sub category section

Hi Ray

Have got a new site where I have a main categories (covered by productcategories in the db) which can then have sub categories within each main cat - I need to set it up so that the client is able to add/remove sub cats and link to the parent main category.

I then need to set it so that the client is able to select the main/sub category for each product

My current tables set up in the db are products, productcategories and productmanufacturers so guess I need to add productsubcategories and structure the columns for the new one with similar columns to productcategories...

Just not sure, that being the case, how I then go about linking the new one and the relaional aspects

Any suggestions please mate?

Cheers

Jamie

I usually use the same categories table for subcategories and then just add a CategoryParentID field to point to the parent category.

Then you can use 0 as the parent for the main categories and the ID of the category for any sub categories. When inserting a sub category just add a select list to the page that selects all categories with parent = 0 and insert that selected value into the CategoryParentID field.

Thanks Ray... sorry but dont really understand

"Then you can use 0 as the parent for the main categories and the ID of the category for any sub categories."

Have copued the productcategories table and names it productsubcategories. Have added CategoryParentID to the new productsubcategories table but not sure what I need to do now...

Now you can start adding subcategories. For the main categories that you already have, make sure the CategoryParentID is set to 0.

Then when adding a sub-category, set the value of that field to match the CategoryID of the parent category.

so I need a CategoryParentID in both tables not just the sub one?

I'm saying only use one table... no need for both a category and sub-category table with this technique. Sub categories are still categories, just with a parent category defined.

ahh gotcha... thanks will have a crack at that tomorrow