Product Finder: multiple category drop-downs

[RacingAddiction]

Thanks - does that mean the version on the ZC forum is outdated?

[torvista]

...I've done a great deal more fettling, so much that I put it up as a separate repository for Zen4All to have a look over my code and integrate/not into what he has.

I paid for the original development, but never put it on Github, hence Zen4All has been lumbered with that maintenance task.

[RacingAddiction]

You can compare it to a folder structure on a hard drive containg three layers of folders, with the third layer containing the files
Attachment 18742

Using Design75's great example, I looked at my data and there are three levels of subcategories under the main one - about 40 values for Subcat1 (Make), 153 for Subcat2 (Model) and 400 for Subcat3 (Year).

The thing is, the category chains are all related, some years are present for certain models and makes but not for others. What's the most expedient way to create these levels, can you use a load file? I have DbIo.

[Design75]

Using Design75's great example, I looked at my data and there are three levels of subcategories under the main one - about 40 values for Subcat1 (Make), 153 for Subcat2 (Model) and 400 for Subcat3 (Year).

The thing is, the category chains are all related, some years are present for certain models and makes but not for others. What's the most expedient way to create these levels, can you use a load file? I have DbIo.

Yes you can use DbIo, or easypopulate 4

[Design75]

...I've done a great deal more fettling, so much that I put it up as a separate repository for Zen4All to have a look over my code and integrate/not into what he has.

I paid for the original development, but never put it on Github, hence Zen4All has been lumbered with that maintenance task.

If you put it up to GitHub, I'll do the hard work

[torvista]

What's the most expedient way to create these levels

I decided to make the products master category under the products manufacturer, unrelated to the triple category search.
Then I created the categories. Manually.
Then I link each product into the relevant category. Manually.
These two add-ons are extremely useful:

https://www.zen-cart.com/showthread....Manager-Sorted
https://www.zen-cart.com/showthread....y-Move-Delete)
Both of which I am up to my neck in, getting them core-ready.

Updates for price and stock do not need category information.
If you want to update product compatibility (category links) then you need to massage the source file to match your categories before using DBIO. That can be automated.

[RacingAddiction]

We sell a variety of products and we're going to use Product Finder for the seat bases, not the entire site. Reason being is Product Finder is perfect for the seat bases to determine Make/Model/Year, but for other items such as T-shirts and Gear Bags it doesn't apply.

Is it feasible to make Product Finder only display when the user views the Seat Base master category? It's the same category as the category # value used when you configure Product Finder.

[Design75]

It is possible. You could add an if statement. Something like: if categories id is ## show sidebox is true.
I am currently not ably to give you the exact code, but tomorrow i'll be behind my pc again, and will look it up for you

We sell a variety of products and we're going to use Product Finder for the seat bases, not the entire site. Reason being is Product Finder is perfect for the seat bases to determine Make/Model/Year, but for other items such as T-shirts and Gear Bags it doesn't apply.

Is it feasible to make Product Finder only display when the user views the Seat Base master category? It's the same category as the category # value used when you configure Product Finder.

[RacingAddiction]

Is anyone using Product Finder with one of Picaflor's responsive templates? We're using Sheffield Blue and ran into a potential issue, I'm not certain that the two are fighting but about the time we installed Product Finder and started using it (e.g. loading the data and trying it) we noticed the top part of the web pages were gone. Everything worked on the site but it was as if you couldn't scroll up. Anyone run into this?

[Design75]

@RacingAddiction I promised you the some code.
Here it is:

Open the file \includes\modules\sideboxes\product_finder.php in a text editor like notepad++

find "$show_product_finder = true;" at the beginning of the file and add below
The numbers in the array is where you add the cPath of the categories where you want the sidebox to show. 1_4 and 1_17 are fictional.

$showCats = ['1_4', '1_17'];
if (!in_array($_GET['cPath'], $showCats)) {
   $show_product_finder = false;
} 

So it looks like this

<?php
/* Product Finder module * @version 1.0.0 * @author Zen4All * @copyright (c) 2014-2019, Zen4All * @license http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt GNU General Public License V2.0 */
// test if box should display$show_product_finder = true;
$showCats = ['1_4', '1_17'];
if (!in_array($_GET['cPath'], $showCats)) {
   $show_product_finder = false;
}
if ($show_product_finder == true) {

  $pf_base_category = PRODUCT_FINDER_PARENT_ID; //USER defined base category
  $pf_category_depth = PRODUCT_FINDER_CATEGORY_DEPTH; //USER defined base category
//check the current page location and separate the category and subcategory cPaths into an array
  if (isset($_GET['cPath']) && $_GET['cPath'] != '') {
    $pf_cPaths = explode("_", $_GET['cPath']);
  }

//check if the current page is a possible Product Finder category to pre-populate the dropdowns with the current category id/values
  if ((int)$pf_cPaths['0'] == $pf_base_category && count($pf_cPaths) == $pf_category_depth) {
//do nothing
  } else {//otherwise it is some other category 
    unset($pf_cPaths); //this location is NOT a Product Finder category so do not pre-populate the dropdowns
  }

  require($template->get_template_dir('tpl_product_finder.php', DIR_WS_TEMPLATE, $current_page_base, 'sideboxes') . '/tpl_product_finder.php');
  $title = BOX_HEADING_PRODUCT_FINDER;
  $title_link = false;
  require($template->get_template_dir($column_box_default, DIR_WS_TEMPLATE, $current_page_base, 'common') . '/' . $column_box_default);
}