# Update Contact Category

<!-- meta: type=update-contact-category; location=Contacts; category=Step (action); platforms=Joomla and WordPress (where applicable) -->

## Overview

Update Contact Category is a **Step (action)** in **Contacts**. Updates a contact category by id from the contact-category picker.

When the flow reaches this step, JOrchestrator executes **Update Contact Category** against your linked site or an external integration, using the field values you set on **General** and **Design**. Downstream steps can read the output payload fields defined for this node.

## Why use this node

Update Contact Category is a **action step** in the **Contacts** group. Action steps run in the middle or end of a flow. They perform work on your CMS, call external services, or transform data for the next step.

Typical reasons teams add **Update Contact Category** to a flow:

- Update Contact Category on your linked Joomla site when the flow reaches this step
- Update contact category based on webhook, schedule, or CMS event data
- Integrate Contacts operations with messaging, AI, or database steps in one canvas

## Example workflows

Common patterns on the canvas:

1. **Trigger or Webhook** → upstream steps → **Update Contact Category** → **Send Email** or CMS update
2. **Scheduled trigger** → **Update Contact Category** → **Debug** (while testing) → production action

## How to set it up

Optional new title, parent, alias, description.

## Good to know

Parent changes cannot create circular category trees.

## Properties panel

The designer shows these tabs for this node:

| Tab | Purpose |
|-----|---------|
| **Info** | Plain-language description and output payload fields for downstream steps |
| **General** | Canvas label and read-only node ID |
| **AI** | Optional assistant to help draft settings from plain language |
| **Design** | Node-specific configuration fields |

### System (automatic — not edited by the user)

These fields are managed by the designer or runtime — you do not type into them directly:

| Property key | Label | Type | Required | Visible when | Notes |
|--------------|-------|------|----------|--------------|-------|
| `_nodeId` | Node ID | `node-id` | No | — | — |
| `_payloadFields` | Available Fields | `payload-panel` | No | — | — |

### User-configured — General tab

| Property key | Label | Type | Required | Visible when | Notes |
|--------------|-------|------|----------|--------------|-------|
| `label` | Label | `text` | No | — | Node label |

### User-configured — Design tab

| Property key | Label | Type | Required | Visible when | Notes |
|--------------|-------|------|----------|--------------|-------|
| `title` | New title (optional) | `text` | No | — | Leave blank to keep |
| `alias` | Alias (optional) | `text` | No | — | Leave blank to keep or regenerate |
| `description` | Description (optional) | `textarea` | No | — | Leave blank to keep |

### CMS-backed (options from the linked site)

| Property key | Label | Type | Required | Visible when | Notes |
|--------------|-------|------|----------|--------------|-------|
| `id` | Contact category | `contact-category-select` | **Yes** | — | Category to update |
| `parent` | New parent (optional) | `contact-category-select` | No | — | Leave unchanged if not set |

### CMS site configuration (not on this node's properties panel)

Credentials, API keys, mailers, SMTP, and integration defaults are configured in the CMS plugin under **Node Configuration**, not per step on this node. Link the flow to a domain before testing CMS-backed fields.

## Output payload fields

After this step runs, later nodes can reference these fields using placeholders such as
`{{update_contact_category.id}}`.

| Field key | Type | Description |
|-----------|------|-------------|
| `id` | string | Primary record identifier. |
| `title` | string | Title text for the created or updated record. |
| `alias` | string | URL-safe alias / slug. |
| `parent_id` | string | Parent category or menu item ID. |
| `description` | string | Category or contact description text. |
| `path` | string | Filesystem-relative path (often under /images). |
| `level` | number | Nesting level in the category tree. |

## Related nodes

Other steps in the same area of the palette:

- **Create Contact** (`create-contact`) — Contacts
- **Create Contact Category** (`create-contact-category`) — Contacts
- **Delete Contact** (`delete-contact`) — Contacts
- **Delete Contact Category** (`delete-contact-category`) — Contacts
- **Update Contact** (`update-contact`) — Contacts