new category button missing....

[corytaylor]

I have just recently installed a fresh copy of ZenCart, and I have went into the Product/Category page, and the "new product" button is there, however the "new category" button does not seem to exist.... Any idea as to what could be the issue??

[Ajeh]

The Categories hold Products or Categories ... never both ...

To stop errors of adding both to a Category ...

When a Category holds a Category, the New Product button will vanish ...

When a Category holds a Product, the New Category button will vanish ...

Otherwise you will have search errors, pricing errors, etc.

[racarlson]

I've read that response six times now, and I rally don't understand the answer. I don't have a "new category" button either. I can add products, but not categories. Am I doing something wrong?

[Ajeh]

When you go to the Catalog ... Categories/Products ... you will see a list of:

1 Categories

2 Products

3 Categories and Products

Number 1 is good, you should see Categories so that inside each Category are either Categories or Products but never both Categories and Products in a Category ...

Number 2 is Okay, but only if you never plan to ever use Categories and this could still throw a quirky issue or two as Products should be in Categories ...

Number 3 is very bad as Categories NEVER hold both Products and Categories at the same time ...

To prevent doing this, when you have 0 Categories and 0 Products you see both New Product and New Category buttons ...

Once you add a New Category ... the New Product button will disappear as you cannot add Products to the Category as you just put a Category in there ...

Go inside the Category, and you will see both the New Product and New Category buttons ...

Add a New Product and the New Category button will disappear ... as now you cannot add Category as you have added a Product ...

[ibuttons]

I am having the same problem. I already have only the New Products button showing, so I can't add a category. What do I do to fix this?

[Ajeh]

How many Products do you have added?

If you have a number of them and don't want to delete them, then I can work out a fix for you ...

If you only have 1 Product, delete it ... and start over and you will see both the New Product and the New Category buttons ...

[nashvilleskyline]

How many Products do you have added?

If you have a number of them and don't want to delete them, then I can work out a fix for you ...

If you only have 1 Product, delete it ... and start over and you will see both the New Product and the New Category buttons ...

I will need that fix...
I searched the forum for hours but can't find the solution.
I have way too many items and stuff to start from scratch..that would take me days. Can you point me to a solution. Thank you very much!!!
Philippe

[Ajeh]

You can do this by setting the categories_id for each product in the products_to_categories table from 0 to categories_id 1 ...

First, backup your database ...

Next, this will change all Products from being in the Top Level Category of categories_id 0 to categories_id 1 ...

Then run the following in the Tools ... Install SQL Patches ...

UPDATE products_to_categories SET categories_id = 1 where categories_id = 0;

Next, go to the Catalog ... Categories/Products ... and you should be able to click the NEW CATEGORY button ...

Create a Category and when done, all Products should end up in this new Category ... if not, check what categories_id your new Category is and this can be updated on the products_to_categories table after a couple or three additional questions, should this problem arise ... otherwise, you should be set now and can build your Categories and move your Products around to proper Categories ...

[nashvilleskyline]

Thank you very much.
I'm backing up everything right away to try it.
thank you
p

[nashvilleskyline]

for some odd reason I can't download and change persmissions for a file located in cache/sess_749c1b029b5626daa4731d84a2d5a6d9
Do you know why. It stops me from being able to back up my db.
p