Drill-down Categories

[samovar]

I need a hierarchical category structure with drill-down capabilities. I read that subcategories are not supported. I will explain what I need to do. Possibly you can recommend a good approach. If this cannot be done I need another solution. The application is a jewelry store with thousands of items. I would create categories for Gold Jewelry, Amber Jewelry, Men’s Jewelry, Women’s Jewelry, Necklaces, Rings, etc. (I understand how to create categories and assign products.) When a customer clicks on Gold Jewelry they should see all items in the Gold Jewelry category. (I know how to do this.) On the resulting page there will be links for all subcategories. I understand I can create the single category “Men’s Gold Jewelry”, and under Manage Products, assign each and every item which belongs here to this category. Because of the number of items, subcategories, sub-sub-categories, etc., assigning each item by hand to every applicable subcategory will be a nightmare, both for initial set-up and for maintenance. It would be much cleaner and maintainable if short-codes were available that could do the equivalent of an SQL sub-query, in order to display the set of items which exist at the intersection of two or more categories. Before you reject this, allow me to explain my capabilities and issues. This is a physical store with a products database. I can write code to pull data from the database and write it to a CSV file (or any other format). The CSV file, or possibly multiple CSV files, can be made to include the category and subcategory information. If I know exactly how eStore needs to see this information represented, possibly an import CSV operation can save me the pain of setting this up, and reduce the maintenance nightmare. I’m using a VPS running Ubuntu where I have full SSH access and root privileges. I can edit and or create any file anywhere on the server. I am new to PHP, WordPress, and eStore; but, I learn quickly and have a fair set of capabilities. I have tried using Python, Django, and Satchmo (http://www.satchmoproject.com/) to create this store. I had some success but have not finish in time. I need to get something up quickly. I’m doing this for my friend who owns the physical store and is about to go out of business because of the economy. He is praying that a web shop will save him from disaster. (The fact that it may not is something I don’t want to think about.) I’m praying for your help. I will do whatever study I need to understand and implement your recommendation without pestering you about every small detail. If it turns out that eStore is not my best choice I will not ask for my money back. If you will work with me to help us solve our problem I’m willing to pay you a consulting fee, even if your recommendation is to use another solution.

Sincerely,

Mark

[amin007]

Going down the path of using a CSV file will be most efficient for you. We have an article here that explains how you can use CSV file to import and export to and from your WordPress database (you can use this technique for eStore):

How to Easily Import or Export any of Your WordPress Database Table Content

If you used “Python” then you shouldn’t have too much problem with PHP (they are a lot similar).

[samovar]

You did not address the support for sub-categories issue. wp_wp_eStore_cat_tbl contains cat_parent and this shows you intended to do this; and, you think it is important. Because this capability is included in your schema there will be no database migration issues for existing users. Any store can benefit from sub-categories. Large stores need it. Your schema supports nesting sub-categories to any depth. I recognize that code to support this is not trivial; but, others have most certainly done it so examples must exist. Short-codes to display products which have membership in two or more categories would complete the picture. What do you think? Is this in eStores future?

[amin007]

Yes, the schema is capable of doing sub categories (I kept the option open when I created it because one day I am going to add this… managing time is the tricky part).

[Susnos]

I’m glad to hear that you thinking of adding sub-categories to eStore. I agree with samovar, that all store benefit from it. I’m building a store with more than 2000 photos and trying to get the customer I build it for to like the display using just eStor (not next Gen) And not being able to use sub-categories sort of being a big issue for me now. I know you probably get lots of questions and requests, but do you have any idea of when and if this can be done? A year, a month….?

And when you have made it possible to have sub-categories Do you think it is possible to rearrange the existing categories without starting from scratch. I mean if I have categories like dogs, cats, horses etc, and want them to be in a sub-category of Animals to make a cleaner layout for the costumer (and much easier to overview and find a particular image) That would be nice.

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