[ic] How to create [same name] subcategories

[Gina K. Anderson]

Mike (and all),

My definition of easy is obviously different from yours ;) I am not a
programmer, just a designer hoping to find a economical solution to my client's
needs. Though I appreciate your time and knowledge _far_ more than you know,
your reply makes zero sense to me, unfortunately.

IMHO, this problem in IC is really kind of strange. I've never seen another
shopping cart handle categories this way through admin. Some stores don't allow
subcategories, but in the ones that do, I've found only one ecom solution in my
*exhaustive* search that didn't allow same name subcats. My reasons for an
exhaustive search is because of a weird shipping table my client uses-which
happily, IC supports, though it's a bit clumsy - and she wants a side category
display like IC's, but IC doesn't automatically support her category names. Many
other stores that I have seen that allow same name subcats put the categories in
the content area of the screen, making the user drill down with too many clicks.
She wants the shopper to get right where they want with one click..and she also
wants cheap...sigh.

I hope IC improves this in the future. The problem is that many stores that
programmers/designers build, is that the clients want to manage their stores
themselves--at least that's been my experience, and the IC admin is confusing to
me, let alone a layperon.

I think the admin could use an overhaul, but I don't have the knowledge to do it
myself, so now I think I will shut up. Because of my problems in finding an
existing solution for this particular client, I have decided it's time for me to
pursue a programming language, though this doesn't help me *right now* ;)

Gina




|Depends on your definition of easy.
|
|1. Add a database field "prod_group" to products.
|
|2. Populate "prod_group" with "Dog Products", etc.
|
|3. Create a coordinated search:
|
|
|	<A HREF="[area
|		    href=scan
|		    search.1='
|			    sf=prod_group
|			    se=Dog
|		    '
|		    search.2='
|			    sf=category
|			    se=Collars
|		']">Dog Collars</A>
|






|If you want to build it automatically from Products, you can do:
|
|[timed-build minutes=10 file=tmp/category_tree login=1]
|<DL>
|[loop
|	prefix=group
|	search="
|		ra=yes
|		un=yes
|		rf=prod_group
|		tf=prod_group
|	"]
|    <DT> [group-code] </DT>
|    <DD>
|	[loop
|	    prefix=cat
|	    search="
|		    un=yes
|		    co=yes
|		    sf=prod_group
|		    se=[group-code]
|		    op=eq
|
|		    rf=category
|		    tf=category
|	    "]
|	<A HREF="[area
|		    href=scan
|		    search.1='
|			    sf=prod_group
|			    se=[group-code]
|		    '
|		    search.2='
|			    sf=category
|			    se=[cat-code]
|		    '
|		]">[group-code]->[cat-code]</A><BR>
|    [/loop]
|    </DD>
|[/loop]
|</DL>
|[/timed-build]
|
|--
|Red Hat, Inc., 131 Willow Lane, Floor 2, Oxford, OH  45056
|phone +1.513.523.7621 fax 7501 <mheins@redhat.com>
|
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|
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