291 replies to this topic

[jcall]

More Category Boxes 1.0
June 29, 2005
Author:  Jared Call
Dignified Contributor:  Gregory Baboolal (devosc)

This contribution can be downloaded from:  http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,3327



What this contrib does:
========================
This contribution adds the following features:
- Add up to 10 additional category boxes to the left column, each of which can contain up to 25 admin-selectable top level categories.
- Each new category box may be enabled/disabled.
- The default categories box may be enabled/disabled.
- Each new category box has a customizable name (infobox heading).

Caveats / Known Issues:
=======================      
  - Each category box is updated independently in admin.  When you click the "update" button, you are updating that box ONLY.
  - You may only select parent categories to display at top level in each infobox (i.e. this contrib does not alter the standard osCommerce category tree structure).
  - This contribution does not yet support apostrophes in infobox names.
  - Categories still follow the same sorting order specified in the osCommerce Admin >> Catalog >> Categories/Products

NOTE:  The customer for whom this was written wanted to use up to 50 categories per category box.  If you want to do this, use the files with -50 in the name.  For example, instead of using more_categories.php, rename more_categories-50.php to more_categories.php and use that one instead.

NOTE2:  The includes/boxes/more_categories-50.php file also includes the CategoriesBox Enhancement contribution code.  It should be easy enough, with a diff utility (Beyond Compare, WinMerge, CompareIt, WinDiff, etc) to see the differences between the includes/boxes/more_categories.php and includes/boxes/more_categories-50.php.

(all of this and more is in the readme.txt in the contrib download)

Edited by jcall, 07 July 2005 - 05:20 AM.

[azer]

hi , thanks for sahring your work and idea here ... i hope u wont take it bad , but could you provide a screenshot ?

is it possible to enable/disable each categories box in the admin ?

best regards

[jcall]

The user side is _presently_ in action at www.allyallcalls.com/osc/catalog .  I'll get screenshots of the user side and the admin side and upload them somewhere.

-jared

[belly]

Jared,

Quality contribution, worked a dream on both my sites and very easy to install and worked first time..

If anyone wants to see it working, you'll find it here - please be aware it's a live site..

FHSelect

Graham

[akmac]

Hey Jared-great contrib!

It looks like it is causing "?infoBox=0" "?infoBox=1" etc to to be appended to the url.  is there a way to get rid of this-or is it intended?

[jcall]

That may be there to track which box we're expanding the menu in - - don't remember off the top of my head.  

I'll have a look.  That parameter is used in admin to determine which box we're updating, but I'm not sure for the catalog side.

-jared

[dreammakers]

Is it possible to make those category boxes in the content area (in the middle) instead of the table containing the products with prices to be somthing like the following example:

http://www.otlob.com/otlob/menus/MMenu_367.asp

I have already made the quantity box and the prices are there, but I need to devide it like the URL above to be like a restaurant menu.

[Thomas_Burke]

It sounds like a great contribution. Are there any known issues or problems with the Easypopulate contribution?

[jcall]

Not that I'm aware of.  Shouldn't be, as EasyPopulate just imports/extracsts data into the database.  More Category Boxes just manages how that data is displayed, but doesn't change the products/categories at all.

-jared

[jcall]

Should be.  Try adding it into the index.php as a module, similar to this code that's used for a similar function, also in index.php:

          <tr>
            <td><?php include(DIR_WS_MODULES . FILENAME_NEW_PRODUCTS); ?></td>
          </tr>

Instead of specifing DIR_WS_MODULES, you just specify DIR_WS_BOXES .

-jared

[XzZzX]

Thanks for great contribute i'm looking for. I will install into my shop then let you know.

http://www.thoitrangmobi.com/shop/

Thanks,

XzZzX

[Thomas_Burke]

Hi, I installed the contribution. The following is from the installation instructions:

Quote

This contrib has 2 administration areas.  The first one is simply to enable/disable the "normal" categories box.  This is configured via Admin >> Configuration >> More Categories.  The second one is to enable/disable various category boxes and categories within each box.  That is configured in Admin >> Categories >> More Categories.

I found the first (Admin >> Configuration >> More Categories) but not the second (Admin >> Categories >> More Categories).

Does anyone have an idea?

[jcall]

Thomas - - did you perform step 4 of the install?  That's the piece that gives you that link.

-jared

[Thomas_Burke]

jcall, on Jul 23 2005, 03:57 PM, said:

Thomas - - did you perform step 4 of the install?  That's the piece that gives you that link.

-jared

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

er, I did but I didn't upload it to my server. DOH!

I seems to be OK now, thanks Jared

[Thomas_Burke]

Unfortunately I'm having some difficulties with Admin>>Catalog>>More Categories which my current  rudimentary knowledge of PHP can't help me with.

In the screenshot below, you can see that after "Select a Category" and under "Action" there is blank space.

Anyway, any help would be much appreciated.

Screenshot

[img]http://www.mobilesarcade.co.uk/images/screenshot.jpg[/img]

[Thomas_Burke]

Thomas_Burke, on Jul 24 2005, 12:10 PM, said:

Unfortunately I'm having some difficulties with Admin>>Catalog>>More Categories which my current  rudimentary knowledge of PHP can't help me with.

In the screenshot below, you can see that after "Select a Category" and under "Action" there is blank space.

I seem to have found the the source of the problem : my browser. The blank space only appears in IE6, and seems to slow the browser down a lot. I tried the same Admin page in Opera and it works fine. Any thoughts?

[jcall]

Are you using the 25 (stock) version or the 50 version?  It can slow down IE a bunch waiting for all of that data to come back.

-jared

[Thomas_Burke]

jcall, on Jul 25 2005, 08:39 AM, said:

Are you using the 25 (stock) version or the 50 version?  It can slow down IE a bunch waiting for all of that data to come back.

-jared

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm using the 25 version. I am running an older version of Internet Explorer (IE6) on Windows 98 Second Edition. I guess some aspect of my system setup (rather old) combined with an old version of Internet Explorer got indigestion.

It works fine with Opera 8 which is a faster browser (and free).

[jcall]

Just for my peace of mind, can you possibly try this from a different PC?  I just re-confirmed that my test shop admin (with the 50 version) works with IE.

Thanks!

-jared

[pleymo]

Hello

i have just install the contribution it works fine but I have two questions:
1) (i have install YASU2 URL rewriting) and in the URL i have now this http://address/product?infoBox=0
how can i do to delete ?infoBox=0

2) in first time, i would keep the default categorie and add 1 new categorie, but products appeares in both categories, what can i do?  

thanks

Pleymo