Product Finder: multiple category drop-downs

[Ms402]

Hi, I have installed this module and it works fine. I have installed ceon uri mapping and the problems started. From the home page to search, and arrival on the product page. Now if I want to repeat the search, gives me only choose the brand of the bike and not a model and year. How do I fix? I thought I'd add a reset button you can? Thank you.
PS I am sorry for my poor English.

Zencart 1.3.9H

[mikestaps]

Hi, I have installed this module and it works fine. I have installed ceon uri mapping and the problems started. From the home page to search, and arrival on the product page. Now if I want to repeat the search, gives me only choose the brand of the bike and not a model and year. How do I fix? I thought I'd add a reset button you can? Thank you.
PS I am sorry for my poor English.

Zencart 1.3.9H

Remove ceon uri mapping - The two don't play nice!
I had the same problems in my test site and was unable to correct the issue. If you didn't back up b4 installing ceon uri it can be a time consuming task, if you backed up everything just roll back to that back up.

[flashy275]

NM. I set up ONE master category and threw my other categories in it BUT when I go to the site and pick a category the second drop down doesn't do anythnig.

Is this strictly based on years, make and model?

Here is how I have mine set up

MASTER CATEGORY

FIRST CHOICE DROP DOWN - [GM, FORD, MOPAR]
SECOND CHOICE ARE ACTUALLY JUST MODELS SO SAY WE PICKED GM

THEN GM WOULD HAVE UNDERNEATH IT

NOVA, CHEVELLE, ETC.



THEN THE THIRD CHOICE, SAY WE PICKED NOVA

THE THIRD CHOICE WOULD HAVE

ENGINES, TIRES, AND WHEELS
AND WHEN YOU PICKED SAY ENGINES, THEN THE PARTS WOULD SHOW UP ON THE MIDDLE SCREEN

So if you have 50 manufacturers each with 20 models then the sub sub categories (or 3rd level categories) of "engines, tires and wheels" would be repeated 1000 times in the categories table?

The site i'm trying to create would have approx 50 1st level, 100, 2nd level, and approx 20 3rd level. That's alot of categories & looks totally ineficient. The second level (x100) would be exactly the same naming convection under each 1st level.

So for example

Top level (manufacturer) - Ferrari, Lambrougini, Maserati.
Second level - (year) - 1950, 1951, 1952, ect to present year
3rd level - (Model) - These would be likely unique, so no repatition of data (good)


I have tried this mod and it looks good, I just concered I missing something. Using my example above, if i had 50 manufactures over 60 years would I have 3000 second level categories? If so then with 10 models per manufacturer per year, I would have 30,000 categories? I know you would not have 10 models per year but it's an example.


On top of that, parts could also be generic, engine, gearbox, steering wheel ect although prices, description ect would be unique.

Any insight of help would be appreciated

[Ms402]

Remove ceon uri mapping - The two don't play nice!
I had the same problems in my test site and was unable to correct the issue. If you didn't back up b4 installing ceon uri it can be a time consuming task, if you backed up everything just roll back to that back up.

Hi, I resolved. After many attempts to empty, I put in html_header.php Line 24:
<base href = "http://www.mystore.it/".
Now it works perfectly.

[mikestaps]

Hi, I resolved. After many attempts to empty, I put in html_header.php Line 24:
<base href = "http://www.mystore.it/".
Now it works perfectly.

NICE!!!

So if you have 50 manufacturers each with 20 models then the sub sub categories (or 3rd level categories) of "engines, tires and wheels" would be repeated 1000 times in the categories table?

The site i'm trying to create would have approx 50 1st level, 100, 2nd level, and approx 20 3rd level. That's alot of categories & looks totally ineficient. The second level (x100) would be exactly the same naming convection under each 1st level.

So for example

Top level (manufacturer) - Ferrari, Lambrougini, Maserati.
Second level - (year) - 1950, 1951, 1952, ect to present year
3rd level - (Model) - These would be likely unique, so no repatition of data (good)


I have tried this mod and it looks good, I just concered I missing something. Using my example above, if i had 50 manufactures over 60 years would I have 3000 second level categories? If so then with 10 models per manufacturer per year, I would have 30,000 categories? I know you would not have 10 models per year but it's an example.


On top of that, parts could also be generic, engine, gearbox, steering wheel ect although prices, description ect would be unique.

Any insight of help would be appreciated

This is exactly why I have yet to implement this on my live store as of yet! It makes for a TON of sub-categories and sub-sub-categories, and my store doesn't even have as many manufactures/models as yours!

What would be really nice is some sort of module/hack that would show/hide products based on the make model and year, for example on the product info/setup page you would have a list of all the makes/models/years and you would check which ones that item fits. Then that item would only show for those make/model/year combinations.
By doing it in this manner you could leave any current cat/sub-cat structure in place.
I know that there must be a way to do something like this, but that coding is WAY over my head....

[flashy275]

Mikestaps, thanks for confirming what I dredded.

I intend to use Excel to create these vast quantities of categories & dump using Navicat, as my subcategories are duplicated into every top level, it's a simple copy and paste. I think using MS Access to control all of this data will be useful, especially the "parent ID" & "product to category" fields.
Worth noting, I never have or intend to enter product in the traditional Zencart fassion, I always use Excel & Navicat, even Access to manipulate data.

All of this just overides the actual problem of which I'm not sure I can resolve or can actually be done.

As I see it - Tables are required in DB & code written to exract data so it works like "music" with a table like "product_music_extra" combining the new tables together. So the new tables based on my earlier post would be make, year & model, this way the years 1950 to 2011 would be listed just once in a table names "years".
I have done something similar before in Zencart, it was based on manufacturer, design_configuration, colour & material BUT each selection worked individually via drop dops. It's the JQuery I'm not sure of to auto populate the drop downs. Paying a programmer is not an option, Zencart is for learning & I love that concept.

Anyone got any knowledge thay would like to throw in the ring?

[flashy275]

20025 categories total, although I have future proofed it, meaning I have left unused categories at each level which will NOT be active (category_staus=0).
By doing this all category ID's are sequenced & uniform.

For anyone trying to accomplish this, here's what I did.

Created all categories, sub categories & subsub categories using Excel & imported with Navicat.

I found using Access to control each level with combo boxes the simpliest way to drill down to sub & subsub category levels for editing, then export once complete. This way I replicate the finished website functionality BUT with the ability to edit categories & product at each level.
I should have spent the time creating this in PHP rather than Access, but now it's done, it works a treat.

[conor]

Hi,

Remove ceon uri mapping - The two don't play nice!
I had the same problems in my test site and was unable to correct the issue. If you didn't back up b4 installing ceon uri it can be a time consuming task, if you backed up everything just roll back to that back up.

Ceon URI Mapping works with ALL modules that can work with static URIs.

As a following post indicates, you probably had a template which was using relative links instead of static links, or you had your base href tag in the wrong place.

So you can reinstall Ceon URI Mapping anytime, fix the problems with your template and use nice new static URIs.

The Ceon URI Mapping FAQs have instructions on how to fix clashes.. Ceon URI Mapping is never the source of the problem, the other modules are, we've taken great care to make that so. :)

Hope that helps!

All the best...

Conor
ceon

[wirefram]

Hi

I tried this module but the problem is that it lists categories even if they have no products.

Any idea what to modify so it would list only categories WITH products?


Also if the third field is empty (contain no information) the whole script doesn't work.

Any help appreciated

Thanks

L.

[torvista]

No changes are required for 1.5 so the 1.39 version in the downloads will not be updated (by me at least).