Need help with Categories and Sub Categories

Hi, I am very new to PHP and ecart. I am constructing the database stucture within phpmyadmin.

I am currently trying to add subcategories to exisitng product categories and I'm completely confussed about the best and most simple way to do this ie:

Category - subcategory - further subcategory - list of products

I have my 'itemcategory' table setup on my database which has my main category ID and Names listed. I just really need to know the direction to go for adding the subcategories. Would I need to create a new table for these subcats? or would I create a new field within the 'itemcategory' table?

I would be most grateful if someone could help me solve this or point me in the right direction. Many thanks.

You could do either. You could use a parentCategoryId or a separate table. It really depends on the final requirements of the solution you are creating... just one level of subcategories? or do you want to support:


Category - subcategory - further subcategory - further subcategory - further subcategory - list of products

Really there isn't a right way or a wrong way. Each would have pros and cons.

Hi Ray, thanks for your response. I would definately prefer to have the : Category - subcategory - further subcategory - further subcategory - further subcategory - list of products, solution. What would you recommend as the best way to set this up. Many thanks.

Add a categoryParent field to the category table. Set it to zero for main level categories, and set the categoryID to subCategories.... then you need to ask yourself do all subcategories exist in only one category?

That would of course also effect your database structure... but you don't want to make things so complex that you go over your head, so consider carefully.

If you did want subcategories to exist within different subcategories, or products to exist within different subcategories.. these decisions would go into how you would structure your database.

For instance if products could exist in more than one category, then you wouldn't have a categoryID as part of the product, instead you would have a productCategories table that included the categoryID and the productID so that one product could be listed in more than one category.

Similarly if you had more than one parent category for a subcategory, then you would not add the parentID to the category table and instead you would create a parentCategory table with the parentCategoryID and childCategoryID so that those too could exist in more than one structure. But of course these things will all complicate the creation of the administrative section to update the necessary information properly and easily.

I am also very new to PHP and I bought Powerstore. I would like to admend everything - database, admin and store to allow for the following:

Category - subcategory - list of products

So I would eventually like to have four main product catergories, then within these subcategories and then list of products:
Eg. Automotive - Air Flow Meter - Honda Air Flow Meter for Model4858
- Jaguar Air Flow Meter for Model5749
Marine -Motor Boat Engines - Model blah
- Model blahblah

I tried adding a subcategory name to the productcategories database in phpmyadmin but I don't know if I did it correctly or how to admend the template/information in powerstore to allow for the change in the database. Now I end up with errors when you try to add a category name and subcatgory on the admin productcategories insert page, so I have def done something wrong!

This is how my database looks since I changed it:

CategoryID int(11) No auto_increment
CategoryName varchar(50) latin1_german2_ci No
SubCategoryName varchar(50) latin1_german2_ci No

This is all new to me and hence the reason I bought Powerstore but I really need the subcategory feature due to the amount of very different product lines we hold. I hope that you can help me in this matter.

I can give you a link to my site so far if that helps?

Hi I'm hoping you can help with this - im trying to dsplay categories down the right side of the page, and i see from another user that webassist could provide some code to enable this - this site has been able to receive code for this www.glitz.co.nz/
I would like to do the same thing, and im a newbie. Would you be able to provide code to olist catagories down the side bar for me

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Hi I'm hoping you can help with this - im trying to dsplay categories down the right side of the page, and i see from another user that webassist could provide some code to enable this - this site has been able to receive code for this www.glitz.co.nz/
I would like to do the same thing, and im a newbie. Would you be able to provide code to olist catagories down the side bar for me