Add breadcrumb to layered navigation pages

Question

I need to find a way to add breadcrumbs to pages which are created by Layered Navigation, for instance if you'd click on a certain brand name the brand name is missing in the breadcrumbs.

You can test it here, http://www.onyourface.nl/vrouw-zonnebrillen/ and then choose a brandname on the right, so for example Prada: http://www.onyourface.nl/vrouw-zonnebrillen/l/prada

What I tried to do was coming from a different angle, I tried loading a different template for those pages so that I could add the breadcrumbs manually. I explained that angle here How to create a different template for catalog_category_layered

I thought I was close when I added the following code to the category/list.phtml

$current_category = Mage::registry('current_category')->getUrl();
$category_name = Mage::registry('current_category')->getName();

$catnamemurl = "<a href=\"" . $current_category . "\">" . $category_name . "</a>";

foreach ($_productCollection as $_product):

$brandname = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load($_product->getId())->getAttributeText('manufacturer');

endforeach;


//breadcrumb block stuff
$breadcrumbs = $this->getLayout()->getBlock('breadcrumbs');
$breadcrumbs->addCrumb('category', array('label'=>$catnamemurl, 'title'=>$category_name));
$breadcrumbs->addCrumb('manufacturer', array('label'=>$brandname, 'title'=>$brandname));

$breadcrumbblock = $this->getLayout()->getBlock('breadcrumbs')->toHtml();  
echo html_entity_decode($breadcrumbblock);

But then, of course, you would see the manual breadcrumbs on the category list as well, but it should only show when someone clicks on a brand name, so that's when I thought maybe if the brand name link would load a different template than the normal category list I would've solved my problem, but I never got that to work.

I would be entirely grateful if someone could help me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance and for taking the time to read this chaotic/messy thread.

Answer 1

I don't think that using layered navigation is the best solution in your case. Brands are something you might want to create landingpages for (read: categories). So I wouldn't go for a layered navigation filter, I'd set up your catalog to use subcategories under "vrouwenbrillen" and make a new category for every brand you're selling.

If you're using Magento Enterprise, you might even want to consider using smart categories, since you can then link an attribute with a specific value, in your case a brand.

Anyway, by using categories, the brandname will appear in the breadcrumbs and you could also write a category description, etc. just for that brand. Which might have an impact on your SEO.