Trying to get Category URL in Home

Question

I'm trying to get the Category URL in my Home page, I'm working in the file app/design/fronted/[package]/[theme]/template/catalog/product/widget/new/content/new_grid.phtml

I've got this code above the product title

<?php
/**
 * get categories from a product
 */
$categoryIds = $this->helper('catalog/output')->productAttribute($_product, $_product->getCategoryIds());
/**
 * looping through the array of category ids
 */
foreach($categoryIds as $categoryId) {
    $category = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load($categoryId);
    if($category->parent_id == 4):
?>
    <h6 class="author"><a href="<?php echo $category->getUrlKey() ?>">De <?php echo $category->getName() ?></a></h6>
<?php
    endif;
}
?>

Some times I use "getUrl" instead of "getUrlKey", and both give me a "404" page. I believe the error is in some Magento configuration, not in the code.

Some one have an answer to any approach?

Thanks in advence!

Answer 1

Re-index everything and especially make sure that Catalog URL Rewrites is up to date.

Also check mod_rewrite to ensure that it is enabled. You can tell if this is the problem when you have SEO Friendly URLs turned on but still need to put index.php in the URL.

Answer 2

Easiest way to show category links at home page as follows

1. Go to CMS Page[Home Page] at admin end.

2. Edit Home page content. There is a widget option in content editor.

3. After click on that option, there will be a pop up window. After that select "Catalog Category links" from dropdown.

4. After that click on select category to get category list.

Answer 3

First of all, do not copy, borrow, create or even think about code in templates that follows the performance killing principle: $model->load($id) within a loop. In fact, try to avoid load() all together.

Secondly, the Catalog/Output output is there to generate HTML code for catalog data and yet you're using it to obtain information that is readily available on the product model.

Thirdly, getUrlKey() generates almost always 404's if used as only thing in a link, because it doesn't contain the base URL, nor a slash prefix and any URL suffix configured in the backend.

So, we get:

// Obtain a Magento collection for all associated categories.
$categories = $_product->getCategoryCollection();
// Make sure we get their friendly URLs and filter parent_id:
$categories->addUrlRewriteToResult()
    ->addAttributeToFilter('parent_id', 4);
// Now we loop through the category collection
foreach($categories AS $category) :

At this point, $category->getUrl() should generate the correct URL. Make sure the URL rewrite index is up to date. More on Magento collections here.

URL Rewrite issues

Your url rewrite table seems to be polluted, but there's also indications your standard router won't work, so let's verify this first.

1. Disable all caches in the Magento backend.
2. Run this SQL query: DELETE FROM core_url_rewrite WHERE request_path='catalog/category/view/id/14'
3. Turn off flat category and flat product tables in backend, to eliminate noise.
4. Request your homepage to see if Magento is working.
5. Request http://yoursite.com/catalog/category/view/id/14

If 5 works, your router is working. If 5 gives you a webserver 404, then mod_rewrite isn't enabled and/or rewrite rules aren't set correctly. If 5 gives you a Magento 404, then your standard router is broken.