Mapping rules

The Mapping screen is where you tell Specifico which specification table to show on which products. Without a mapping, a saved specification table just sits there — no product page displays it.

Mapping rules answer a question per product: "Which spec table applies here?" You write one or more rules that match products by category, tag, name, or ID, and Specifico walks the rules from top to bottom for each product, picking the first one that matches.

Anatomy of a rule

Each row on the Mapping screen is one rule, made of three picks:

Screenshot: Mapping page with one row: Specifications, Type, Values columns plus a trash button

Click Add Mapping to add a row. Click the trash icon to delete one. Click Save Mapping to persist the rule set.

The four rule types

Product Category

The workhorse. Matches every product assigned to any of the chosen WooCommerce categories.

Every product in the Phones category gets the Smartphone Specifications table. This is what you'll use 80% of the time.

You can pick multiple categories in Values — a product in any of them matches.

Product Tag

Same as Product Category, but matches by WooCommerce product tag instead.

Use this when your store organizes products by tags that cut across categories — for example, a flagship tag that applies to top-tier products in any category.

Product

Matches a single product picked by name. Useful when:

• One product in a category needs a different table than the rest of the category
• The product doesn't fit a category-wide rule

Product ID

Same as Product, but you pick the product by its numeric WordPress post ID instead of its title. Use this when:

• Two products share the same title (variants, duplicates, etc.) and the title picker is ambiguous
• You're scripting or copying IDs from elsewhere

Otherwise, Product is friendlier.

Multiple values in one rule

The Values column is a multi-select — pick as many as you like. All values within a single rule are treated as OR. This rule matches products in Phones or Tablets:

This is more compact than writing two separate rules and behaves identically.

Multiple rules — first match wins

When you have several rules, Specifico walks them in the order they appear on the screen and stops at the first one that matches. Rules below the first match are ignored for that product.

This lets you handle exceptions:

A regular phone matches rule 2. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 matches both rule 1 and rule 2, but because rule 1 comes first, the foldable table wins.

Reordering rules

There's no drag-handle on the Mapping screen yet. To change the order of rules:

1. Note down what's in each row (or take a screenshot)
2. Delete the rows you want to reorder
3. Re-add them in the desired order
4. Click Save Mapping

This is an admin convenience limitation, not a data limitation — once saved, the order is preserved exactly.

What happens when no rule matches

If a product doesn't match any rule, Specifico simply doesn't show a Specifications tab on that product's page. The product is "uncovered" by your mapping.

To cover an uncovered product, either:

• Add a rule (category, tag, etc.) that includes it
• Or open the product, enable Specification Settings, and use Customize mode to give it a one-off table

If the product has an enabled override in Customize mode, the override displays even when no mapping matches — the per-product setting always wins.

Common patterns

Different tables per category

The basic case. One rule per category:

Different tables for tagged products

Useful when you want a specialized table for a cross-cutting subset:

gaming-tagged products in any category get the gaming spec sheet; everything else falls through to the standard table.

Catch-all fallback

Put the broadest rule last so it picks up anything earlier rules missed:

Products in Phones match rule 1. Products in Laptops match rule 2. Anything else lands on rule 3.

Editing and removing rules

• Edit — change the dropdowns in place and click Save Mapping. Saved changes apply to every product page on the next load.
• Delete — click the trash icon at the right of the row, then click Save Mapping to persist.

Deleting a rule doesn't delete the underlying specification table or its groups — only the rule that pointed to it.