Categories dropdown on manufacturers page - messy

[Guest]

Hey all,

 

I have been racking my brain on this for too long and I need some help. I searched the forums up and down and most people that asked this question didn't get a response.

 

The problem is that I have a few sub-categories that have the same name. Something like:

 

Category1
 Sub-category1
This
That
Other

Category2
 Sub-category1
This
That
Other
 Sub-category1
This
That
Other

Category3
 Sub-category1
 Sub-category2

 

When I select a manufacturer, the categories dropdown looks like:

 

Category1

Sub-category1

This

That

Other

Category2

Sub-category1

This

That

Other

Sub-category1

This

That

Other

Category3

Sub-category1

Sub-category2

 

It's pretty confusing for people that aren't familiar with our entire category layout. I'm looking for a contrib or help making one that will do something like:

 

Dropdown1

Category1

Category2

 

When Category2 is selected a 2nd dropdown is displayed or filled

 

Dropdown2

Sub-category1

Sub-category2

 

When Sub-category2 is selected a 3rd dropdown is displayed or filled

 

Dropdown3

This

That

Other

 

It's hard to explain and I don't have an example URL on hand, I'll try to find one. But basically I need a dropdown for each level (I have 3 levels max, some only 2).

 

On index.php below the line "if (PRODUCT_LIST_FILTER > 0) {" it uses the same syntax for the categories and manufacturers dropdowns. I split them so I could make changes to the categories dropdown only. But unfortunately I'm no guru at sql, yet anyways ;P

 

I was messing around with a contrib called "Hieracrcical Categories" but it only displays 2 levels deep and in a single dropdown. Then I got the contrib called "Main categories in front page". I thought I might be able to use it because it can display the categories, sub-categories, and sub-categories children as text links. But I'm having trouble with the sql query.

 

Original SQL quesry from index.php categories/manufacturer dropdown:

$filterlist_sql = "select distinct c.categories_id as id, cd.categories_name as name, c.parent_id as parent_id from " . TABLE_PRODUCTS . " p, " . TABLE_PRODUCTS_TO_CATEGORIES . " p2c, " . TABLE_CATEGORIES . " c, " . TABLE_CATEGORIES_DESCRIPTION . " cd where p.products_status = '1' and p.products_id = p2c.products_id and p2c.categories_id = c.categories_id and p2c.categories_id = cd.categories_id and cd.language_id = '" . (int)$languages_id . "' and p.manufacturers_id = '" . (int)$HTTP_GET_VARS['manufacturers_id'] . "' order by c.parent_id, c.sort_order, cd.categories_name";

 

SQL for main categories looks like:

  $query = "select c.categories_id, cd.categories_name, c.parent_id, c.categories_image
		from " . TABLE_CATEGORIES . " c, " . TABLE_CATEGORIES_DESCRIPTION .
" cd
		where c.categories_id = cd.categories_id";
// 1.3 Can't have 'where' in an if statement!
 if ($status >0)
$query.= " and c.status = '1'";
 $query.= " and cd.language_id='" . $languages_id ."'
		order by sort_order, cd.categories_name";

 

If I can get the sql query right I'm sure I can do the rest, but I don't know enough about SQL, patriotically how it determines only to display categories for a particular manufacturer.

 

Thanks in advance