic mode keeps the rule in place every time a product is created, updated or imported.

At a glance
  • Assigns every product to all the parent categories of its categories
  • Catalog-wide dry run before any write, with a per-product preview
  • Automatic mode on save, CSV import and webservice
  • Whole branch updated when a category gets a new parent
  • Nothing removed, default category never changed
PrestaShop 8 & 9 Dry run before writing Automatic mode Multistore
  • 30-day refund
  • 12 months updates
  • 24h support
www.datafirefly.com/en/
Show Subcategory Products in the Parent Category PrestaShop 8 & 9
v1.0.0 · updated 2026-09-28
What it does

The short version.

01

Parent categories that finally fill up

Subcategory products appear in every higher-level category, up to the top of your tree. Your main menu pages, often the most visited and best ranked, list the whole catalog they cover.

02

Dry run before writing

The dry run scans the whole catalog and counts the products to fix and the missing associations. The preview lists the first 100 products with the categories they will receive. You only apply the fix if the result suits you.

03

Automatic afterwards

Every product created, updated or imported is assigned to its parent categories at the end of the request, once its categories are saved. The PrestaShop 8 and 9 product page, CSV import and webservice are covered.

04

Nothing is removed

The module only adds missing associations. It never removes a category from a product and never touches the default category, which keeps driving the breadcrumb and the product URL.

The long version

Everything you'd want to know before you install.

A detailed look at how Show Subcategory Products in the Parent Category PrestaShop 8 & 9 works, why we built it the way we did, and the thinking behind the features above.

§ 01

Why your parent categories look empty

PrestaShop only lists in a category the products directly assigned to it. When an import, a supplier feed or quick data entry files a product in its final category only, the higher levels do not see it. The first-level menu pages, which often carry the traffic and the rankings, then show a handful of products while the catalog holds hundreds below them.

§ 02

Real associations, not just a display trick

The faceted search module offers an option to show subcategory products in a listing. It only changes the display: in the database, the product still does not belong to the parent category. Cart rules restricted by category, exports, product feeds and third-party modules that read associations do not see it. This module creates the real associations, visible wherever PrestaShop and its modules read the categories of a product.

§ 03

Fix what exists, then forget about it

The bulk fix processes the catalog in batches, with no timeout risk, after a dry run that measures the work. The automatic mode then takes over: a product created in the product page, imported by CSV or sent through the webservice is assigned to its parents as soon as its categories are saved. If you move a category under another parent, every product of the branch is assigned to the new parents.

§ 04

You stay in control of the tree

The Home category can be included or not. An exclusion list keeps some categories from being added as parents, such as a Sale or New arrivals showcase category. Added products go to the end of each category, which preserves the manual sorting you already set, and the default category of each product stays unchanged.