Loop Through Magento Categories, Meta Keywords and Descriptions

Question

I have a file that is successfully looping through my categories and subcategories. I am successfully able to echo all the categories and their links onto this page

https://goo.gl/OW8HZU

BUT

I do not see why these (keywords and description) are not echoing

<?php echo htmlspecialchars($this->getKeywords()) ?>
<?php echo htmlspecialchars($this->getDescription()) ?>

The file is located here app/design/frontend/mystoretheme/default/template/catalog/category/listofcats.phtml

Then im placing it on a block in a cms page {{block type="catalog/navigation" name="catalog.category" template="catalog/category/listofcats.phtml"}}

The goal is to be able to display each of the categories list of keywords and their descriptions within the same < li > and loop giving me a list like this

• Category
• Keywords
• Description

Here is my code. I have omitted my attempts at keyword and description since they are not working.

<div class="block block-list block-categories">
<div id="block-categories" class="block-title active">
    <strong><span>Categories </span></strong>
</div>  
<div id="leftnav" class="block-content" style="display:block">
    <?php $helper = $this->helper('catalog/category') ?>
        <?php $categories = $this->getStoreCategories() ?>
    <?php if (count($categories) > 0): ?>
        <ul id="leftnav-tree" class="level0">
            <?php foreach($categories as $category): ?>
                <li class="level0<?php if ($this->isCategoryActive($category)): ?> active<?php endif; ?>">
                    <a href="<?php echo $helper->getCategoryUrl($category) ?>"><span><?php echo $this->escapeHtml($category->getName()) ?></span></a>
                    <?php //if ($this->isCategoryActive($category)): ?>
                        <?php $subcategories = $category->getChildren() ?>
                        <?php if (count($subcategories) > 0): ?>
                            <ul id="leftnav-tree-<?php echo $category->getId() ?>" class="level1">
                                <?php foreach($subcategories as $subcategory): ?>
                                    <li class="level1<?php if ($this->isCategoryActive($subcategory)): ?> active<?php endif; ?>">
                                        <a href="<?php echo $helper->getCategoryUrl($subcategory) ?>"><?php echo $this->escapeHtml(trim($subcategory->getName(), '- ')) ?></a>
                                         <?php $secondLevelSubcategories = $subcategory->getChildren() ?>
                                         <?php if (count($secondLevelSubcategories ) > 0): ?>
                            <ul id="leftnav-tree-<?php echo $subcategory->getId() ?>" class="level2">
                                <?php foreach($secondLevelSubcategories as $secondLevelSubcategory ): ?>
                                    <li class="level2<?php if ($this->isCategoryActive($secondLevelSubcategory )): ?> active<?php endif; ?>">
                                        <a href="<?php echo $helper->getCategoryUrl($secondLevelSubcategory ) ?>"><?php echo $this->escapeHtml(trim($secondLevelSubcategory ->getName(), '- ')) ?></a>
                                    </li>
                                    <?php endforeach; ?>
                            </ul>
                            <script type="text/javascript">decorateList('leftnav-tree-<?php echo $category->getId() ?>', 'recursive')</script>
                        <?php endif; ?>
                                <?php endforeach; ?>
                            </ul>
                            <script type="text/javascript">decorateList('leftnav-tree-<?php echo $category->getId() ?>', 'recursive')</script>
                        <?php endif; ?>
                    <?php //endif; ?>
                </li>
            <?php endforeach; ?>
        </ul>
        <script type="text/javascript">decorateList('leftnav-tree', 'recursive')</script>
    <?php endif; ?>
</div>

Answer 1

It does not work, because description and meta_keywords aren't part of the category-tree collection.

Load order:

1. Mage_Catalog_Block_Navigation::getStoreCategories()
2. Mage_Catalog_Helper_Category::getStoreCategories($sorted=false, $asCollection=false, $toLoad=true)
3. Mage_Catalog_Model_Category::getCategories($parent, $recursionLevel, $sorted, $asCollection, $toLoad);
4. Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Category::getCategories($parent, $recursionLevel, $sorted, $asCollection, $toLoad);
5. Varien_Data_Tree_Dbp::loadNode($parent)

At step 4 $tree->addCollectionData(null, $sorted, $parent, $toLoad, true); is called, where the first parameter is a collection ... see:

// Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Category_Tree
public function addCollectionData($collection = null, $sorted = false, $exclude = array(), $toLoad = true,
    $onlyActive = false)
{
    if (is_null($collection)) {
        $collection = $this->getCollection($sorted);
    } else {
        $this->setCollection($collection);
    }

If you want additional attributes loaded, you have to set your own collection.

---

I think the easiest way is to create a extension, with a helper method, that do this:

app/code/local/My/Module/Helper/etc/config.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
    <modules>
        <My_Module>
            <version>1.0.0</version>
        </My_Module>
    </modules>
    <global>
        <helpers>
            <my_module>
                <class>My_Module_Helper</class>
            </my_module>
        </helpers>
    </global>
</config>

app/code/local/My/Module/Helper/Data.php

public function getStoreCategories()
{
    $parent = Mage::app()->getStore()->getRootCategoryId();
    $recursionLevel  = max(0, (int) Mage::app()->getStore()->getConfig('catalog/navigation/max_depth'));

    $tree = Mage::getResourceModel('catalog/category_tree');
    /* @var $tree Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Category_Tree */
    $nodes = $tree->loadNode($parent)
        ->loadChildren($recursionLevel)
        ->getChildren();

    $collection = $tree->getCollection()
        ->addAttributeToSelect('description')
        ->addAttributeToSelect('meta_keywords');
    $tree->addCollectionData($collection, false, $parent);

    return $nodes;
}

in your template file

Change:

<?php $categories = $this->getStoreCategories() ?>

To:

<?php $categories = $this->helper('my_module')->getStoreCategories()) ?>