cubecart v6 [Resolved] Top navigation bar flexibility?

[Will Shaman]

How can I prevent a chosen category from appearing in the top navigation bar? I find if I leave its status as checked (and therefore available for use) but the visibility checkbox unchecked, the category still appears in the top navigation bar.

I want the category description to be shown (and the products it contains listed below that text) — I just don't want to fill my navigation bar up.

Any clues?

Thanks in advance,

Will

[ayz1]

If the visibility is unchecked then it shouldn't show in the menu. If it is still visible check that the visibility option is definitely set as unchecked.  If it is unckecked try on a different browser and see if it is visible. If it isn't visible then it's a caching problem with original browser. 

[Will Shaman]

Thanks for all those who replied to this. I cleared caches both on my site and my browsers; I checked visibility option was unchecked (it was); I tried in different browsers. results were the same.

However, I fixed the problem another way by creating customised documents with the necessary products hard-coded into them. Works fine and does what I need. No need for categories to be kept out of navigation bar. Boom.

[Dirty Butter]

Interesting solution. I would like to see this in action, if you don't mind sharing your site url and some directions for how to spot the "document" listings.

[Will Shaman]

Sure. Currently at theolyn.com/cube. For the example here, look at the first slider at the top of the home page and click it to visit http://theolyn.com/cube/the-angels-script-intro.html.

Please note: Later today I'll be rewriting my .htaccess to hide the "cube" element of the URL, so it may appear at http://theolyn.com/the-angels-script-intro.html

 

WHAT I WANTED:

A page with some static text on it introducing the product(s) I want talk about to prospective customers, with the product(s) concerned listed at the bottom (or some other arbitrary place), each with "Add to cart" button, quantity box, thumbnail, and short description.

SO WHY NOT USE A CATEGORY DESCRIPTION?

I found that whenever I added a category, it would appear in my top navigation bar. While this is perfectly fine for some categories (Books and cards, for instance) when I'm happy for them to be in the top navigation bar, some of the explanatory text I want to put up (as is usual for a category description) should not create yet another entry on my already-full navi bar. Checking or unchecking the visibility box for a category didn't make any difference to my navi bar — the category would always appear, thus making the navi bar bigger than I want.

SOLUTION:

1. Create a document with the URL, etc you want. Enter desired static text.
2. At the front end of the site, visit the category containing the product you want to add to your document and view the page's HTML (I use Firefox's Firebug plugin, which makes it easy).
3. Copy the HTML for the product listing in question: it's basically a form and, on this site, it begins with <form action="http://theolyn.com/cube/books-cards.html" class="panel add_to_basket" method="post" novalidate="novalidate"> and ends with the first form closing tag — </form> — that follows.
4. Go back to your new document's editing page back in Admin and view its source (click "source" button).
5. Paste your form's HTML anywhere on that page you want.
6. Save.

This can be repeated as many times as you like in a document, with the products gathered from any categories you so desire and placed anywhere you like. The Add to cart button and quantity field work just like they were listed as part of a regular category page.

The only thing to watch is, for some reason, you can get unexpected results unless you leave a line space between your form's HTML and the next form (or arbitrary text). So this will work as expected:

     <form action= etc. etc.......>
     </form>
     (line space)
     <form action= etc. etc.......>
     </form>

But this may make your page look different from the way you want it:

     <form action= etc. etc.......>
     </form>
    <form action= etc. etc.......>
     </form>

Other than that, have fun — you are free from category page hegemony!

Best wishes,

Will

Edited July 25, 2016 by Will Shaman
Inaccuracy about line space issue.

[Dirty Butter]

So how does a customer "find" these products created within a document?

[Will Shaman]

That's not so hard. I can put links wherever I choose. Obviously, I don't want one in my navi bar (that's the whole point of the exercise) though I could add an arbitrary link up there if I chose (just like I did with "About Theolyn" on this site, which points to a document, not a category). For instance, instead of the long "The Angels Script" link I'd normally be stuck with if I did this as a conventional category, I could add just "AS", or a little graphic if I wanted. In the case of this site, there are a number of places elsewhere in the site where people can get this informational page, just like any other document. The point is, I'm not restricted to CC's handling of category pages. I can roll it however I like.

Oh and the products still also exist within their regular categories as normal…

[Dirty Butter]

Thanks for taking the time to elaborate. Who knows, someone else may find your detailed explanation very helpful on their site as well!

[Will Shaman]

Hope so. It's not rocket science, for sure, but it's certainly nice to have the freedom to make up static pages however I like, but with vital extras like product listings.

[bsandall]

Using the default Foundation skin for CubeCart 6, any category that is set to not visible will not display in the navigation bar. If the category status is enabled, it can still be navigated to via a link or typing a URL in directly. I just tested this using an unmodified store and it worked perfectly fine - is this not the behavior you wanted?

[BooJewels]

I can concur that it works as might be expected in my modded eTone skin too.  The category can be found with a direct URL (which could then be linked to from anywhere else in page content) but with the visible checkmark off, it isn't added to my categories nav.

Which whilst it might not help the OP, is a feature that I'm glad I tried as I might have a perfect use for this feature myself.

Before I disable it, you can see it in action.  The direct URL is https://www.boo-creations.co.uk/shop/pins.html

but the category 'Pins' does not appear in the list/menu on the left.  I'd disabled it as there were only 2 items in the category and I put them elsewhere to minimise the menu - hence there's not much content, but it could be a full page of introductory information with products at the bottom.

[Will Shaman]

Thanks for your comments, bsandall and BooJewels. You're both right: the behaviour you describe is indeed what one would have expected, but for some reason it doesn't work for me. I'm using a modified Minimaliser (Blue) skin, which appears to work perfectly in every other respect.

The solution I came up with, though it shouldn't be necessary, actually provides me with a more satisfactory result, in that I've discovered I can position product listings arbitrarily throughout a document. This makes for more flexibility than a regular category page, though to be honest if I'd not had the problem in the first place I would probably have stuck with non-visible category pages as designed by CC.