Subcategories not showing

I am looking at upgrading my current ecom website. We are expanding the product lineup in our b&m store to over 25,000 products, June 1, 2012, so we need to get the category issue resolved before we can relaunch our new website store.

Currently I have 21 categories and 455 subcategories with eight of the subcategories going five levels deep. There are no products uploaded to the store and it is a clean zc install. I uploaded the categories thru easypopulate.

In each category/subcategory combo that go more than three levels deep, all I get is the header for the page and nothing else. I can not browse to any other subcategory.

Example: Beads > Gemstone Beads > Jasper Beads > Zebra Jasper Beads > Bronze Zebra Jasper Beads

I can view the Beads and the Gemstone beads categories just fine, but when I click on Jasper, all I get is the header and nothing else. The jasper subcategory has 43 subcategories and will have more than 900 products.

All category/subcategory combo that are three levels deep or less work just fine.

Any clues, suggestions or ideas to try?

I understand the recommendation of limiting how deep the cat/subcat levels go. I run a craft & hobby store and there is no way to limit the cat/subcat level to three or less levels. We currently have over 15,000 products. When you get into jewelry making supplies, there are sites with cat/subcat levels more than ten deep. One type of bead we carry, Gemstone Beads, has over 4600 kinds, types, shapes, sizes, colors, etc. There is just no way to present it in just three cat/subcat levels.

I do not have a link to post as this test site is on an internal pc with Windows 7 & WAMP Server, and is not connected to the internet.

I would like to resolve this as I like the look, functions and operation of zc.

BTY, I have had the exact same issue with categories/subcategories with oscommerce and other similar ecom carts when I tryed them out.

Need a link please

As I stated in my original post "I do not have a link to post as this test site is on an internal pc with Windows 7 & WAMP Server, and is not connected to the internet."

GRBS:

As I stated in my original post "I do not have a link to post as this test site is on an internal pc with Windows 7 & WAMP Server, and is not connected to the internet."

Unfortunately, you are dealing with non Zen Cart behavior, which means it is something you did.... we cannot diagnose what we cannot see. It can be rogue code in a description, images too large or about 20 other things.

This is an issue I have been trying to resolve for several weeks.

I have the same results for the same cat/subcat levels if I manually create the categories by hand or if I upload a csv file with the cat/subcats already defined.

I have found the exact same issue in the same cat/subcats with other software of similar design. (i.e. oscommerce)

The cat/subcat names are made up of one to three words with an apostrophe as the only symbol or odd character being used. The cat/subcats with the apostrophe works just fine.

I have searched the forums here and other websites for a fix or resolution and no luck. With the amount of complaints dealing with the same/similar issue, I am surprised it is not something that is being seriously looked into.

Everyone has said the same thing(s):

1: Limit the depth of your cat/subcat levels.
2: Make sure there are no products in the same cat/subcat as other subcats. Thiss will cause the subcats to not show.

I installed the zen-cart software on a linux webserver and encountered the same issues with the same cat/subcats. I had to remove the software as thiis is a live webserver and the owner was afraid the performance would be affected. So I presume it is not just an issue related to the type of webserver used.

It is not an issue of server resources as the php.ini limits have been increased to see if that is a possibility, currently they are:

memory_limit = 256M
post_max_size = 32M
upload_max_filesize = 20M
mysql.connect_timeout = -1

The zen-cart version is current stable release v1.5.0, no zen-cart files have been altered and only two modules have been added, they are easypopulate and backup.

mprough:

Unfortunately, you are dealing with non Zen Cart behavior, which means it is something you did.... we cannot diagnose what we cannot see. It can be rogue code in a description, images too large or about 20 other things.

This is on a clean Win 7 laptop running WAMP Server. There is no other software or websites running. The only website software installed is zen-cart v1.5.0 and two mods: easypopulate and backup.

There are no images added, there are no products added, there are no descriptions added, I just added the categories/subcategories.

All I did was add the categories and subcategories. As there has been issues with the category/subcategory levels not working properly in other similarly coded ecom software. I started with the categories/subcategories to verify that there is no issues.

This is a fresh clean install of zen-cart v1.5.0 with no altered code.

I can attest that this is not Zen Cart... see here (http://yourprettygarden.com/mailwrapsmagneticmailboxcovercatsinsectswildlife-c-98_103_544_704_702.html), 5 categories deep

Could you browse your products table and do a sort on master_categories_id and see if all Products have a master_categories_id and that none of them have the master_categories_id of 0 ...

While you are at it, check that they all have a products_price_sorter ...

From the OP: > There are no products uploaded to the store and it is a clean zc install.
Does anything change if you add some products to the lowest subcats? I don't think it should, but it couldn't hurt to test...

If you can duplicate the site on a viewable server, it would help to diagnose the issue. There is no reason it should impact another site to have this in a subfolder of it temporarily.

Ajeh:

Could you browse your products table and do a sort on master_categories_id and see if all Products have a master_categories_id and that none of them have the master_categories_id of 0 ...

While you are at it, check that they all have a products_price_sorter ...

I checked the db table and no entry has a master_category_id of 0, and they do all have a products_price_sorter.

I added the full csv of products and cat/subcats and the issue is still the same whether or not there are products.

Would it matter if different category/subcategories have the same subcat names? The reason I ask is I have several cat/subcats with the same subcat names, some at different levels.

Example:

      Beads > Gemstone Beads > Jasper > Zebra

      Cabocons > Gemstone > Jasper

      Pendants > Gemstone > Jasper

The reason I ask is: I have multiple cats/subcats with identical names at the same or different levels. Right now there are five cat/subcats that have the same subcat names. Though some of the cat/subcats menu work fine while others do not.

When we expand our line up in June, this issue with the identical or similar mnames in the cats/subcats will only get worse. At present about six cat/subcats, after the product expansion, this could go as high as twenty. Not all the cats/subcats will have the same/similar names, five may have the same/similar names and another group would have the same/similar names, etc.

If it would help towards the understanding of what I am getting at about the cats/subcats, I could post a text file of the category/subcategory listing as it is now.

I have setup a temp site on a free php host, but I keep getting errors that server is busy, so I am looking into another host .

The current store site is hosted on windows server and does not allow serving of php pages. The php host I used is owned by a friend and he is worried about his bandwidth since it is a shared hosting server.

I am fairly new to php/java coding, though I am quite familiar with open source .asp/.net development since I have done it for over ten years.

Unless your friend has a truly miniscule bandwidth limit, there should be little effect from an added site in a subfolder that does not have any live links to it (post it obfuscated so no bots will pick it up) and is only active for hours or days.

All category/subcategory handling is based on ids, and the names will be irrelevant to the function.

I didn't think the cat/subcat names would have a bearing on the cat/subcat handling, just had to throw it our there as a possibility.

I changed the names of the subcats in the Beads category, so the names are unique all the way down to the last level. Still no change in how it functions, when I select the Jasper Beads subcategory (third level - cat > subcat 1 > subcat 2), the displayed page just has the Header and the search box which is at the top of the left column. The Catalog menu whould show second in the left column but it is not there.

Could the code for the catalog menu box be causing a conflict with the category display function. I can't imagine it would since it works just fine on other cat/subcats.

We are planning on using a vps for our new store website, I didn't want to start paying for it until we were ready to launch, but if needed to figure this issue out, then I will get it setup this weekend. That way you can see what I am talking about.

The free php hosting services are a pain, keep getting a server busy whenever I try to upload or do much with the test sites.

I have figured out what the cause of the cat/subcat menu not working right for me.

If you are on a LAMP based server, the category/subcategory menu will show and work for an unlimited number of levels. On my new Linux CentOS VPS I tried twenty levels just to be sure.

On my Windows based server using WAMP, the category/subcategory will show but not work for an unlimited number of levels, would not show at level three.

I have spent the past two days trying out different servers with the same results for the different types of servers.

I have tried three free hosting linux based servers and a linux VPS and the category/subcategory menu worked just fine.

I have tried four different windows based servers and the cat/subcat menu cuts off at a certain level. Two servers cut off at level three, one at level two, the fourth at level six.

This may not apply to all windows based servers, just the ones I tried using WAMP and not IIS with php support. The windows servers were: 2 Win7, 1 Win XP, 1 Win 2003.

Why the windows servers would cut off at different levels is a mystery to me, but at least I can go ahead and finish putting together the new online store using the linux VPS.

This may not be an issue to everyone, but a warning of a possibility of the cat/subcat menu not showing or working for all levels should be posted for those developing on a windows box with WAMP Server. I love WAMP server, by the way, and will continue to use it.

All windows boxes had a fresh download of the latest WAMP Server downloaded and installed, no copying download files from the other pc's. All four servers were setup for maximum performance for php & mysql. Each windows box (all Toshiba Laptops) had 4gb ram and quad-core processor.

This issue of the cat/subcats not showing has caused me major headaches for the past couple of weeks. I have installed the zen-cart and other similar software dozens of times and nothing I did would make a difference.

With wamp version 2.2 is problem with show categories. Install oldest version 2.0 and all will ok :-)