Category mapping is applied at import so anything you do to feature a category list on your site will include the mapped categories as these are what are in the database.
Firstly, if you don't yet have a layout that includes a fixed menu to the left, check the code in the following thread for ideas....
Now with regards to including a list of categories within the menu area; if you have a very large site (several thousand products), the query to generate the category list on every single page view could slow the site down unacceptably. Instead, what I normally recommend is to hard code links to the required category pages directly into the HTML, for example:
If you want to try a dynamic list, the following is the PHP code that you need, but watch out for performance aspects if you do this:
<?php $sql = "SELECT DISTINCT(category) as category FROM `".$config_databaseTablePrefix."products` ORDER BY category"; if (database_querySelect($sql,$rows)) { print "<ul>"; foreach($rows as $row) { print "<li><a href='".$config_baseHREF."search.php?q=category:".urlencode($row["category"]).":'>".$row["category"]."</a></li>"; } print "</ul>"; } ?>
Hi Neil,
Category mapping is applied at import so anything you do to feature a category list on your site will include the mapped categories as these are what are in the database.
Firstly, if you don't yet have a layout that includes a fixed menu to the left, check the code in the following thread for ideas....
http://www.pricetapestry.com/node/565
Now with regards to including a list of categories within the menu area; if you have a very large site (several thousand products), the query to generate the category list on every single page view could slow the site down unacceptably. Instead, what I normally recommend is to hard code links to the required category pages directly into the HTML, for example:
<ul><li><a href='/search.php?q=category:Electrical:'>Electrical</a></li>
<li><a href='/search.php?q=category:Gardening:'>Gardening</a></li>
<li><a href='/search.php?q=category:Home:'>Home</a></li>
</ul>
If you want to try a dynamic list, the following is the PHP code that you need, but watch out for performance aspects if you do this:
<?php$sql = "SELECT DISTINCT(category) as category FROM `".$config_databaseTablePrefix."products` ORDER BY category";
if (database_querySelect($sql,$rows))
{
print "<ul>";
foreach($rows as $row)
{
print "<li><a href='".$config_baseHREF."search.php?q=category:".urlencode($row["category"]).":'>".$row["category"]."</a></li>";
}
print "</ul>";
}
?>
Cheers,
David.