Plugin: Child Categories
Development and Programming
Thanks Laisvunas. I finally got it working and here’s what I did for anyone else who’s interested:
<ul class="sidenav">
{if segment_3=="category"}{assign_variable:cat_url="{segment_4}"}{/if}
{if segment_4=="category"}{assign_variable:cat_url="{segment_3}"}{/if}
{exp:category_id category_group="8" weblog="services" category_url_title="{cat_url}"}
{exp:child_categories category_group="8" child_categories_sort_by="custom" child_categories_sort_direction="asc" show_empty="yes" parse="inward"}
{parent_category_start}
<li><a href="http://{homepage}{segment_1}/detail/category/{parent_category_url_title}/">{parent_category_name}</a>
{if "{parent_category_children_count}" > 0 }
{if segment_3=="category"}
{if "{parent_category_url_title}" == "{segment_4}"}<ul class="subnav">{/if}
{if:else}
{if "{parent_category_url_title}" == "{segment_3}"}<ul class="subnav">{/if}
{/if}
{/if}
{parent_category_end}
{child_category_start}
{if "{parent_category_url_title}" == "{segment_4}"}
<li><a href="http://{homepage}{segment_1}/detail/{segment_4}/category/{child_category_url_title}/">{child_category_name}</a></li>
{if:elseif "{parent_category_url_title}" == "{segment_3}"}
<li><a href="http://{homepage}{segment_1}/detail/{segment_3}/category/{child_category_url_title}/">{child_category_name}</a></li>
{/if}
{child_category_end}
{parent_wrapper_bottom_start}
{if "{parent_category_children_count}" > 0 }{if "{parent_category_id}" == "{category_id}"}</ul>{/if}{/if}
</li>
{parent_wrapper_bottom_end}
{/exp:child_categories}
{/exp:category_id}
</ul>
Hi Laisvunas. Your plugin is awesome and it’s perfect for the project I am working on. However I can’t seem to wrap my head around something I need to achieve, even after reading the docs the whole day yesterday.
What i need to do is to wrap a single DIV around all child categories and entries of a parent category. Below is the structure I’m trying to produce:
<h2>Parent Category</h2>
<DIV>
<h3>Child Category</h3>
<ul><li>Entry</li></ul>
<h3>Child Category</h3>
<ul><li>Entry</li></ul>
</DIV>
<h2>Parent Category 2</h2>
<DIV>
<h3>Child Category</h3>
<ul><li>Entry</li></ul>
</DIV>Below is the code I have (simplified). Those DIVs are really the only problem I’ve got.
{exp:child_categories}
{parent_category_start}
<h2>{parent_category_name}</h2>
{parent_category_end}
<DIV>
{child_category_start}
<h3>{child_category_name}</h3>
{child_category_end}
{entries_wrapper_top_start}<ul>{entries_wrapper_top_end}
{entries_start}
<li><a href="http://{weblog_url}{url_title}">{title}</a></li>
{entries_end}
{entries_wrapper_bottom_start}</ul>{entries_wrapper_bottom_end}
</DIV>
{/exp:child_categories}The reason i need that/those DIV(s) is because I am integrating this menu with the jQuery Accordion plug-in.
Your help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Hi,
Your code is wrong since nothing is rendered by the plugin what is outside the variable pairs
{parent_category_start}{parent_category_end} {child_category_start}{child_category_end} {entries_start}{entries_end} {entries_wrapper_top_start}{entries_wrapper_top_end} {entries_wrapper_bottom_start}{entries_wrapper_bottom_end} {child_wrapper_bottom_start}{child_wrapper_bottom_end} {parent_wrapper_bottom_start}{parent_wrapper_bottom_end}
About wrapping the output of variable pairs read this post.
Sorry for not being clear about my question. I was aware of my code being wrong and that nothing gets rendered outside the variable pairs. After some trial and error I got what i wanted. It just took me a while to fully understand {child_wrapper_bottom_start}{child_wrapper_bottom_end} and {parent_wrapper_bottom_start}{parent_wrapper_bottom_end}. My bad. Anyway, everything is working now. Thank you for the great plug-in!
Has anyone used this plug-in for navigation with a page that works with the Photo Gallery module (1st party)?
The page that handles the thumbnails works fine; however, when I click a thumbnail, using the image_full template, the categories are lost. Here is where it gets screwy. The image_full template works fine without the following /##/ {segment_4}, however, in order for the gallery to work that additional segment is required.
Linky to site: http://life.cc/index.php/media_arts/image_gallery
<ul id="nav_categories">
{exp:weblog:entries weblog="media_arts" limit="1"}
{exp:weblog:categories weblog="media_arts" style="linear" parent_only="yes"}
{exp:child_categories parent="{category_id}" show_empty="yes" child_categories_sort_by="custom" entries_sort_direction="asc" site="1"}
{parent_category_start}
<li><a href="http://{site_url}index.php/{segment_1}/{parent_category_url_title}">{parent_category_name}</a></li>
{parent_category_end}
{/exp:child_categories}
{/exp:weblog:categories}
{/exp:weblog:entries}
</ul>Seems very basic, but it seems to always be the easy things I miss. Thanks for any help.
Hi,
Instead of using exp:weblog:categories you can use “category_group” parameter; also it seems that exp:weblog:entries tag is not needed in your code.
Hi there, seems usefull your plugin, though for me needs I would urgently need the following variables:
{parent_wrapper_top_start} {parent_wrapper_top_end}
I want to achieve a perfect structure:
<ul> <li> <ul><li></li></ul> </li> </ul>
my idea is to output the following code
{exp:weblog:categories weblog="jw_static" parent_only="yes" style="linear" show_empty="yes"}
{exp:child_categories parse="inward" parent="{category_id}" show_empty="yes" child_categories_sort_by="custom" child_categories_sort_direction="asc"}
{parent_category_start}
<ul><li><!-- Opening part of the code which wrap parent category -->
{parent_category_name}
{parent_category_end}
/// THE NEW BIT ///
{child_wrapper_top_start}
<ul><!-- Opening part of the code which wrap child category -->
{child_wrapper_bottom_end}[/b]
{child_category_start}
<li><!-- Opening part of the code which wrap child category -->
{child_category_name}
</li>
{child_category_end}
{child_wrapper_bottom_start}
</ul><!-- Closing part of the code which wrap child category -->
{child_wrapper_bottom_end}
{parent_wrapper_bottom_start}
</li></ul><!-- Closing part of the code which wrap parent category -->
{parent_wrapper_bottom_end}
{/exp:child_categories}
{/exp:weblog:categories}this would be highly appreciated! cheers stefan
The new variable pair
{child_wrapper_top_start}
{child_wrapper_top_end}is not needed because you can achieve what you need using currently available variable pairs:
{exp:weblog:categories weblog="jw_static" parent_only="yes" style="linear" show_empty="yes"}
{exp:child_categories parse="inward" parent="{category_id}" show_empty="yes" child_categories_sort_by="custom" child_categories_sort_direction="asc"}
{parent_category_start}
<ul><li><!-- Opening part of the code which wrap parent category -->
{parent_category_name}
{parent_category_end}
{child_category_start}
<ul><li><!-- Opening part of the code which wrap child category -->
{child_category_name}
</li></ul><!-- Closing part of the code which wrap child category -->
{child_category_end}
{parent_wrapper_bottom_start}
</li></ul><!-- Closing part of the code which wrap parent category -->
{parent_wrapper_bottom_end}
{/exp:child_categories}
{/exp:weblog:categories}The new variable pairis not needed because you can achieve what you need using currently available variable pairs:{child_wrapper_top_start} {child_wrapper_top_end}{exp:weblog:categories weblog="jw_static" parent_only="yes" style="linear" show_empty="yes"} {exp:child_categories parse="inward" parent="{category_id}" show_empty="yes" child_categories_sort_by="custom" child_categories_sort_direction="asc"} {parent_category_start} <ul><li><!-- Opening part of the code which wrap parent category --> {parent_category_name} {parent_category_end} {child_category_start} <ul><li><!-- Opening part of the code which wrap child category --> {child_category_name} </li></ul><!-- Closing part of the code which wrap child category --> {child_category_end} {parent_wrapper_bottom_start} </li></ul><!-- Closing part of the code which wrap parent category --> {parent_wrapper_bottom_end} {/exp:child_categories} {/exp:weblog:categories}
I’ve tried your solution, but it’s not NESTING correctly
EVERY child category item gets an <ul><li></li></ul>. Now I only want to wrap ONE <ul></ul>pair around ALL child categories… EXACTELY like the {entries_wrapper_top_start}{entries_wrapper_top_end}, or why did you make this tag? semantically it’s incorrect to wrap each child element with an ul tag… Like here: (but with child category)
{entries_wrapper_top_start}<ul>{entries_wrapper_top_end}
{entries_start}
<li><a href="http://{weblog_url}{url_title}/">{title}</a> Weblog: {weblog_name}, posted: {entry_date}</li>
{entries_end}
{entries_wrapper_bottom_start}</ul>{entries_wrapper_bottom_end}cheers stefan
I managed to get it work with the following code:
{exp:weblog:categories weblog="jw_static" parent_only="yes" style="linear" show_empty="yes"}
{exp:child_categories parse="inward" parent="{category_id}" show_empty="yes" child_categories_sort_by="custom" child_categories_sort_direction="asc"}
{parent_category_start}
<ul><li>{parent_category_name}
{parent_category_end}
{child_category_start}
{if {child_category_count} == 1}<ul>{/if}
<li>{child_category_name}</li>
{if {child_category_count} == {parent_category_children_count}}</ul>{/if}
{child_category_end}
{parent_wrapper_bottom_start}
</li></ul>
{parent_wrapper_bottom_end}
{/exp:child_categories}
{/exp:weblog:categories}it wasn’t logic for me… glad that it works now off to the next entry plugin 😉
I notice that when I use this tag:
{exp:child_categories parent="2" child_categories_sort_by="custom" child_categories_sort_direction="asc" show_empty="yes" site="1"}…everything works as expected.
But when I uses this:
{exp:child_categories parent="{cat_num}" child_categories_sort_by="custom" child_categories_sort_direction="asc" show_empty="yes" site="1"}… it doesn’t.
I’m creating {cat_num} with {assign_variable}, and echoing to the screen immediately before the tag to ensure it’s correct.
Can you tell me what I’m doing wrong?
Thanks.
Hi Greg,
I tried this code:
{assign_variable:parent_id="179"}
{exp:child_categories parent="{parent_id}" child_categories_sort_by="custom" child_categories_sort_direction="asc" show_empty="no" entries_sort_by="date" entries_sort_direction="asc" entries_limit="5" site="1" parse="inward" status="open|closed"}
{parent_category_start}
<ul><!-- Opening part of the tag which wraps parent category -->
Parent category: {parent_category_name}, child categories: {parent_category_children_count}
{parent_category_end}
{child_category_start}
<li><!-- Opening part of the tag which wraps child category -->
Category: {child_category_name}, {entries_total} entries
{child_category_end}
{entries_wrapper_top_start}
<ul><!-- Opening part of the tag which wraps entries -->
{entries_wrapper_top_end}
{entries_start}
<li>Entry: {count}. {title}</li>
{entries_end}
{entries_wrapper_bottom_start}
</ul><!-- Closing part of the tag which wraps entries -->
{entries_wrapper_bottom_end}
{child_wrapper_bottom_start}
</li><!-- Closing part of the tag which wraps child category -->
{child_wrapper_bottom_end}
{parent_wrapper_bottom_start}
</ul><!-- Closing part of the tag which wraps parent category -->
{parent_wrapper_bottom_end}
{/exp:child_categories}and found that it works as expected.
Laisvunas,
Thank you for taking a look at this, and for your sample code.
I tried your method:
{assign_variable:parent_id="179"}…and it did work. My problem is that I need to set that {parent_id} number dynamically based on the C# that comes in through the URL.
What I’m doing is this:
<?php
$cat_num = "{segment_3}";
$cat_num = ltrim($cat_num, "C");
?>
{assign_variable:parent_id="<?php echo $cat_num; ?>"}{parent_id} is correct; wherever in the page I put
{parent_id}… whether it’s outside your tag, inside your main tag, inside the child tag, I get the expected parent category id.
But when I use this:
{exp:child_categories parent="{parent_id}" child_categories_sort_by="custom" child_categories_sort_direction="asc" site="1" show_empty="yes"}
{child_category_start}
<li>
<a href="http://cat/{child_category_id}">_ <span class="catLinkTitle">{child_category_name}</span>_ <span class="catLinkSub">{child_category_description}</span>_ </a>
</li>
{child_category_end}
{/exp:child_categories}…all I get are the sibling categories, not the child categories.
Only when I hard-code the {parent_id} value do I get the child categories, but obviously that’s not going to work in a dynamic situation.
Any ideas?
Laisvunas,
Strike all that. My apologies. I changed the PHP parsing stage to “input” and everything’s fine.
:red:
Hello Laisvunas,
Your plugin is a wonderful and has saved me a lot of grief. However, I can’t seem to get it to do exactly what I need. My worry is that I am over-complicating everything.
Here is what I have now and it works as it should, showing a nested UL list of categories and their weblog entries for a specific parent category based on the category_url_title.
<ul>
{exp:category_id category_group="1" category_url_title="{division}" parse="inward"}
{exp:child_categories parent="{category_id}" show_empty="no" child_categories_sort_by="custom" }
{child_category_start}
<li class="cat-{child_category_url_title}"><a href="/{division}/category/{child_category_url_title}class=catbutton"><span>{child_category_name}</span></a>
{child_category_end}
{entries_wrapper_top_start}<ul>{entries_wrapper_top_end}
{entries_start}
<li><a href="http://{path=/{division}}{url_title}/">{title}</a></li>
{entries_end}
{entries_wrapper_bottom_start}</ul></li>{entries_wrapper_bottom_end}
{child_wrapper_bottom_start}{child_wrapper_bottom_end}
{/exp:child_categories}
{/exp:category_id}
</ul>What I need now is simply to be able to restrict which children categories are shown. For example, in each parent category, there is one category that I don’t want to show in one section, and then I want to display those categories in a separate section. I have tried to use the following with no success:
{child_category_start}
{if child_category_id == '53'}
<li class="cat-{child_category_url_title}"><a href="/{division}/category/{child_category_url_title}class=catbutton"><span>{child_category_name}</span></a>
{/if}When I try try this code with the first block of code, all of the children categories still show, and not just child_category_id 53. Ideally what I need is to have something where I can say
{if child_category_id != '50|51|52|53'}Would you have any suggestions for this situation?
Thanks