How do I list products in sub category with in the parent category?

I am running a fresh install of v1.5.4. I have imported a ton of products from my distributor with a plugin that they provided. Everything imported fine. However, products that are in sub categories aren't listed in the parent category. Meaning that when I click on a parent category all that is shown is a list of sub/child categories. I have searched for a solution to this issue, and can see that this is a problem that has existed for a long time. Has there been any fixes yet? Has anyone developed a plugin fix? Or even a bespoke one that I can try to implement? I thought about just making all of the products linked to the parent categories, but that is not feasible with 18k products.

JoeToys:

I am running a fresh install of v1.5.4. I have imported a ton of products from my distributor with a plugin that they provided. Everything imported fine. However, products that are in sub categories aren't listed in the parent category. Meaning that when I click on a parent category all that is shown is a list of sub/child categories. I have searched for a solution to this issue, and can see that this is a problem that has existed for a long time. Has there been any fixes yet? Has anyone developed a plugin fix? Or even a bespoke one that I can try to implement? I thought about just making all of the products linked to the parent categories, but that is not feasible with 18k products.

Umm.. The "problem" that you seem to be describing is actually the normal expected behavior whereas what you have more than likely found are cases where what you are wanting to do have had to be fixed...

The default setup of ZC is to have categories that either contain other categories or products, not both... To do otherwise will/would require custom code that you are trying to find...

There may be solutions freely available; however, just wanted to point out that 'when I click on a parent category all that is shown is a list of sub/child categories' is standard behavior and if I understand the issue correctly that you describe... Afterall by being in a sub-category (of the parent category) the product is in a way tied to the parent category, right?

I will admit that I am completely new to Zen Cart. In fact I am completely new to eCommerce management. But I have spent the last 8 years working in digital marketing, advising hunderds of clients, many of which were ecommerce sites. And, I can promise you that the industry standard is to show products on all category pages. There's no point to even having a hierarchy system if you can't stow products in a category, if it also contains a sub category. It makes no sense. Why even have sub categories???? Is Zen Cart really that out of the loop????

JoeToys:

I will admit that I am completely new to Zen Cart. In fact I am completely new to eCommerce management. But I have spent the last 8 years working in digital marketing, advising hunderds of clients, many of which were ecommerce sites. And, I can promise you that the industry standard is to show products on all category pages. There's no point to even having a hierarchy system if you can't stow products in a category, if it also contains a sub category. It makes no sense. Why even have sub categories???? Is Zen Cart really that out of the loop????

Like I said, I think that I have seen ways to make it possible to show products on a category page that also has sub-categories and obviously the core coders are around and may even support the changes necessary; however, generally speaking when such a change is requested it is usually prefaced with a request for a description of the business need being met.

For example, let's assume that I have a product that is offered as like an Ultimate product where it carries all features available, and then I wanted to offer sub-versions of the product, like a gold, bronze or silver version, I could maybe see how the ultimate product would be in a category and then the other versions be shown each under a separate sub-category, though only in part could I see that as I would think that the product would be best served all in a single category or as a single product with attribute like options...

Overall, what I have seen in the ZC forum has been to yes minimize the sub-categories, make any chosen category (whether "primary" or as a sub) count to minimize customer navigation and maximize conversion. Easy find, easy purchase, next...

While still waiting to understand the need behind having a product in a category that has sub-categories (meaning what purpose does the sub-category at that point server), there are things that can be done to maintain the database structure of products only being in the end of a category tree, but yet provide options off in various directions to appear as if the sub-category is "in-line" with the product being displayed... In other words, the admin side may (without revision) look different than the store side as far as navigation, but even then the admin side could be modified further to replicate the store side...

Basically though, again perhaps you could provide some enlightenment on a setup that would benefit from having a product alongside a sub-category in the navigation of the category dropdown list basically..

JoeToys:

I can promise you that the industry standard

Can you please provide a link or some other reference where these industry standards can be found?

JoeToys:

is to show products on all category pages.

This doesn't make sense to me, if all products are shown on all category pages then what is the point of having categories?

If zencart has products (that are enabled) in any given category, then yes, it does show those products.

JoeToys:

There's no point to even having a hierarchy system if you can't stow products in a category, if it also contains a sub category. It makes no sense. Why even have sub categories???? Is Zen Cart really that out of the loop????

No, Zencart isn't out of the loop, I'm guessing the the plugin that your distributor provided has imported all the products into a single category (probably the top level category).

You'll either have to copy (or move) the products into the sub-categories in which they belong, OR, you'll have to modify (configure?) the import module so the products are imported into the categories in which they belong.

In short, the problem is with the import module, not ZenCart.

Cheers
RodG

Hello all

I don't think the OP actually means "moving" the products into the category with subcategories, just displaying them, like we display favorites and new. It would be another option to display "all" under a category. And I agree, it is not an industry standard but it is used.

For example, Nordstrom's. At the very top level categories, it does not show products. That would be crazy, you would have too many. But when you get down to certain levels Nordstoms does show products.

For example, women's dresses. This category is 5 levels down. There are about 7 categories under women's dresses (http://shop.nordstrom.com/c/designer-dresses?origin=leftnav) according to the breadcrumb. At this level, it shows all of the women's dresses. At levels above it did not. Selecting a category under it will narrow down the choices even more.

I understand that Nordstrom's has a custom program with oodlles being spent on it, but zen could possibly do it with a modification that adds a switch for each level of category either displaying all products under it or not. That would leave it up to the designer.

Just my thought.

lruskauff:

For example, Nordstrom's. At the very top level categories, it does not show products. That would be crazy, you would have too many. But when you get down to certain levels Nordstoms does show products.

For example, women's dresses. This category is 5 levels down. There are about 7 categories under women's dresses (http://shop.nordstrom.com/c/designer-dresses?origin=leftnav) according to the breadcrumb. At this level, it shows all of the women's dresses. At levels above it did not. Selecting a category under it will narrow down the choices even more.

I understand that Nordstrom's has a custom program with oodlles being spent on it, but zen could possibly do it with a modification that adds a switch for each level of category either displaying all products under it or not. That would leave it up to the designer.

Zencart does this - it's just a mater of category organisation.

Cheers
RodG

RodG:

Zencart does this - it's just a mater of category organisation.

Cheers
RodG

Are you sure? For example, if I had this:
CLOTHING
shirts
belts
pants
ACCESSORIES
wallets
bells
shoes

If I select accessories it will show me the 3 subcategories. What if I want it to show me the 3 categories and then all the products in those 3 on one page?

l

lruskauff:

Are you sure?

Nah. The screenshot is faked. <just kidding>

See for yourself:
http://www.plussizedclothing.com.au/

Cheers
RodG

RodG:

Nah. The screenshot is faked. <just kidding>

See for yourself:
http://www.plussizedclothing.com.au/

Cheers
I'm glad it isn't cause it show what I mean.:P

Go here. : http://www.plussizedclothing.com.au/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=267_29

Haven't gone back to test on older versions of ZC (again). I'm wondering how many related threads need to be revisited to correct what I posted in post two of this thread? I've been able and have even previously posted about the ability to have a category tree to which product could be added somewhere other than at the end, and vice versa...

@JoeToys, hopefully you are still "listening". Basically while one or the other is active in the category, the other or the one is blocked from being added. But, if all is disabled in that category, then the opposing (any) can be added... So, yes can become tedious (manually), but is possible.

Down side observed on default template: main_page window didn't show the existence of a sub-category when product shown in the category, but the categories sidebox/dropdown did... More than likely (hopefully) the other posts of "losing" their product or sub-category were results of doing what is described above, but expecting different results...

My bad, I guess I should have said somethng like, yes it is possible but some additional care may be needed to ensure it is known that the sub-categories exist and that they are reachable.

lruskauff:

Go here. : http://www.plussizedclothing.com.au/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=267_29

OK.... so now what? It doesn't automatically open the 'all jackets' category? That's what the client wanted.

Cheers
RodG

Correct, it doesn't open all jackets which is what the customer wants. I believe we are agreeing?

lruskauff:

Correct, it doesn't open all jackets which is what the customer wants. I believe we are agreeing?

We are agreeing that our customers want different things.

I don't think we are agreeing if what your customer wants can be done or not. (Hey, it's ZenCart we are talking about here. Anything can be done) <smiles>

Cheers
RodG

No, we are not agreeing on HOW he wants it done exactly but we may never know without further clarification from the OP.

I didn't think I'd be joining this conversation, but I totally agree with the OP. It's a matter of having options. Since Zen Cart is pretty weak when it comes to narrowing down and filtering products (layered navigation), people are pretty much stuck with using subcategories which is nowhere near friendly. So, imagine a store selling dresses. If we want to allow narrowing down with multiple factors, we are stuck with a category structure like:
Dresses

• long
  • small
  • medium
  • large
  • extra large
• knee-length
  • small
  • medium
  • large
  • extra large
• short
  • small
  • medium
  • large
  • extra large
    Now imagine adding extra filters to narrow down, for example with or without sleeves.

I know this is not a problem for stores selling 50-60-100 dresses. But what happens when you have thousands?

So, the idea is that when you enter "Dresses", you see the subcategories at the top and you CAN narrow down, but you also see a list of products showing ALL dresses from all subcats, meaning you'll see some "long xxl", "long medium", "knee-length small" and "short medium" all together. If you go to a subcat "short", you'll see the option to narrow down to your size AND all available sizes below.

It's not the simplest thing to pull off, but I can see the benefit of having it primarily as an extra option for the customer to enable if wanted. It should not be enabled for all stores because it might not make too much sense, but there are scenarios where it could come in very handy.

I'm working on it and have managed to get it working, but still need to iron it out before I can release it as a plugin. Ideas are most welcome, but I'd also appreciate someone sharing thoughts on possible caveats and why this should NOT be used (if such reasons exist, I can't think of any).

So happy to see that you are writing a plugin!! :) If I can help with the plugin's development by hiring you to get it working on my site, I'd love to do that. When it is finished you can retain ownership over it and release it to the community, I just want to make sure this is built the right way, so I am willing to hire you to do it.

Please let me know if you are interested and how much $$ you would like?

Joe

Hi Joe.

Yes, I am interested to build this plugin as I can see the benefit it can bring. I will not charge you for it since I have already started working on it because I wanted to, not because you asked me to. :smile: It will definitely be released as a plugin for the community.

Donations are welcome, of course :smile:

More details sent on PM.

Good news - the plugin is finished and it seems to be working just fine on my localhost and with the classic template.

If there's anyone interested in obtaining a copy of the plugin to test it and see if you can notice any bugs or mistakes, please PM me for a download link - I'd like a few people to test it and share thoughts before I release it in the Plugins section. And, maybe worth mentioning - I don't ask for any payment for this plugin and will not be paying anyone to test it. :wink:

Hi, has this been officially released?

balihr:

Good news - the plugin is finished and it seems to be working just fine on my localhost and with the classic template.

If there's anyone interested in obtaining a copy of the plugin to test it and see if you can notice any bugs or mistakes, please PM me for a download link - I'd like a few people to test it and share thoughts before I release it in the Plugins section. And, maybe worth mentioning - I don't ask for any payment for this plugin and will not be paying anyone to test it. :wink: