$box_categories_array[i]['sort_order'] ?

[gjh42]

You could rewrite category_tree.php to retrieve sort_order as well as ordering by it. If you are using a mod 4 type of class assignment, changing an individual sort order... could work, as long as you keep the categories' sort orders spaced in sets of four (the first one is order 1-4, the second is order 5-8, etc.) That would break as soon as you want to change or add a new cat between two others. It might be more robust and easily maintainable if you use multi-digit sort orders and reserve the last digit for a numeral 1 through 4. Then you could extract that in the code (as a string) and apply it directly to the classname. Much easier to see than what the mod 4 of a number is going to be.

[scatzc]

You could rewrite category_tree.php to retrieve sort_order as well as ordering by it.

OK I finally got it. sort_order is indeed there in the system (otherwise it wouldn't have worked, right?) but it is never stored in a variable. It is only stored in TABLE_CATEGORIES and used by SQL queries. Nice.

BTW, sort_order is mentioned in 3 files only:

1. modules/categories_tabs.php
2. functions/functions_categories.php
3. classes/category_tree.php

Thank you very much for your help so far. You helped me finally understand what I was missing.

It seems to me that all I need to do make sort_order retrievable is add a line to the following code snippet in category_tree.php:

    while (!$categories->EOF)  {
      $this->tree[$categories->fields['categories_id']] = array('name' => $categories->fields['categories_name'],
      'parent' => $categories->fields['parent_id'],
      'level' => 0,
      'path' => $categories->fields['categories_id'],
      'image' => $categories->fields['categories_image'],
      'next_id' => false); 

[gjh42]

First you need to get the sort_order into $categories[].

    } else {
      $categories_query = "select ptc.category_id as categories_id, cd.categories_name, c.parent_id, c.categories_image
                             from " . TABLE_CATEGORIES . " c, " . TABLE_CATEGORIES_DESCRIPTION . " cd, " . TABLE_PRODUCT_TYPES_TO_CATEGORY . " ptc
                             where c.parent_id = 0
                             and ptc.category_id = cd.categories_id
                             and ptc.product_type_id = " . $master_type . "
                             and c.categories_id = ptc.category_id
                             and cd.language_id=" . (int)$_SESSION['languages_id'] ."
                             and c.categories_status= 1
                             order by sort_order, cd.categories_name";
    }
    $categories = $db->Execute($categories_query, '', true, 150); 

Add to
"select ptc.category_id as categories_id, cd.categories_name, c.parent_id, c.categories_image, c.sort_order
or maybe it should just be
, sort_order
since that is how it is used at the bottom of the query.

[scatzc]

or maybe it should just be
, sort_order
since that is how it is used at the bottom of the query.

It's sort_order (without the 'c.' prefix), it should be added to all 4 queries (otherwise box_categories_array[$i]['sort_order'] is unassigned) and the following line should be added after the very similar 'image' one:

// make category sort_order available in case needed
    $this->box_categories_array[$ii]['sort_order'] = $this->tree[$counter]['sort_order']; 

I can't believe I was able to debug this without the superglobals addon (yes, it didn't go smoothly right from the start). Thanks again Glenn.

[gjh42]

Glad you got it working. We both learned something about the system here.

[scatzc]

I wonder why the w3.org CSS validator didn't catch this.

This mystery has been solved, too: The CSS validator should not catch this because the id duplication is not in the CSS file itself but in the HTML file(s) using it. Thus, the HTML validator should catch this (and it did!).