No sub-cats or products, tried all options.

Okay, I've gone through everything.

Here http://www.certifiedcollectorcoins.com/shop/ the Commemoratives (http://certifiedcollectorcoins.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=32) and other categories do not display their sub-cats inside and therefore the products in the sub-cats.

The others do.

I have tried the debug, no errors reported.
I have looked at the server error logs, none reported for this domain (so I know they are reporting and aren't broken)
I don't have images for the products or categories so no large images choking the libraries.
Categories, products and subcategories are status set to green/on.
Database isn't reporting issues.
I cannot find any admin setting that is causing sub-categories not to display.

Please help, I've tried every option I can find so far.

Thanks.

This sounds really silly, but I notice that the categories where this is happening all have long names which either wrap or overrun the sidebar width. This is the only common factor visible (products/no products doesn't affect it.)
I have no idea how this could be a cause, but try changing the name of one of the categories that works to a long name and see if it affects it.

gjh42:

I have no idea how this could be a cause, but try changing the name of one of the categories that works to a long name and see if it affects it.

Tried it just because I am at a loss with options. The category Bullion is the same, it should have 2 sub-cats called Gold and Silver inside but doesn't display.

Any other ideas since you were so quick to reply? I almost got excited thinking my problem could nearly be solved.

It's a mystery. I've tried everything. :S

I couldn't imagine how that could have been the problem anyway...

So the option left is that all the categories from Commemoratives on down are not working. What happens if you change the categories sort order? If Dollars moves below Commemoratives does it still work?

gjh42:

If Dollars moves below Commemoratives does it still work?

Sure does.

I created a new category called 'test' (short name) and that was right at the top. The test subcat in that didn't show either, even with a product in.

Just before it gets asked by anyone, I even wondered if it was name duplications (since the affected categories have subcategories with titles that include the name of the category parents, such as Bullion had Gold Bullion and Silver Bullion inside, but it changed nothing by changing these.

As you can see on the page now, changing the sort order has had no affect either.

I am so confused by this.

Any ideas to isolation? Since there were no error reports and I tried the classic template (to check if it was a template/CSS issue), I can't even isolate the problem. The only thing I can think is some tiny option in the admin, but it would be category wide and that's not the case.

Stumped.

What are the category ids of the affected categories? Are they all higher numbers than the categories that work correctly? Maybe some admin setting or fault became operational at one point and messes with new categories.

gjh42:

Are they all higher numbers than the categories that work correctly?

They are, this is the only thing to note since it wasn't show for the new test category I made either.

From 32 upwards for categories that are not displaying their sub-categories, BUT categories below that which have subcats with a higher number than 32 (since creating sub-cats for others before some) DO show.

EG:

Cat 1 - ID=31 - Shows
Subcat - ID=40 - Shows
Subcat - ID=38 - Shows
Cat 2 - ID=32 - NOT SHOWING
Subcat - ID=39 - NOT SHOWING

So strange.

gjh42:

Are they all higher numbers than the categories that work correctly? Maybe some admin setting or fault became operational at one point and messes with new categories.

Now this IS interesting...

I emptied the tables for the categories and products and went through adding them one by one.

Now, the quarters (in the new categories menu) won't load it's 1 sub-category.

I thought maybe because there's only 1 sub-cat, it's being confused when I give it a sort order, so removed it, no change.

It just seems to be random.

The only thing I can think of is that there's some setting specific to that category number (but not name obviously) or something?

I don't know.

Looking for any help possible.

gjh42:

Maybe some admin setting or fault became operational at one point and messes with new categories.

Some more investigation.

Under Product Listing in the Config menu of the admin area, there's the option "Show SubCategories on Main Page while navigating" which I turned off, checked, no subcats showed, turned on, now they show BUT still NOT the problematic ones.

Can sub-cats have their own display settings? I've made no active decision for a certain category number to have a different display setting, wouldn't know how to find it or clear it.

:S

Okay, updating this like the responsible person I am.

Turns out, it's not a Zen Cart issue per se...

My clients host, BlueHost, seems to have many issues relating to Zen Cart which is offered as one of their One Click Installs.

Hot tip that I should have implemented sooner to find the real fault... I installed Zen Cart on another server, my own, using the same database and the same layout (since I knew the layout wasn't the issue anyway) and all worked fine.

Now all sub-cats are showing perfectly after moving the domain to a new host and the database and layout too.

I think we can safely say, there's been no case of this happening for Zen Cart specifically, which is good.

Thanks to the above who offered all the thoughts they could as to what the issue was. I should have tried a second install but since many people don't have access to another host or server, it's not something you hear recommended a lot in forums to try. I feel a little silly for not doing it earlier.

Case closed.