Catagory Description not showing

I can't work out why. Version 1.3.8a, I add a Catagory description to top level cat in ACP, where do I switch this on please?

I have the manual and can usually eventually find what I am looking for there or in here, but I must be searching the wrong terms and am now :frusty:

What happens if you switch to the Classic Template? A lot of templates shut off things ... :unsure:

Hello, thank you. I am using the classic template on this site.

do you have single item in your category ?

I have 2 items in it so far, https://www.woodstores.co.uk

Is it something I might have switched off myself in admin perhaps?

i see you defined meta tag for your category .. ???? but not description .. ?
there are no switches to turn category description on or off ( my love and hate part of zencart )

how did you add description ? when you listing your categories in admin
at right hand side you have green button displayed by "e" for edit ..
you need to click on that , and edit info for your category or subs ..

How I added the description....admin> catalogue> catagories/products> then I clicked the e at right on the catagory, and added it there in the catagory description box.

The catagory description is showing for the empty catagory (custom wood stores) which puzzles me even more.

re metatags for catagory but not description, not sure what you mean sorry I (what I mean is I didn't think I had done any yet).

sorry , this is odd , i tried to replicate this on my ZC with classic template , but everything seems to be working ..

maybe a guru will come to rescue soon .. im all out about this glitch

I cannot reproduce the missing categories_description ...

For giggles and grins can you get the Debug Tool in the Free Software Add-ons and see if it reports any errors when you click on the category with the missing description?

What happens if you add categories_description to another category and add 2 test products to it?

Thank you for looking and helping!

I will try that, add the catagory description first and then add the items. And will try and get the add-on debug tool (why giggles and grins??).

I think maybe I have missed something obvious, does the catagory description only show if there are no items in that catagory?
I went to my other site, https://www.heavenlysoaps.co.uk and added a catagory bath melts and added a description, but no items, the catagory description showed for this. So I went to another product bath bombs where the catagory description was not showing, deleted the items listed in it, and the catagory description then appeared.

This code is used when there are not products ...
Could you check the file:
/includes/templates/templates_default/templates/tpl_index_product_list.php

Do you see this code in it around lines 30 to 35:

<?php
// categories_description
    if ($current_categories_description != '') {
?>
<div id="indexProductListCatDescription" class="content"><?php echo $current_categories_description;  ?></div>
<?php } // categories_description ?>

This code is used when there are products ...
Could you look in this file around lines 58-63:
/includes/templates/templates_default/templates/tpl_index_categories.php

<?php
// categories_description
    if ($current_categories_description != '') {
?>
<div id="categoryDescription" class="catDescContent"><?php echo 'MY DESCRIPTION: ' . $current_categories_description;  ?></div>
<?php } // categories_description ?>

Now check your overrides for these two files ... is the code there? Is the code commented out?

Ooh, that second file, index_categories.php, mine is different, the bit that is different is I don't have this bit in it

?php echo 'MY DESCRIPTION:

Sorry I put that in there so you could see the difference when each peice of code runs at various points of the Product Listings when the categories_description runs ...

Apart from that one line in the code where there are products listed, I have the same code, do I need to add that bit that is missing perhaps?

You don't need it ... that was just so you could see which one was running when you should see the description ... one would have the text and the other would not ...

I am having the same exact issue. I do have a custom template installed and when my categories are empty, they will display the description but once i add a product the description disappears. Any luck finding a fix for this?

Check your template ... there are a lot of custom ones that mark out the oddest things ...

A search with the Developers Tool Kit for:
categories_description

might help spot if this is commented out ...

Also check your View Source ... if you see the description in there, then you have something in the stylesheet hiding it ...

This has just got even more strange, because one catagory IS showing the catagory description and it does have items in that catagory:(

That is the point of my comment that I added to the code ...

The code runs two ways based on is there a categories_description or isn't there ...

One of two files are running:
/includes/templates/template_default/templates/tpl_index_categories.php

/includes/templates/template_default/templates/tpl_index_product_list.php

You are not getting the categories_description based on a change to the file ...

Check the files to see if you have the code or if it is commented out ... be sure to check your template files too for overrides of these ...