Make top category link default to first subcategory.

[Guest]

I'm new to the OSCommerce world and am working on a site where I'd like to retain the look of their menu system, but when you click on a top level category, instead of opening a page for it, I'd like it to highlight the first subcategory and open that page instead. I have no need for a top level category page since it will contain no product, but I don't want to lose the ability to expand/collapse either.

 

Ex:

 

Video Games

-- Playstation

-- Gamecube

-- Xbox

 

When someone clicks on the Video Games category, I would like it to expand to show Playstation/Gamecube/Xbox, but highlight and open up the Playstation subcategory.

 

Thanks!

 

Ian

[Guest]

There are several contributions for this type of thing like this one: (jscript based)

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,3069

 

There are others that are css based, search the contributions for categories tree.

[Guest]

I tried a few out... but they aren't really providing the solution I need. Basically, the very top most category needs to link by default to the first subcategory, I would think this is a change that could possibly be made in either index.php or application_top.php. I've searched google/forums/and the contribs for hours with no luck.

 

Ex:

 

User clicks on Hardware (Cpath=1)

Instead of the page pulling up as Cpath=1, it should pull up as Cpath=1_15 (or whatever the first subcategory should be).

 

Does that make sense? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Guest]

What's the category box you're using? Perhaps if you post the code I may able to help a bit. Basically it needs a link override on the parent category from the child.

[Guest]

I was playing around with the Great Catagories contrib:

 

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contri...search,category

 

<?php
/*
 $id: Great Categories v2.1 2005/07/09 14:00:00 willross Exp $
 http://www.palaia.com/ujp/ - [email protected]
 *** For use with standard install of osCommerce 2.2MS2+

 osCommerce, Open Source E-Commerce Solutions
 http://www.oscommerce.com

 Copyright (c) 2005 osCommerce

 Released under the GNU General Public License
*/
 function tep_show_category($counter) {
global $tree, $categories_string, $cPath_array, $aa;

for ($a=0; $a<$tree[$counter]['level']; $a++) {
//	  $categories_string .= "??";
}   
//category start
  if ($tree[$counter]['level'] == 0)
{
	if ($aa == 1)
	{
  $categories_string .= '<img src="images/pixel_trans.gif" border="0" alt="" width="100%" height="2"><br><img src="images/pixel_ltgray.gif" border="0" alt="" width="100%" height="1"><br><img src="images/pixel_trans.gif" border="0" alt="" width="100%" height="2">';
	}
	else
	{$aa=1;}
}
if ($tree[$counter]['level'] == 0) {$categories_string .= '<div id="topcat">';}
if ($tree[$counter]['level'] == 1) {$categories_string .= '<div id="secondcat">';}
if ($tree[$counter]['level'] == 2) {$categories_string .= '<div id="thirdcat">';}
if ($tree[$counter]['level'] == 3) {$categories_string .= '<div id="fourthcat">';}
if ($tree[$counter]['level'] == 4) {$categories_string .= '<div id="fifthcat">';}





$categories_string .= '<a';
if ( ($cPath_array) && (@in_array($counter, $cPath_array)) ) {
  $categories_string .= ' class="activelink"';
}

if ($tree[$counter]['parent'] == 0) {
  $cPath_new = 'cPath=' . $counter;
} else {
  $cPath_new = 'cPath=' . $tree[$counter]['path'];
}

$categories_string .= ' href="'.tep_href_link(FILENAME_DEFAULT, $cPath_new);
$categories_string .= '">';
// display category name
if (tep_has_category_subcategories($counter) || $tree[$counter]['level'] == 0) {
	if ( ($cPath_array) && (@in_array($counter, $cPath_array)) ) {
	$categories_string .= '<span class="catwithsubs">'.tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'categories/arrow_down.gif', '', '9', '9') . "</span>";
	} else {
	$categories_string .= '<span class="catwithsubs">'.tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'categories/arrow_right.gif', '', '9', '9') . "</span>";
	}
} else {
$categories_string .= '<span class="catwithnosubs">' .tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'categories/arrow_bullet.gif', 'nokta', '9', '9') . "</span>";
}



//category name
$categories_string .= $tree[$counter]['name'];



if ( ($cPath_array) && (@in_array($counter, $cPath_array)) ) {
  //end of active link
$categories_string .= '';
}

if (tep_has_category_subcategories($counter)) {
  $categories_string .= '';
}

$categories_string .= '</a>';

if (SHOW_COUNTS == 'true') {
  $products_in_category = tep_count_products_in_category($counter);
  if ($products_in_category > 0) {
	$categories_string .= '(' . $products_in_category . ')';
  }
}

  // $categories_string .= '<br>';
  $categories_string .= '</div>';

if ($tree[$counter]['next_id']) {
  tep_show_category($tree[$counter]['next_id']);
}
 }
?>
<!-- categories //-->
	  <tr>
		<td>
<?php
 $info_box_contents = array();
 $info_box_contents[] = array('align' => 'left',
						   'text'  => BOX_HEADING_CATEGORIES);

 new infoBoxHeading($info_box_contents, true, false);

 $categories_string = '<div id="thecategories">';

 $categories_query = tep_db_query("select c.categories_id, cd.categories_name, c.parent_id from " . TABLE_CATEGORIES . " c, " . TABLE_CATEGORIES_DESCRIPTION . " cd where c.parent_id = '0' and c.categories_id = cd.categories_id and cd.language_id='" . $languages_id ."' order by sort_order, cd.categories_name");
 while ($categories = tep_db_fetch_array($categories_query))  {
$tree[$categories['categories_id']] = array(
									'name' => $categories['categories_name'],
									'parent' => $categories['parent_id'],
									'level' => 0,
									'path' => $categories['categories_id'],
									'next_id' => false);

if (isset($parent_id)) {
  $tree[$parent_id]['next_id'] = $categories['categories_id'];
}

$parent_id = $categories['categories_id'];

if (!isset($first_element)) {
  $first_element = $categories['categories_id'];
}
 }

 //------------------------
 if ($cPath) {
$cPath_array = split('_', $cPath);
reset($cPath_array);
while (list($key, $value) = each($cPath_array)) {
  $new_path .= $value;
  unset($parent_id);
  unset($first_id);
  $categories_query = tep_db_query("select c.categories_id, cd.categories_name, c.parent_id from " . TABLE_CATEGORIES . " c, " . TABLE_CATEGORIES_DESCRIPTION . " cd where c.parent_id = '" . $value . "' and c.categories_id = cd.categories_id and cd.language_id='" . $languages_id ."' order by sort_order, cd.categories_name");
  $category_check = tep_db_num_rows($categories_query);
  while ($row = tep_db_fetch_array($categories_query)) {
	$tree[$row['categories_id']] = array(
										'name' => $row['categories_name'],
										'parent' => $row['parent_id'],
										'level' => $key+1,
										'path' => $new_path . '_' . $row['categories_id'],
										'next_id' => false
									   );

	if (isset($parent_id)) {
	  $tree[$parent_id]['next_id'] = $row['categories_id'];
	}

	$parent_id = $row['categories_id'];

	if (!isset($first_id)) {
	  $first_id = $row['categories_id'];
	}

	$last_id = $row['categories_id'];
  }
  if ($category_check != 0) {
	$tree[$last_id]['next_id'] = $tree[$value]['next_id'];
	$tree[$value]['next_id'] = $first_id;
  }

		 $new_path .= '_';
}
 }

 tep_show_category($first_element);
 $info_box_contents = array();
 $info_box_contents[] = array('align' => 'left',
						   'text'  => $categories_string.'</div>');
 new infoBox($info_box_contents);
?>
		</td>
	  </tr>
<!-- categories_eof //-->

[Guest]

ok there are 2 functions I could think of that could help. All are in general.php

 

1. function tep_count_products_in_category - To check if there are products in a category

2. function tep_get_subcategories - To get a list of subs from the current category

 

The code in this file that sets the path is this:

if ($tree[$counter]['parent'] == 0) {
$cPath_new = 'cPath=' . $counter;
} else {
$cPath_new = 'cPath=' . $tree[$counter]['path'];
}

you add the code right below it to modify it.

 

Now the cPath_new is the category parameter link. The last element of the cPath_new indicates the category the code is about to set. So you retrieve that,

 

you call the tep_count_products_in_category (if there are products you do nothing) otherwise you call tep_get_subcategories to retrieve the list of sub-categories. For each of them you check for products. The first one you find that has products, is the id to create the new link.

[Guest]

Thanks for the help, those clues and some more code did the trick!