Magento v1.x.x.x
It’s a pretty common requirement to show a list of sub categories inside a parent category page, instead of products. Who knows why this wasn’t a standard function of Magento, but thankfully there’s a simple workaround.
So let’s begin at the top.
1. In Magento admin navigate to CMS > Static Blocks

2. Click “Add New Block” at the top right
3. Create the new static block with the following details:
Block Title: Sub Category Listing
Identifier: subcategory_listing
Status: Enabled
Content: {{block type="catalog/navigation" template="catalog/navigation/subcategory_listing.phtml"}}

4. Click Save Block in the top right
5. Navigate to the parent category under Catalog > Manage Categories and within the Display Settings Tab set to the following:
Display mode: Static Block only
CMS Block: Sub Category Listing
Is Anchor: No
6. Click Save Category in the top right
7. Create a new file called subcategory_listing.phtml in:
app/design/frontend/yourpackagename/yourthemename/template/catalog/navigation/
Containing the following code:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 | <?php $layer = Mage::getSingleton('catalog/layer'); $_category = $layer->getCurrentCategory(); $_categories = $_category->getCollection()->addAttributeToSelect(array('url_key','name','image','all_children','is_anchor','description')) ->addAttributeToFilter('is_active', 1) ->addIdFilter($_category->getChildren()) ->setOrder('position', 'ASC') ->joinUrlRewrite(); ?> <div class="listing-type-list catalog-listing"> <ul id="subcats" class="clear"> <?php foreach ($_categories as $_category): ?> <?php if($_category->getIsActive()): ?> <?php Mage::log($_category->debug(), null, 'mylogfile.log'); ?> <li> <div class="subcat clearfix"> <a class="now-from-container" href="<?php echo $_category->getURL() ?>"></a> <div class="subcat-image"> <a href="<?php echo $_category->getURL() ?>" title="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_category->getName()) ?>"> <img src="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_category->getImageUrl()) ?>" width="190" alt="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_category->getName()) ?>" /> </a> </div> <div class="subcat-title-container"> <h2><a href="<?php echo $_category->getURL() ?>" title="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_category->getName()) ?>"><?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_category->getName()) ?></a></h2> </div> </div> </li> <?php endif; ?> <?php endforeach; ?> </ul> </div> |
So, all this does is grabs the current category being viewed (the parent category), cycles through the sub categories of the parent category. Checks each sub category to see if it is active, and if so outputs it to the sub category list.
8. Make sure your sub categories have an image assigned to them under Catalog > Manage Categories > Sub Category
And that’s how to display a sub category listing on a category page in Magento.
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