The Category Manager module allows you to have multiple category templates in a single store. You can have a different template for every category in your store if you want. The templates use the standard store morph technology template editor in MIVA Merchant 5. While basic knowledge of how to edit MIVA Merchant 5 templates is required, there are two example templates provided in addition to the built in ctgy page template. Getting started is not that difficult. Don't miss our introductory price of this versatile module.
Features:
- Multiple category templates in a single store
- One or more categories can be assigned to use a specific template
- Store morph technology template editor with version history and recall features
- Default template is used for categories which do not have a custom template assigned
- Custom pagination in addition to the default Previous and Next buttons
- Can limit products displayed per page to a specific number for each template or can list all on one page
- Customer can sort products within the category in real time dynamically
- Breadcrumb navigation included
- Sub-category navigation included
- Custom category fields
Feature Details. Multiple page templates. Using the built-in store morph technology, you can edit the page templates just like the built-in page templates, including recall, notes, and indexing of previous versions. Include typical render tokens on the custom category pages from other 3rd party modules (sold separately) which you have in your store, e.g. rate this, wait list, best seller, and others.
Easy assignment of categories to templates. Once you create the template you can assign one or more categories to it. This can be done from the Category Edit screen or if you are using the Emporium Plus Category Import module (sold separately), you can import the template assignment right along with importing new categories into the store. No need to import the categories with one module and then use a separate module to assign them to templates.
Default page for unassigned categories. The default ctgy page template is used for all categories which have not been assigned to a specific custom template. This makes processing more efficient as the Category Manager runs a quick lookup to determine if it needs to run certain more complex processing routines, like advanced pagination.
Advanced page navigation. Several pagination variables are available to write detailed page navigation links. You can have the typical 1 2 3 4 etc. Or you can break up long lines with arrows, dots, dashes, etc to fill in a gap. You can also display the page number of the total number of pages. This pagination is similar to that used in the Emporium Plus Power Search module for Merchant 5. As a point of reference for the customer, you can even include how many products are listed in the category.
Flexible pagination. Each category template can have a different setting for the number of products to display on a page. Initially, the customer will see the number you set. However, customers using broadband may want to see all the product in a category on a single page, so there is an option to list or view all.
On-the-fly sorting. The products are initially displayed in the sort order which the store owner has previously setup in the normal admin sorting. The customer can then change the sort order based on their desires. Available sort fields are name, code, price, date items were added to the store, or the default store setup. They can be sorted ascending or descending. You can also sort by best sellers, highest at the top.
Breadcrunb navigation. The module includes optional breadcrumb navigation. An array is created which holds the current category name and its parents up to the top level category. With standard MIVA Merchant template code, you can create a quick link to higher categories like Home > Software > Developer Bundles
Sub-category navigation. You can display the sub-categories of a parent category on
the category page, e.g. below the parent category's name. The array can be displayed like you want it using standard MIVA Merchant template code.
We cannot link to our demo stores from MivaCentral so if you'd like to see a couple of the live pages demonstrating single or multiple column layout of products, please contact us for links. Those pages demonstrate the variable layout of products, breadcrumb navigation, on-the-fly sorting, and sub-category navigation.
The module currently fully supports the mivasql configuration of MIVA Merchant 5. It also supports MySQL as long as load balancing has the data stored on the single MySQL server. This would be the case in most of the server setups. For those that are not, we are in the process of converting the code for that remaining, very small group of MIVA Merchant stores. At this time we have not had a problem. Modules will be moved to the top of the queue as needed.
