Category Options

Overview

The category options lets you set all the variables required for customizing how to display the categories and sub categories on the engine pages. This includes customizing the home page categories separately and the sub categories displayed on the none home page or the category listing and category tree pages.

Home Page Category Columns

This option sets the number of category columns for the engine front page which displays the main or root categories. This allows customizing the front page differently from the reset of the categories.

Non Homepage Category Columns

This option sets the number of category columns for the all subcategories or all the non main or root categories.

Category Columns in Category Browse Mode

This option sets the number of category columns when the user browse only the categories by clicking on the link "Categories" in the navigation.

Homepage Subcategories Separator (HTML allowed)

The separator between the home page subcategories that selected to be displayed under their parent category if choosing "Under Categories Display Mode" to display these subcategories underneath or simply the teasers separator.

In the above example, Hardware, Internet, and Software are sub categories of Computer and displayed as teaser for it, here the comma and space are the separator.

Subcategories Separator (HTML allowed)

The separator between the subcategories that selected to be displayed under their parent category if choosing "Under Categories Display Mode" to display these subcategories underneath or simply the teasers separator.

In the above example, Hardware, Internet, and Software are sub categories of Computer and displayed as teaser for it, here the comma and space are the separator.

The separator between the subcategories that selected to be displayed under their main category in the category browse mode.

In the above example, Hardware, Internet, and Software are sub categories of Computer and displayed, here the comma and space are the separator.

Figure (1) category Options.

Categories Horizontal Spacing

This value in pixels set the space between the categories columns.

Hardware ,Internet, Software ...

The last three letters "..." are set by this option.

Menu Line Separator (HTML allowed)

The guide or menu bar that displays what category level now is the user located like this:

Auctions >> Computers > Software > Business

So the separator here is set to ">" which separates the categories in the position menu bar. This is displayed inside the templates by inserting the class <!--CLASS::Menu_Bar-->.

Menu Line and Home Separator (HTML allowed)

This can be any text or html which separates the "Home" link and the categories in the position menu bar. The menu bar looks likes this:

Auctions >> Computers > Software > Business

This separator between Auctions  which returns to the home page and the rest of the position menu bar which in this example is set to ">>". This is displayed inside the templates by inserting the class <!--CLASS::Menu_Bar-->

Display Category Count

This will let the program prints each category count besides the category name, it will not print the count of the subctageories or teasers that display under the categories.

 You must insert the class <!--Category_Count--> in your templates where you want the categories count to be displayed. You can apply any html or JavaScript code to this class, like displaying the count in small font as follows:

<FONT SIZE="-1" FACE="Arial, Helvetica" >
            (<!--Category_Count-->)
</FONT>

This will display the count in small font like this (2315) in the location of the class besides each category. Remember the category count is the sum of all the contents in the category and all its subcategories. This means that the top level category or the main category count is equal to the total count in all its subcategories.

Display Subcategory Count

This will let the program prints each category count that is displayed as a sub category or a teaser or underneath its parent category besides the category name. You must insert the class <!--Category_Count--> in your templates where you want the categories count to be displayed. You can apply any html or JavaScript code to this class, like displaying the count in small font as follows:

<FONT SIZE="-1" FACE="Arial, Helvetica" >
            (<!--Category_Count-->)
</FONT>

This will display the count in small font like this (2315) in the location of the class besides each category. Remember the category count is the sum of all the contents in the category and all its subcategories. This means that the top level category or the main category count is equal to the total count in all its subcategories.

Use Category Folders

If you want to display a graphic besides each category name, then set this option to "YES". The Graphic file name is defined in the option "Category Folders Image File". To display the graphic insert this class <!--Category_Folder--> where you want the graphic to display besides each category name class in the "Category Form". If you do not want to display graphic besides each category name just set this option to "NO".

Category Folders Image File

If you set the option "Use Category Folders" to "YES" then you must define what graphic file will be used. This file can be any type and any name and any size. The class <!--Category_Folder--> must be inserted in the "Category Form" where you want the graphic to be displayed. This image file does not apply to the front page or main categories as they have another separate option.

Use Unique Homepage Category Folders

If you set the option "Use Category Folder" to "YES" then you can choose the Home Page categories folder mode. There are two modes to display the graphic for the main or root categories.

The first mode is to display the same graphic for each category, in this case set this option to "NO". The second mode is to display a unique graphic or image for each main category. If you choose this by setting this option to "YES" then you must put the graphic files in the directory "images" which is located in the auction directory under the html directory on your server.

 You must name the graphic files by the categories ID's number and the extension ".gif". For example if the main category "Computers" its ID number is "10" then you must upload a graphic file named "10.gif" to the images directory and so on for all main categories.

The categories ID's can be found from the category manager and then click on "Edit" or by just moving the mouse over the category and watching the status line in the status bar where it says "Cat_ID=10" or else. Also the class <!--Category_Folder--> must be inserted in the "Category Form" where you want the graphic to be displayed.

Homepage Category Folders Image File

If you set the option "Use Category Folders" to "YES" and "Use Unique Homepage Category Folders" to "NO" then you must define what graphic file will be used for all the Homepage categories. The class <!--Category_Folder--> must be inserted in the "Category Form" where you want the graphic to be displayed.

Home Page Category Teasers Display Mode

This menu lets you choose what you want to display under each main category on your home page. There are 5 modes to display under the categories as following:

a)-None:
In this mode there is nothing will be displayed under the categories.

b)-Only selected subcategories:
In this mode the program will only display the subcategories that selected to be displayed under each category in a form like this:

Computers
Games, Hardware, Software...

From the category manager you must edit these subcategories Games, Hardware, and  Software  and  turn on the option "Show Under Parent Category"  to be displayed under their main category Computers in this example.

c)-Description of the categories only:
In this mode the program will display the description of each category. This description is set from the "Category Manager" then click on "Edit" to edit the category you want to edit its description. Category description can be any text, html or Javascript.
Example:

Computers
Find what you need complete systems, monitors,
hard drives, scanners, memory, keyboards or anything
else related to the computers software and hardware.

d)-All sub categories in a list:
This mode will display all the sub categories of each category under it in a column form like this:

Computers
Games
Hardware
Software

e)-Description and selected sub categories:
This mode will display both the selected subcategories and the categories description under each category.
Example:

Computers
Find what you need complete systems, monitors,
hard drives, scanners, memory, keyboards or anything
else related to the computers software and hardware.
Games, Hardware, Software...

Category Teasers Display Mode

This menu lets you choose what you want to display under each sub category or none home page category or simply all the categories that are not main or root categories. There are 5 modes to display under the categories as above.

Categories form is build using a table. This is the table body itself.

<TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="2">
<TR>
<!--Categories-->
</TR>
</TABLE>

The class <!--Categories--> must be inserted as this will be replaced by the Categories itself using the Category Form for each category.

Category Form

This is the html code that define how each category, teasers, and categoryies count will be displayed. You can use any html or Javascript inside this code to format the look of the categories. The following is example to show what classes are available for this form:

<TABLE BORDER="0" CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="04">
 <TR><TD>
  <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="0">
    <TR>
      <TD ROWSPAN="2" VALIGN="TOP"><!--Category_Folder--></TD>
     <TD VALIGN="TOP">
         <A HREF="<!--Category_URL-->">
         <B><!--Category_Name--></B></A> <!--Category_Count-->
    </TD>
  </TR>
  <TR><TD VALIGN="TOP"><!--Category_Teasers--></TD></TR>
  </TABLE>
 </TD></TR>
</TABLE>

<!--Category_Folder-->: This will display the category folder if this option is enabled.

<!--Category_URL-->: This is the HREF of the link for the category.

<!--Category_Name-->: This is the category name itself for use in the Link tag or else.

<!--Category_Count-->: This will display the category count if this option is enabled.

<!--Category_Teasers-->: This will display the teasers under the category in the mode selected.

<!--CLASS::Images_URL-->: This is simply the URL to the images directory so you can use it to insert your images directly anywhere in any template.

Category Teasers Form

This form will be used to format what was selected to be displayed under the categories. The default form is something like this code:

<FONT SIZE="2" FACE="Tahoma,Verdana, Times, Arial, Helvetica" >
       <!--Teaser--> <!--Teaser_Category_Count-->
</FONT>

these classes are available in this form:

<!--Teaser-->: This will display the selected teaser mode, either categories or description of both.

<!--Teaser_Category_Count-->: This will display the teaser categories count if you choose to display subcategories as teaser.

Category Tree Main Categories Form

This form is used to draw the main or root categories when displaying all the categories in a tree form.

Category Tree Sub Categories Form

This form is used to draw the none main or none root categories or simply the subcategories when displaying all the categories in a tree form.

Category Menu Form

This form is used to draw the class <!--CLASS::Category_Menu:xxxxx--> which displays all the subcategories of a selected category set by its ID number as xxxxx. Simply replace the xxxxx with the category ID number that you want to display and insert the class itself in your template. For main categories use the ID number zero "0".

For example if you want to display a list or all the main categories on all the listing pages, insert this class:

<!--CLASS::Category_Menu:0-->

Another example is if you need to display a list or menu of the subcategories of the Computer category which has ID number 471 then insert this class:

<!--CLASS::Category_Menu:471-->

The default category line form may look like the code below:

<!--Category_Folder-->
   <A HREF="<!--Link-->"><!--Name--></A>
   <FONT SIZE="-2">(<!--Count-->)</FONT>
<BR>

<!--Category_Folder-->: This will display the category folder.

<!--Link-->: This is the HREF part of the category link.

<!--Name-->: This is the category name for use in the link tag or else.

<!--Count-->: This will display the category count if inserted.