Filtering results from a category menu section

Jerry -

Depending on the circumstances, I use one of two methods:  If I don't "know" the top level number at coding time, I'll read all of my records in (I need this for the full menu system anyway) and then use a foreach that looks at parentNum vs some other variable that I may set (maybe the current record's num) - if the records in the category list have parentNum == this_records_num, then that's what I'd use - that's how I get around this and what I use when I have a side-bar menu that's only for "this category".  I find that looping through code is faster than re-reading from the database multiple times.

If you know the parent you are working from, then you could use rootCategoryNum and set to the level you want, then use categoryFormat => onelevel (or however many levels you need) to only get the rows below rootCategoryNum you need.  This is what I do when I have both a top and left side navigation as I use a single table called Main Navigation that houses top nav entries, left nav entries and non-navigational entries, allowing me to have a single driver script for all pages.

Hope this helps.

Gary.

Hi Gary,

Thanks for looking at this.

I'm afraid that category menus are still a mystery to me, and I'm not sure I understand your suggestion, even after mucking about a bit.

Let's say I had 3 top level categories "Services", "Links" and "Projects", and I want to create a list page with information from only those records that are in the top level category "Services"

Could I impose enough to ask you to suggest how I would modify the code above to accomplish that in your 2 scenarios?

Thanks,

Jerry Kornbluth

Sure, no problem.

Assuming "services" has a record "num" of 2, for example, set 'rootCategoryNum' => '2',

in your getCategories options

Then, depending on the depth you want (any levels below 2 would be alllevels, only the level directly below entry 2 would be onelevel, etc.)

<?php
 list($categoryRecords, $selectedCategory) = getCategories(array(
    'tableName'            => 'category', //
    'categoryFormat' => 'showall',  // showall, onelevel, twolevel, breadcrumb
    'defaultCategory' => '', // Enter 'first', a category number, or leave blank '' for none
    'rootCategoryNum' => '2', // Only categories _below_ this one will be shown (defaults to 0 for all)
    'useSeoUrls' => false,
  ));

?>
<?php foreach ($categoryRecords as $categoryRecord): ?>
          <?php echo $categoryRecord['_listItemStart'] ?> <a href="<?php if (!$categoryRecord['url'] == ' ' ):?><?php echo $categoryRecord['_link'] ?><?php else : ?><?php echo $categoryRecord['url'] ?>?<?php echo $categoryRecord['num']?> <?php endif ?>" title="<?php echo $categoryRecord['name'] ?>"><?php echo $categoryRecord['name'] ?></a> <?php echo $categoryRecord['_listItemEnd'] ?>
          <?php endforeach ?>
        </ul>

For example, for my top navigation items in my main nav, I use:

            list($tnavRecords, $selectedCategory) = $cmsbo->getCategories(array(
                'tableName'           => $main_nav_name,
                'selectedCategoryNum' => $selectedCatNum,
                'categoryFormat'      => 'showall',  // showall, onelevel, twolevel
                'rootCategoryNum'     => $rootTop,
            ));

(ignore the fact that I have created an OO implementation of CMSB for a moment)

Thanks Gary,

I'm sure this will help sort things out.

It's getting pretty late here so I'll have a look in the morning.

Jerry Kornbluth

Hi Gary,

Sorry it took so long to get back to you.

Your input was a great help.

I ended up using  a combination of standard sections and a category section in the nav menu.

I my situation I had a "links" category and didn't want to show the category level 2 links for them on the nav menu, but want instead to list them on a separate list page.

I'm sure it can be done, but I was against a deadline and needed to get the job finished.

I'd like to know how to do it for the next time though.

Best,

Jerry Kornbluth

If you want to message me privately with a phone number (or I could do the same for you), I'd be more than happy to assist.  What I do is have a whole bunch of add-on fields that I use - I have a name field, obviously, but then I have a Nav Text field - if this field is blank, this entry is not included on the Navigation.  Then I have an "override URL" (so I can link to a non-standard page), I have a "open in secure mode" so I know if this needs to have https on it, as well as probably about another 60-70 fields in my main nav section (is this a list section, a blog, an image gallery, etc.) and then the names of the sections (so if this entry is displaying a list, I prompt for the name of the list section to display, if it's a blog, I prompt for the name of the blog "info" section which gives me all sorts of details on the blog itself, including the name of the blog entries section, etc.)

I even have a "site information" table that tells my site if this is a "story board" style site and the name of the section that holds the story board entries, etc.

We have done so many sites with CMSB now that I keep tweaking it, but for about the past several months I have been able to get away with my current setup, no tweaks lately.

If you want any info, let me know and I'll be more than happy to assist.