Showing Multiple Categories At Once

Is there a way to show multiple categories at once? For instance - I have two main groups of products - each with 3 categories. I want to be able to click on one group, have it show all three categories of products at once - but also have the 3 categories as links on the top (to avoid having them have to choose a category before seeing any products). Is this possible? What would be the URL syntax (if that's how I would do it)? I've tried various ways of adding other category numbers to the URL but none seem to work.

Does anyone have an idea about this issue?

The way the PowerStore is setup by default there is just categories for items, not groups. Have you modified the PowerStore to include the groups? Please explain as best as you can what you have done so far and the result you are getting. We will need a better understanding of the situation and what is currently going to in order to advise you on this.

Hi Eric,

Thanks for replying.

I haven't made any modifications to the code (as far as creating GROUPS).

What I did was this: I have my home page - then I have two links, one for Group 1 and one for Group 2.

When someone clicks Group 1 - they goto another page, which shows 3 image links (which are links to 3 different categories). If they click on Group 2, it goes to another page - again, showing three image links and each points to a different category. That's how I "grouped" it. Just a web page with links to other categories.

What I'd like to do is BYPASS those pages with links to 3 categories. I don't want the user to have to go through 2 clicks to get to the product pages. That's too many. I want them to be able to click Group 1 - and then have it show Category 1, 2, and 3. Above the product listings of the items in Categories 1, 2, and 3 - I'd like to have 3 links pointing to the specific categories so they could drill down more specifically if they want to.

Basically, I'd like to show products from 3 different categories, on the same page. Is this possible at all? Like have it display category 1 products, and right below that display category 2 products and below that category 3 products (without the user seeing any difference in categories) - or even mixed up. I don't care.

What do you think? Couldn't it grab the products from one, display them, and then grab them from the second and third category, right after each other?

Ok, I think this will be easier that it seems. Essentially you can just create a new page from the template and on this new page add in a recordset. In the recordset interface you will need to go to the advanced view and enter a query like this:

SELECT * FROM products
WHERE ProductCategoryID = 1 OR ProductCategoryID = 2

This one would give you categories 1 and 2 items. If you want to include more you can just add to this with another 'OR ProductCategoryID = #'

If you take a look at your products table in your db you should be able to see this column and the values associated with it.

After you add the recordset you just go to the bindings tab to add the info to the page, then you highlight the bindings and go to Server Behaviors > Repeat Region. This will let you display all of the records from your new rs.

Hey Tim (I'm assuming it's Tim)
I'd be interested in how this goes for you.
Post some before and after if you explore Eric's suggestions please.

Mick

Hi Eric,

Thanks for your solution. Curious - since I have the product results page (the general one) setup how I want it. Couldn't I just create a duplicate of this page, and then modify the code to include those OR categories? Could you tell me the steps to MODIFY the product results page to only show those categories I want? Or is that page already too different from what I want, and it's easier to start with a fresh page.

Reason I ask is because I'm a little confused with the second/last part of your steps (highlight bindings and add them to the page).

And sure Mick, When I get this figured out - I'll post the steps I took to get it there.

There is no reason why you could not do this to your existing results page but if you do it will not function the same as it does in it's default state. The recordset on this page is designed to gather all of the details for all items regardless of category. Then the Search server behavior applied to this page filters the results based on the search criteria you enter.

If you modify this recordset to work with particular values then it will not function properly as a search recordset.

In the final steps I was trying to illustrate how you would be able to layout the results and have it repeat for all the records that are found in the recordset.

Ah - okay, I'll try it with a new page then. I'll see if I can get everything working and when I do (I'll probably have more questions on the way though) - I'll post how I did it here so others can benefit from this.