Help nesting products under categories in side bar

[reden]

Hello, I've been trying to nest the products below categories on the sidebar with UL tags. It appears to continue to add UL tags to each product vs having it add the UL tags before and after all the products to nest them under the cat, and it's not what I want... Here is a snapshot of how it looks like. Notice how it says BEGINEND. I'm using BEGIN as an example for UL and END as an example for /UL

I need BEGIN and END to nest for example, the two red items in the list so it would be a sub-list basically. I am terrible at php, so I tried my best.

<?php

  $content = "";
    $content .= '<ul>' . "\n";

  for ($i=0;$i<sizeof($box_categories_array);$i++) {
     
     //set selected style ($box_categories_array[$i]['current'] does not work)    
    
     $div_class='';
     if ($products_id){
     
         if (($products_id)&&($box_categories_array[$i]['products_id']==$products_id)){
             $div_class='category-subs-selected';
         }
     }else{
         if(($current_category_id!=0)&&($box_categories_array[$i]['category_id']==$current_category_id)){
             $div_class='category-subs-selected';
         }
     }              
    
    // set top style
    if ($box_categories_array[$i]['top'] == 'true'){    
        $a_class = 'category-top';
    }elseif($box_categories_array[$i]['has_sub_cat']){
        $a_class = 'category-subs';
    }else{
        $a_class='category-products';
    }
     // link to cat or prod
    if ($box_categories_array[$i]['is_product'] == true){
        $link = zen_href_link(FILENAME_PRODUCT_INFO, $box_categories_array[$i]['path']);
    }else{
        $link = zen_href_link(FILENAME_DEFAULT, $box_categories_array[$i]['path']);
    }    
    
    




    
    if($box_categories_array[$i]['is_product'] == true){
        $content .= "BEGIN";
    }
    
    
    //indent
    if($box_categories_array[$i]['is_product'] == true){
        $indent = str_repeat($box_categories_array[$i]['level']+1); 
    }else{
        $indent = str_repeat($box_categories_array[$i]['level']); 
    }
    
    
    
    if($box_categories_array[$i]['is_product'] == true){
        $content .= "END";
    }
    





    
    //cat sub seperator
    if (($box_categories_array[$i]['level'] == 0)&&($box_categories_array[$i]['is_product'] == false)){
        $separator = '';
    }else{
    }
    // count
    $count='';
    if (SHOW_COUNTS == 'true') {
        if($box_categories_array[$i]['is_product'] != true){
            $count = CATEGORIES_COUNT_PREFIX . $box_categories_array[$i]['count'] . CATEGORIES_COUNT_SUFFIX ;
        }
    }
    //add content
    
    $content .= '<li>'. 
    $indent.$separator.'<a class="'. $a_class .'" href="'. $link .'">'. $box_categories_array[$i]['name'] . '</a>';
    $content .= '</li>';
    
    
    
  }

  if (SHOW_CATEGORIES_BOX_SPECIALS == 'true' or SHOW_CATEGORIES_BOX_PRODUCTS_NEW == 'true' or SHOW_CATEGORIES_BOX_FEATURED_PRODUCTS == 'true' or SHOW_CATEGORIES_BOX_PRODUCTS_ALL == 'true') {
// display a separator between categories and links
    if (SHOW_CATEGORIES_SEPARATOR_LINK == '1') {
      $content .= '<hr id="catBoxDivider" />' . "\n";
    }
    
    if (SHOW_CATEGORIES_BOX_SPECIALS == 'true') {
    $content .= "BEGIN EXTRA LINKS";
      $show_this = $db->Execute("select s.products_id from " . TABLE_SPECIALS . " s where s.status= '1' limit 1");
      if ($show_this->RecordCount() > 0) {
        $content .= '<a class="category-links" href="' . zen_href_link(FILENAME_SPECIALS) . '">' . CATEGORIES_BOX_HEADING_SPECIALS . '</a>' . '<br />';
      }
    }
    
    if (SHOW_CATEGORIES_BOX_PRODUCTS_NEW == 'true') {
      switch (true) {
        case (SHOW_NEW_PRODUCTS_LIMIT == '0'):
          $display_limit = '';
          break;
        case (SHOW_NEW_PRODUCTS_LIMIT == '1'):
          $display_limit = " and date_format(p.products_date_added, '%Y%m') >= date_format(now(), '%Y%m')";
          break;
        case (SHOW_NEW_PRODUCTS_LIMIT == '30'):
          $display_limit = ' and TO_DAYS(NOW()) - TO_DAYS(p.products_date_added) <= 30';
          break;
        case (SHOW_NEW_PRODUCTS_LIMIT == '60'):
          $display_limit = ' and TO_DAYS(NOW()) - TO_DAYS(p.products_date_added) <= 60';
          break;
        case (SHOW_NEW_PRODUCTS_LIMIT == '90'):
          $display_limit = ' and TO_DAYS(NOW()) - TO_DAYS(p.products_date_added) <= 90';
          break;
        case (SHOW_NEW_PRODUCTS_LIMIT == '120'):
          $display_limit = ' and TO_DAYS(NOW()) - TO_DAYS(p.products_date_added) <= 120';
          break;
      }

      $show_this = $db->Execute("select p.products_id
                                 from " . TABLE_PRODUCTS . " p
                                 where p.products_status = '1' " . $display_limit . " limit 1");
      if ($show_this->RecordCount() > 0) {
        $content .= '<a class="category-links" href="' . zen_href_link(FILENAME_PRODUCTS_NEW) . '">' . CATEGORIES_BOX_HEADING_WHATS_NEW . '</a>' . '<br />';
      }
    }
    if (SHOW_CATEGORIES_BOX_FEATURED_PRODUCTS == 'true') {
      $show_this = $db->Execute("select products_id from " . TABLE_FEATURED . " where status= '1' limit 1");
      if ($show_this->RecordCount() > 0) {
        $content .= '<a class="category-links" href="' . zen_href_link(FILENAME_FEATURED_PRODUCTS) . '">' . CATEGORIES_BOX_HEADING_FEATURED_PRODUCTS . '</a>' . '<br />';
      }
    }
    if (SHOW_CATEGORIES_BOX_PRODUCTS_ALL == 'true') {
      $content .= '<a class="category-links" href="' . zen_href_link(FILENAME_PRODUCTS_ALL) . '">' . CATEGORIES_BOX_HEADING_PRODUCTS_ALL . '</a>';
    }
  }
    $content .= '</ul>';

?>

[gjh42]

You already have <ul> tags where they belong, just before and after the for loop. Where you have BEGIN and END, you want to put '<li>' and '</li>' to make each product a list item (not a new list).

[reden]

The products already have <li></li>

I want to make sure they are nested with <ul></ul> tags. So in essence it looks like this:

<ul>
<li>Product Category 1</li>
<li>Product Category 2

<ul>
<li>Product 1</li>
<li>Product 2</li>
<li>Product 3</li>
</ul>

</li>

<li>Product Category 3</li>
<li>Product Category 4</li>

</ul>

Nested.

[gjh42]

OK, I just looked at your BEGIN and END... Tags there will do you no good of any kind.

What you need to do is build code that will determine when the category nesting level changes, and insert <ul> or </ul> tags as appropriate. I started working on this for Categories Dressing, but shelved it because it could not really provide an advantage as long as people use IE6, which will not allow :hover to affect anything that is not an <a> tag.

You can get the current category depth by counting the number of underscores _ in $box_categories_id[$i][path]. Comparing that to the previous number and calculating how many of what to insert should not be that difficult. It also needs an exit calculation, to know how many </ul> to insert if the last item is a subcat.

[reden]

Hey gjh42,

Thanks for your prompt responses. The problem is, I'm not that talented with PHP, is there anyway you could help me out to solve this problem, I will pay you if need it be? This is very important for me to be done. Thanks.

[gjh42]

You have the "indent" statement formulated incorrectly:

$indent = str_repeat($box_categories_array[$i]['level']+1);

should be:

$indent = str_repeat(CATEGORIES_SUBCATEGORIES_INDENT,$box_categories_array[$i]['level']+1); 

I have the ul nesting code worked out, but not yet tested, for a standard tpl_categories.php.

However, you are using a mod that not only significantly reworks the coding of the list section, but uses information not available to the standard version. I think it would actually make calculating the nesting easier, but I'm reluctant to use it without knowing something about it, and it would make the code dependent on your mod version.

Accounting for the products in the nesting will require the use of some of the non-standard info, but it will be impossible for me to test that part.

I'll post the nesting code additions once I get them typed in.