Catalog Optimizer [NAT]: Smart Catalog Automation & DB Cleanup. Hide Empty Categories/Brands, attr/opt by cron and hands

Managing a large OpenCart catalog often turns into an endless routine. When products are sold out, "ghost" categories and brands remain on your site, frustrating customers and skyrocketing your Bounce Rate. Deleted products leave behind "orphan" SEO URLs, generating 404 errors and killing your Google rankings.

Catalog Optimizer [NAT] is a powerful all-in-one tool designed to automate routine catalog management, optimize your out-of-stock SEO, and deep-clean your database. It safely performs tasks that would take a content manager days, in just a few clicks—or completely autonomously in the background via Cron.

DEMO:
Login/Password: demo / demo
ACCESS ADMIN PANEL (DEMO)



Popular Use Cases:

Seasonal Sales or Supply Issues: Run out of stock in the "Winter Jackets" category? The module will automatically find this category and hide it. Once you upload new stock, the background Cron job will detect it and automatically enable the category back.

Out-of-Stock SEO Pessimization: Deleting temporarily unavailable products ruins your SEO. The module automatically finds all out-of-stock products and sets their Sort Order to 9999, pushing them to the bottom of the product list, making way for available items.

Post-Import DB Cleanup: Imported a supplier's price list and later deleted half of the products? Thousands of unused attributes, options, and filters are left bloating your database. The module will automatically find and safely delete them on schedule or manually.

Detailed Features:

1. Smart Category & Brand Management

Auto-enable and disable based on a product threshold (e.g., hide if active product count is less than 1).

Flexible conditions: count only in-stock products (qty > 0) or only enabled products (status = 1).

Exclusions: Specify category/brand IDs that should never be modified.

3 methods for hiding brands: standard status toggle, "noindex" tag (for ocStore), or removing the store layout link (forces a 404 error - ideal for Cloud versions).





By default, OpenCart/ocStore does not have a "status" field for manufacturers.
Catalog Optimizer [NAT] includes smart modifiers that add the ability to hide manufacturers dynamically.

The module provides three solutions to fit any architecture:
1. Via manufacturer status: Adds a status field for brands, working the same way as in products/categories. Also excludes products of disabled brands.
2. Via noindex (alternative for ocStore): Uses the existing noindex field and hides brands depending on its value. Suitable if you don’t want to modify the database structure.
3. Via Store unlink (Cloud-Ready): Removes the brand from the active Store layout. Requires ZERO core modifications, making it 100% compatible with OpenCart Cloud!

Do not use multiple methods at the same time without combining the logic.

2. Product SEO Management

Bulk change the stock status (stock_status_id) for zero-qty products (e.g., change them all to "Pre-Order").

Bulk disable out-of-stock products entirely.

SEO Pessimization: Push out-of-stock items to sort order 9999, and automatically revert them to 1 when restocked.

Granular Control: Apply these rules globally or filter by specific categories and manufacturers.



3. Global DB Cleanup (Junk Remover)

Unused Attributes: Scan and delete Attributes that are not linked to any product.

Unused Options & Filters: Scan and delete empty options and filters.

Broken & Duplicate SEO URLs: Find and delete leftover SEO links from manually deleted products (fixes mass 404 crawl errors). The scanner also highlights SEO Keyword Duplicates (when one keyword points to multiple pages) so you can fix indexing conflicts.





4. Full Cron Automation (Set It & Forget It)

Background Processing: Link the module to your server's Cron scheduler to run all optimizations automatically (e.g., every night).

Granular Task Selection: Choose exactly which tasks run autonomously (e.g., only update product sorting and hide categories, but leave DB cleanup for manual review).

Secure Token System: Cron tasks are protected by a secure, randomized key to prevent unauthorized execution.

Key Advantages & Safety:

Simulation Mode: No blind actions! The module analyzes your database first and provides a detailed, paginated log (Product counts -> Current State -> Future State). It displays full category trees and clickable links so you can visually verify everything before execution.

Smart Contextual Chunked Backups: Right inside the results window, the module will prompt you to download a backup of only the specific tables that are about to be modified. To prevent server timeouts on massive databases, backups are processed in AJAX chunks and automatically packed into a single ZIP file!

No Server Overload: Data is processed using AJAX pagination. Your browser won't freeze or time out, even if you have 100,000+ products.

OpenCart Cloud Ready: Uses standard OCMOD (or native Events for OpenCart Cloud). No core files are overwritten!

Other Modules in the [NAT] Series:

• Database Optimizer [NAT]: Intelligent DB garbage cleanup, table compression, system log management, and critical index analyzer to speed up your site.
  
• Catalog Optimizer [NAT]: Automatically hide empty categories and brands, push out-of-stock products to the end of the list (SEO pessimization), and clean up unused attributes.
  
• Image Optimizer [NAT]: Compress and resize original photos to WebP and bulk delete unused or junk images from your hosting server.
  
• Domain Scanner [NAT]: Search and safely replace external links and HTTP images in your database and theme files. Essential for HTTPS migration.
  
• New Arrivals [NAT]: Display products by true chronological sorting (Date Added). Features auto-generated SEO pages, smart widgets, and date archives.
  
• Poll Widget [NAT]: Create simple polls, custom voting forms, and view real-time statistics directly on your store pages to boost customer engagement.
  

Compatibility & Requirements:

CMS: OpenCart 2.3.x.x / 3.0.x.x / ocStore 3.0.x.x / OpenCart Cloud

PHP: 7.1 and higher

Loader: No IonCube required (Open Source code)

Terms & Conditions (License & Support Policy)
By purchasing and downloading this extension, you strictly agree to the following terms:

Single Domain License: One purchase allows you to install and use the extension on exactly one (1) live domain and one (1) local/test environment. You need a separate License Key for each additional live project.

License Activation: The module requires a License Key to function. Please email info@nat.od.ua with your Order ID and Domain Name after purchase to receive your key.

Support: We provide free technical support for bugs and standard installation issues. Support is available via email. Please allow up to 24-48 hours for a response.

Compatibility: The module is guaranteed to work on standard OpenCart / ocStore installations. We cannot guarantee out-of-the-box compatibility with heavily customized core files or third-party checkout/theme modules, though we will do our best to assist you.

Refund Policy: We offer a 100% refund if the extension is completely non-functional on a standard OpenCart setup and our support team is unable to fix it. We do not issue refunds for "change of mind" or if you have already requested and received a domain license key.

[*]Distribution: The code is open-source (no IonCube), meaning you can modify it for your own needs. However, you may not resell, redistribute, share, or publish this extension in any form.