Only Showing Categories with items associated

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   Hi; has anyone implemented a category navigation system that ONLY shows categories that have items associated.
Would appreciate some pointers. I looked at the Wiki code, but that's not what I need.
Thanks in advance

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terencef Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 04-May-2008 Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote terencef Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Only Showing Categories with items associated Posted: 14-March-2009 at 7:50am
	Hi; has anyone implemented a category navigation system that ONLY shows categories that have items associated. Would appreciate some pointers. I looked at the Wiki code, but that's not what I need. Thanks in advance

Hamish Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12-October-2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 56	Post Options Post Reply Quote Hamish Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 14-March-2009 at 8:17pm
	Hi Terence, Can you explain in more detail? Do you mean the navigation that can be generated from the admin pages? If you have categories you do not wish to show in the store front you can select "Hide this category in the storefront" in the "other settings" tab when modifying/creating the category.
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Greg Dinger Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Certified ProductCart Developers Joined: 23-September-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 238	Post Options Post Reply Quote Greg Dinger Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 14-March-2009 at 8:26pm
	The way the category navigation works is that it generates a link for every category regardless of whether the store has prouducts or not. You drill down through such empty categories, only to find nothing. The solution to what he is asking, it occurs to me, is to alter the query so that it detects only categories that have products assigned to them. Hiding the categories may work as well.

terencef Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 04-May-2008 Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote terencef Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 15-March-2009 at 1:21am
	That is correct Greg - I want to show dynamically only the categories that are mapped to categories; if there are no items of a category they are not displayed. There's really no sense in having someone click on a category and go down 2 levels to find no items. Also we will be updating the items via the database on a nightly basis, and don't want to use the admin interface to hide/unhide the categories. Thanks

terencef Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 04-May-2008 Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote terencef Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 15-March-2009 at 1:22am
	Sorry it's late - make that "items that are mapped to categories"

ProductCart Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group ProductCart Team Joined: 01-October-2003 Status: Offline Points: 135	Post Options Post Reply Quote ProductCart Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 15-March-2009 at 7:01am
	There is always a reason behind virtually every behavior in ProductCart. Sometimes category pages are used as content pages. In that case, they indeed make sense even if no products have been assigned. That's why the software behaves the way it does. Of course, the SQL queries could certainly be modified as indicated by Greg above. Hiding the category works even better since no code changes would be required.
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Greg Dinger Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Certified ProductCart Developers Joined: 23-September-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 238	Post Options Post Reply Quote Greg Dinger Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 15-March-2009 at 12:39pm
	That's a really good point. Here is an example where a client used the category page as a content page http://www.euphoriababy.com/store/pc/Cloth-Diaper-Packages-c148.htm Terence - is there a reason you don't want to just hide them as EI is proposing?

terencef Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 04-May-2008 Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote terencef Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 15-March-2009 at 3:05pm
	Thanks for the info - I understand there are reasons and that's not a problem. Thanks for the pointers and the offers. I've figured out the SQL for the dynamic category tree: SELECT dbo.categories.idCategory, dbo.categories.idParentCategory, dbo.categories.categoryDesc, dbo.categories.priority, dbo.products.sku, dbo.products.description FROM dbo.categories INNER JOIN dbo.categories_products ON dbo.categories.idCategory = dbo.categories_products.idCategory INNER JOIN dbo.products ON dbo.categories_products.idProduct = dbo.products.idProduct ORDER BY dbo.categories.idCategory, dbo.categories.idParentCategory

Greg Dinger Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Certified ProductCart Developers Joined: 23-September-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 238	Post Options Post Reply Quote Greg Dinger Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 15-March-2009 at 3:12pm
	Look at you! Good on ya!