No relation between subcategory of the same name?

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   With the store I'm working on, there are a number of ways to reach the same subcategory from under different parent categories, but they appear to be unique, even though they have the same name and contents.

For example, the store sells saw blades. If you were looking for a specific line of products, let's say SawBladeSeriesX, you could get there by clicking a number of paths. Saw Blades>Material>Wood>SawBladeSeriesX or Saw Blades>Blade Type>Rip Saw>SawBladeSeriesX or Saw Blades>SawBladeMaker>SawBladeSeriesX and on and on... 

So, my problem is that I added a short description to SawBladeSeriesX, but It turns out the change only took effect on Saw Blades>Material>Wood>SawBladeSeriesX but not Saw Blades>SawBladeMaker>SawBladeSeriesX.

Is there a way to make ProductCart recognize these as the same subcategory in different places? This is a problem just about everywhere in the store; hundreds and hundreds of instances, most of which are repeats. Any chance there is a solution? I hope?

Sorry for the long description and saying saw blades so much, I didn't feel like I could explain it concisely. 

Thanks

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padreick Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 20-February-2012 Status: Offline Points: 24	Post Options Post Reply Quote padreick Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: No relation between subcategory of the same name? Posted: 29-February-2012 at 3:43pm
	With the store I'm working on, there are a number of ways to reach the same subcategory from under different parent categories, but they appear to be unique, even though they have the same name and contents. For example, the store sells saw blades. If you were looking for a specific line of products, let's say SawBladeSeriesX, you could get there by clicking a number of paths. Saw Blades>Material>Wood>SawBladeSeriesX or Saw Blades>Blade Type>Rip Saw>SawBladeSeriesX or Saw Blades>SawBladeMaker>SawBladeSeriesX and on and on... So, my problem is that I added a short description to SawBladeSeriesX, but It turns out the change only took effect on Saw Blades>Material>Wood>SawBladeSeriesX but not Saw Blades>SawBladeMaker>SawBladeSeriesX. Is there a way to make ProductCart recognize these as the same subcategory in different places? This is a problem just about everywhere in the store; hundreds and hundreds of instances, most of which are repeats. Any chance there is a solution? I hope? Sorry for the long description and saying saw blades so much, I didn't feel like I could explain it concisely. Thanks

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: 29-February-2012 at 4:12pm
	Short answer: no, this is not supported by stock functionality. Longer answer: it is possible that a developer could create some sort of custom solution. It would require that a list of whatever sorts of bulk-updating requests you wanted to support, and then build a tool to accomplish such goals.

padreick Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 20-February-2012 Status: Offline Points: 24	Post Options Post Reply Quote padreick Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 29-February-2012 at 5:24pm
	Ouch, I may just continue to plug them in manually. It probably wouldn't be too bad if the control panel wasn't EXCRUCIATINGLY slow. Loading the initial "Manage Product Categories" page takes 5-10 minutes, which is somewhat understandable considering the amount of information it loads, but opening each subcategory in a new tab takes 1-3 minutes to load and then again to apply the changes. Oh well, I'll live. Thanks for the quick help, as always.

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: 29-February-2012 at 7:35pm
	Hi, I don't know the details of your store, but I have seen stores have problems creating and maintaining structures like you describe. They also often, without a lot of care, can make the store more complex to navigate instead of simpler. It sounds like your store is a good candidate for drill down navigation - http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/productcart/search_fields_widget Another issue with having a very large/deep category tree is the time it takes to load for customers. I've seen category trees that make up 80%+ of the HTML of the page and it can have a significant impact on performance. From what you are describing you may already be in that territory!
	Editing ProductCart Code? See WIKI Guidelines for Editing ProductCart's ASP Source Code

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: 29-February-2012 at 7:37pm
	Can you share a url?
	Editing ProductCart Code? See WIKI Guidelines for Editing ProductCart's ASP Source Code

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: 29-February-2012 at 8:18pm
	Google is my friend :-) I'm almost certain I found your store - toolsxp. At the moment your store load time is good, but the menu already makes up around 40% of the html of the page. Of course there are lots of other components of a page, such as images, css etc, but it's still a consideration.
	Editing ProductCart Code? See WIKI Guidelines for Editing ProductCart's ASP Source Code

padreick Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 20-February-2012 Status: Offline Points: 24	Post Options Post Reply Quote padreick Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 01-March-2012 at 12:07pm
	Haha, yup, that's the one. One of the first things I did was clean up the catmenu because the store took so long to load. Just the menu was 778KB... Drill-down does seem like a good idea for this, I'll have to read into it more, though I'm not the one calling the shots. I'm working on a friends store that was initially set-up by a 3rd person who is no longer around Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely bring it up with him.

padreick Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 20-February-2012 Status: Offline Points: 24	Post Options Post Reply Quote padreick Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 01-March-2012 at 1:13pm
	SEMI-SOLUTION: Under Manage Product Categories, there's a "clone" button next to every category. In the clone settings, you can change the parent category from a drop-down and select check boxes that allow you to include the same products and/or subcategories in the new, cloned category. This let me clone a subcategory I made changes to, put it in different parent category, and then delete the old subcategory that wasn't being effected by changes. Not ideal, but definitely a time-saver.