Short Description for Categories... have a description above & below product listings

An even better way, which touches no core files, is to add this file to the plugin's files:

/admin/includes/extra_datafiles/sanitizer_categories_sub.php

<?php
$sanitizer = AdminRequestSanitizer::getInstance();
$group = array(
  'categories_description_sub' => array('sanitizerType' => 'PRODUCT_DESC_REGEX', 'method' => 'post'),
    );
$sanitizer->addComplexSanitization($group);

A new update has been submitted for this module to include:

Updated for Zen Cart 1.5.5e.
Added admin sanitize file (see below) to work with CKEditor per drByte.
Created new files for classic_responsive template.

Will post again once module has been approved.

ENJOY!!

DrByte:

An even better way, which touches no core files, is to add this file to the plugin's files:

/admin/includes/extra_datafiles/sanitizer_categories_sub.php

https://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=355

New update has been approved and ready for download

Hello! Please help me. I have a problem with categories (after installing ZenCart 1.5.5e module) - an endless loading when go to categories. I checked logs and noticed this error: PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '}' in /home/pitbulldogbreeds/public_html/includes/templates/yourstore/templates/tpl_index_categories.php on line 130. can you help me, please?

Hello - does anyone have this mod working in v1.5.7b (or 1.5.6 even) ?? - have used this for years and would like to continue with it in 1.5.7b

cheers,
Mike

The more accurate question might be... Would anybody try to make it work with 1.5.7b? One might consider cloning the way the product description works on the all products page (the ...) and incorporate it into the category description.

Seems like that would be far superior to making the customer look in two places for the category information.

One way with jQuery would be https://www.viralpatel.net/dynamically-shortened-text-show-more-link-jquery/ which uses the more...

If you just wanted to "see" the first paragraph and not the others until an event, you'd wrap all but the first in a div with display:none and toggle it on with a click on the div.

My point. If you are going to spend time, spend it finding current methods. Bandaids hurt when they get ripped off.

dbltoe:

The more accurate question might be... Would anybody try to make it work with 1.5.7b? One might consider cloning the way the product description works on the all products page (the ...) and incorporate it into the category description.

Seems like that would be far superior to making the customer look in two places for the category information.

One way with jQuery would be https://www.viralpatel.net/dynamically-shortened-text-show-more-link-jquery/ which uses the more...

If you just wanted to "see" the first paragraph and not the others until an event, you'd wrap all but the first in a div with display:none and toggle it on with a click on the div.

My point. If you are going to spend time, spend it finding current methods. Bandaids hurt when they get ripped off.

Everything you said makes sense dbltoe and you know I value your opinions.
a couple of things I would offer as comments :smile:

Would anybody try to make it work with 1.5.7b?The plugin had over 3900 downloads so it seems it is possible there are many zenners out there using this plugin that have yet to move on from v1.5.5 - like me very, very recently. .... unless of course you meant why would anyone try to make the current plugin work with 1.5.7b rather than start afresh - in which case I agree, if it cannot be readily modified then absolutely correct.

Seems like that would be far superior to making the customer look in two places for the category information.
The information provided in the primary category description was always enough to give the customers an accurate overview of what the category was about / contained without boring them to death or making the content too long (particularly for mobile view). The additional content at the bottom of each page of the category listings was just that, additional - some may have read it, most will not have - women shopping for jewelry shop by images first and foremost and text is secondary other than when they get the to the product page and even then they skim.

I used the additional text in the extra box for the crawlers primarily - extra content (content is king, right?)

One way with jQuery would be https://www.viralpatel.net/dynamically-shortened-text-show-more-link-jquery/ which uses the more...

I think this one would work - I would need to figure a way to implement it without breaking my site which would be a mammoth task for me :smile: , not to say that I wouldn't try - additionally the more Jscripts on the site the worse the performance becomes with Core Web Vitals and Lighthouse performance scores, something I'm desperately trying to improve to get ahead of my competitors (maybe this script loads last in <body> - not sure, haven't checked it out yet so cannot be sure it would affect those scores). And, yes I am trying to improve html and css to current standards, gradually - as well as adding more content on the site (a wholistic approach) - I do listen most of the time.

I will take a good look at that Vital Patel page soon and try to digest the detail and see if I think I can use it without too much risk.

Again many thanks for the info,
cheers,Mike

Hi, does anyone know if this plugin works with latest version of zen cart v1.5.8a?

Looking to upgrade, but would like to continue having this plugin

...or an alternative plugin / method that has the same function.

Thanks

I'm going to take a big guess and say that the plugin will require changes to run under Zen Cart 1.5.8. I don't have any clients that currently use this, so I can't be much of an aid.