Simple Category Tree

[gjh42]

Having looked at the mod files, it appears that it will require a completely different approach to getting effects like BetterCategories or Categories Dressing allow. The tpl_categories substitute does nothing but output the content built in the class, so modification (other than what CSS can do) would have to be done at the class or function level.

I'm interested in working on this, but it will be a while before there may be any results to share. I also don't want to spend a lot of time on this only to have it rendered obsolete soon by v1.4. (I expect the current Categories Dressing to require major reworking for v1.4 anyway.)

[yellow1912]

That's why the class has a function to return the whole tree as an array, which you can do whatever you want with it. You can also have part of the array returned to you as well. And then in your template file, process the array and make it appear just the way you want it to^^.

[woodlandsprite]

I'm interested in working on this, but it will be a while before there may be any results to share. I also don't want to spend a lot of time on this only to have it rendered obsolete soon by v1.4. (I expect the current Categories Dressing to require major reworking for v1.4 anyway.)

Glenn, I'd be interested in seeing what you manage to do if you decide to spend the time on it. I understand your concerns on 1.4, but I suspect there are a lot of shop folk out there who would still appreciate these efforts on 1.3

[gjh42]

Thanks, I'll take a look at the setup of that array and try massaging its contents.

[yellow1912]

Something like this: (all the categories will be listed in category_tree array, each category will have the elements as shown)

category_tree (array)

• 22 (array)
  • name (string) => test
  • parent_id (string) => 0
  • path (array)
    • 0 (string) => 22
  • sub_cats (array)
    • 0 (string) => 23
    • 1 (string) => 24
  • sub (string) => has_sub
  • cPath (string) => 22
  • deepest_cats (array)
    • 0 (string) => 23
    • 1 (string) => 26
    • 2 (string) => 27
• 0 (array)
  • sub_cats (array)
    • 0 (string) => 22
    • 1 (string) => 8
    • 2 (string) => 6
    • 3 (string) => 21
    • 4 (string) => 11
    • 5 (string) => 9
    • 6 (string) => 10
    • 7 (string) => 16
    • 8 (string) => 17
    • 9 (string) => 18
    • 10 (string) => 15

[gjh42]

Thanks for the listing, that will make it quicker to start working with it.

[HeathenMagic]

Hello there,

This may be a stupid question, so bear with me if it is. I have CSS dropdown category dropdown installed, is it possible to integrate this method with the simple category tree? I was interested in the part on reducing load time on the server, as I have loads of categories.

Thanks in advance,

Heathenmagic

[yellow1912]

I believe that mod already does a pretty good job reducing the load. You may want to check that module's code and see how it queries the database.