What are methods I can use to display a list of all categories under main category?

Question

I have a dropdown menu that has categories three levels deep. At the end of each dropdown column, I have a "view all" link, which I'd like to lead users to a page similar to this page:

Categories list example

Clicking on Main Category name leads you to Category landing page with a static block, whereas the "view all" linked page should contain a list of links to all categories within the main category on the dropdown.

I've edited "app/code/local/mage/page/block/html/Topmenu.php" on line 126 to contain this anchor tag:

$html .= '<a href="' . $child->getUrl() . '" class="viewAllLink"><span>View All</span></a>';

I've been trying to make this happen for the past couple of days and I'm very stumped. I'm also wondering if this can be accomplished through phtml files. Is this possible? Can anyone please provide me with direction as how to create functionality like this?

Answer 1

A while back I worked on an extension that shows children categories when viewing a category. The code might help you to come up with the solution to your question.

You can find the extension on Github, it's a bit beta, especially on the frontend (list) part.

Answer 2

Here is small Suggession:

<?php
ini_set('max_execution_time', 0);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
ini_set("memory_limit","1024M");
include('../urls.php');
include('../dbw.php');
$mageFilename = MAGE_FILE_URL_STAGING;

require_once $mageFilename;
Varien_Profiler::enable();
Mage::setIsDeveloperMode(true);


umask(0);
Mage::app('admin'); 


function get_categories(){
$i = 0; 
$category = Mage::getModel('catalog/category'); 
$tree = $category->getTreeModel(); 
$tree->load();
$ids = $tree->getCollection()->getAllIds(); 
$arr = array();
if ($ids){ 
foreach ($ids as $id){ 
$category = Mage::getModel('catalog/category'); 
$category->load($id);
$categorydata = array (
            'name' => htmlspecialchars($category->getName(),ENT_QUOTES),
            'categorydes' => htmlspecialchars($category->getDescription(),ENT_QUOTES),              
            'image' => $category->getImageUrl(),
            'metakeywords' => htmlspecialchars($category->getmeta_keywords(),ENT_QUOTES),
            'metadescrption' => htmlspecialchars($category->getmeta_description(),ENT_QUOTES),
            'magento_category_id' => $category->getId(),
            'magento_cat_spenish_id' => $category->getId(),
            'spanish_name' => htmlspecialchars($category->getName(),ENT_QUOTES),
            'parent_id' => $category->getparentId(),
            'images' => $category->getImageUrl()
                            );
echo "<pre>";
print_r($categorydata);
echo "<pre>";
$add = add_categories($categorydata);
$i = $i+1;
}
}
return $arr;

}


$arr =  get_categories();

function add_categories($parentid)
{
    // echo "INSIDE CATEGORY<br>";
    $query  = "INSERT INTO `categories` (`id`, `name`, `categorydes`, `image`, `metakeywords`, `metadescrption`, `magentoparentid`, `magento_category_id`, `magento_cat_spenish_id`, `spanish_name`, `updatedateandtime`, `status`)
VALUES (NULL,
        '$parentid[name]',
        '$parentid[categorydes]',
        '$parentid[image]',
        '$parentid[metakeywords]',
        '$parentid[metadescrption]',
        '$parentid[parent_id]',
        '$parentid[magento_category_id]',
        '$parentid[magento_category_id]',
        '$parentid[name]',
        CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
        '1')";
    mysql_query($query)  or die(mysql_error());
    // echo $parentid['image']."<br>";
    // if($parentid['image'] != "")
    // $imagecopy = copyimgto_local($parentid['image']);

}