2 category listings? 1 across the top and one as a sidebox

I am starting to setup a cart that will have items for multiple sports (soccer, basketball, cheerleading, volleyball, etc). The client wants to have categories for each sport...and then categories for socks, shirts, shorts, accessories etc. that would display all results. What would be the best way to set that up in the categories? I hope this makes sense.

From your post, I assume you mean that you want sports across the top, and then socks etc down the side.

Personally, and there are a number of ways to do this, I would create a top level category and call it something like Product Groups. you can then add as many categories to this as you need, such as Socks etc. You then need to copy the products from their current location, to the new categories, so that they show up in both.

Next, you will need to create a new sidebox, following similar guidelines to teh categories sidebox, but rather than dispalying the whole category tree, just show the subcategories of the Product Groups category. This can again be done in a number of ways, depending on which sidebox you are installing.

Finally, edit the categories header module, so that it ignores your new top level category.

Unfortunately, it's not the easiest of modifications, as you need to change some code in order to keep the dispalys dynamic.

Alternatively, if you don't mind the links not being dynamic, you could "try" the following.

Again, create a category, but call it Header Categories. Add all the categories you want to be able to access from the header here. Now, just turn off the top level category, so it doesn't appear in the standard categories sidebox.

Finally, using the ezpages links, create the links to each of the individual header categories you have. As these are still active, the links will be fine.

Hope this helps - sorry it's a little long winded.

Absolute

I think that's kind of what I am needing to do. The main categories have to go in a sidebox on the left (Basketball, Volleyball, Cheerleading, etc). Currently the site is set up with identical subcategories (shirts, shorts, socks, accessories) for each sport. On the top horizontal navigation the client wants each of the sub categories to be listed once (so all that would be in the navigation would be "shirts, shorts, socks, accessories") so that when clicked for instance a link named socks will display all socks across all of the sports categories. I hope this makes sense. Is this possible? Thanks!

If is possible if you are looking to custom code something.

If you don't want to code something, then you are going to need to recreate the top links as a new set of categories, and then link every product to the relevant category.

Absolute

This is what my site is doing:

All top-parent categories are listed on top
When you click on a parent categories, sub categories will be listed on the sidebox on the left

Is that what you are looking for?

well the client wants the sports to be the top level categories (basketball, soccer, etc) and they all have the same subcategories (shirts, socks, shorts, etc)...they want the top level categories (sports) to be on the left side...no problem...BUT...they want the subcategories to be listed across the top horizontally like the navCatTabs (shirts, socks, shorts, etc) but when you click on say shirts...it lists all the shirts in basketball, soccer, etc) Does this make sense? The more I think about it the more confused I am getting...heh.

As I mentioned, there are 2 ways to do this. Either custom code it, or create a tree as follows:

Basketball

• socks
• etc

Soccer

• socks
• etc

Rugby

• socks
• etc

Clothing

• socks
• etc

Now place all your products in teh correct categories, such as Basketball - Socks. Then link the product to the Clothing - Socks category.

Finally, hide the Clothing category from the sidebox, and then show the contents of the Clothing Category in the header, so you get a list of Socks, etc.........

That really is the easiest way to achieve this.

Absolute