link to category with only one product

[niccol]

I am trying to link into my shop from another area of the site. I can easily link to a category that has multiple products using a link such as:

<a href="../shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9">CATEGORY</a></li>

How do I link to a category that only has one product? If I use the link above, or similar, I get a page saying the product was not found.

I know that I could link directly to the product that is in this category and it would have the same result but the problem with that is that if I or anyone else put another product in the category I have to change all the links to it which is not very elegant.

thnx

Nick

[niccol]

As the forum hasn't responded with its usual speed I wonder if I just didn't explain myself clearly? Wouldn't be the first time.

What I am trying to do is create a navigation in the rest of the site that mirrors the navigation in the shop (with a few extra bits). In the shop I have a category list in the left sidebar. So, in the rest of the site outside the zen cart install I have a vertical list of the categories which link into the store.

In the shop, if I click on a category, say CATEGORY A, that only has one product it diverts me straight to the product page for that product and bypasses the category page.

And that kind of causes a problem in the links from elsewhere in the site. Because if I click on a link to the category page I end up on a page that says that the product cannot be found rather than being diverted to the product page.

It would be good if I could find a way in which a link to CATEGORY A in the shop and links to CATEGORY A from outside the shop worked in the same way.

The problem doesn't arise if there is more than one product in the category so evidently a solution is to always have more than one product per category. Not brilliant though.

The shape of the links I have used are shown in the previous email.

Any help gratefully accepted even if it is 'I don't know' or 'you can't do that'.

Thnks
Nick

[Ajeh]

Usually, when there are 2 or more Products in a Category and you click on it, you get the Product Listing ...

When there is 1 Product, you get taken to the product _info when you have the Skip Product Listing for Categories with 1 Product turned on ...

This setting is in the Configuration ... Layout Settings ...

Skip 1-prod Categories
Skip single-product categories
If this option is set to True, then if the customer clicks on a link to a category which only contains a single item, then Zen Cart will take them directly to that product-page, rather than present them with another link to click in order to see the product.
Default: True

[niccol]

Thanks Ajeh,

This is exactly what is happening inside the shop. And it works great and I like the fact that you are taken straight to product_info.

When I link to the category page from outside the shop this doesn't happen.

Take for example the address:

http://www.domain.com/shop/index.php...=index&cPath=1

This is the address of a category (ProductListing) If it has many products I can type that address into my browser and I get the page I expect, which is the ProductListing page.

If the category only has one product and I type the address into a browser I do not arrive at the page I expect. I would like to arrive at the product_info of the single product.

Instead I arrive at a page saying that the product has not been found.

So, what I am saying is that I want the best of both worlds :-) I want to use 'Skip Product Listing for Categories with 1 Product' but I also want the external link to arrive at the same page.

Is this possible?

Not so good solutions would be to turn 'Skip Product Listing for Categories with 1 Product' off or to ensure that every category has more than one product.

[niccol]

thanks everyone.

gjh. yes. i feel a bit dim now. all the other links in the list are category pages this one seems to have slipped through.

thanks for spotting it.

[gjh42]

<a href="../shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9">CATEGORY</a></li>

This is requesting a product info page, not a category (product listing) page. A product info page url needs to add &product_id=69 after what you show. To show the listing page, try

<a href="../shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=9">CATEGORY</a></li>