Adding "fake" product or category images to make up numbers

[more-solutions]

What I want to do is insert randomly into that listing two new images so that I end up with three columns of four "products". Those new images might say something like "click any image to view product information" or "welcome to my shop, please buy something!" (you get the idea).

OK, so there's a complete lack of interest here for this!

I have achieved what I set out to do with products, although with categories its a little harder. In case anyone is interested, what you need to do is:

1. Create a file defining the image/text/html to use as a dummy, eg ~/includes/languages/english/extra_definitions/product_dummy_items.php:
   

   <?php
   // defined as an image, text or a combination
   define('TEXT_PRODUCT_DUMMY_PRODUCT', zen_image(DIR_WS_TEMPLATE_IMAGES . 'dummyproduct.gif', 'Welcome to my shop!'));    
   ?>

2. Add some code to ~/includes/modules/product_listing.php to insert the dummy images, ie insert immediately before this line

   require($template->get_template_dir('tpl_modules_product_listing.php', DIR_WS_TEMPLATE, $current_page_base,'templates'). '/' . 'tpl_modules_product_listing.php');

   this code

   // MSL: Insert blanks into product list as required
     if (defined('TEXT_PRODUCT_DUMMY_PRODUCT')) {
         $rows = count($list_box_contents);
         $cols = count($list_box_contents[0]);
       //$cols = PRODUCT_LISTING_COLUMNS_PER_ROW;
         $lastrowcols = count($list_box_contents[$rows-1]);
         $insertcount = $cols - $lastrowcols;
         $totalcount = $rows * $cols;
         if ($insertcount) {
             // Reorder the items, inserting some blanks to make the rows complete
             $new_list_box_contents = array();
             foreach($list_box_contents as $r=>$row) foreach($row as $i=>$item) {
                 $new_list_box_contents[] = $item;
           // echo "if ($insertcount && (".rand(1,$totalcount)." > ".($totalcount-count($new_list_box_contents)-$insertcount).")) {";
                 if ($insertcount && (mt_rand(1,$totalcount) > ($totalcount-$insertcount-count($new_list_box_contents))*1.2)) {
                     $new_list_box_contents[] = array('align' => 'center',
                                                         'params' => 'class="productListing-data"',
                                                         'text'  => TEXT_PRODUCT_DUMMY_PRODUCT
                                                        );
                     $insertcount--;
                 }
             }
             $r = $i = 0;
             $list_box_contents = array();
             foreach($new_list_box_contents as $item) {
                 $list_box_contents[$r][$i++] = $item;
                 if ($i >= $cols) { $i = 0; $r++; }
             }
         }
       }
     // END: MSL: Insert blanks into product list as required

That should do the trick. If anyone uses or improves on this this let me know.