List Categories in a CMS Page

Question

Can anyone advise how to list categories in a CMS page? For example, we have a category for each brand in our shop. I would like to list them all in a single CMS page. I realise I could do this using HTML but I want it to be automated, so if I disable a category it is removed from the list on the CMS page.

I wonder if there's an extension that achieves this or whether it can be done using something built into Magento?

Thank you.

Answer 1

The cms pages do not allow php code. You can create a template to display your content and you can include it in CMS page like this:

{{block type="core/template" template="path/to/template.phtml"}}

And put below mentioned code in this file:

<?php 
        $parentCategoryId = 31;
        $category = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load($parentCategoryId );
        $children = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->getCollection()->setStoreId(Mage::app()->getStore()->getId());
        $children->addAttributeToSelect('*')->addAttributeToFilter('parent_id', $category->getId())
        ->addAttributeToFilter('is_active', 1)//get only active categories if you want
        ->addAttributeToSort('name');//sort by position 
     ?>
    <div class="brands">
                     <ul>
             <?php foreach ($children as $child){ 

                     $skin_url = $child->getImageUrl(); ?>          
                    <li><a href="<?php echo $child->getURL();?>" title="<?php echo $child->getName();?>"><img src="<?php echo $skin_url?>" />               

                    <span class="brand-name"><?php echo $child->getName();?></span>
                    </a>
                    </li>

            <?php   }?>                     
            </ul>
    </div>

Ho it will help you.

Answer 2

AFAIK There is no build-in function for what you are asking.

You should create a CMS widget iterating your categories.

Here there is a nice tutorial on how to create widgets: http://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/custom-widget-development-in-magento--cms-23015

To get a list of your store categories you could use:

$categories = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')
  ->getCollection()
  ->addAttributeToSelect('*')
  ->addIsActiveFilter()
  ->addLevelFilter(1);

Hope it helps.