Sub category appeared empty

[keat]

From the customers side, looking for a cart item, I found that a sub category appeared empty.

If i searched for the part by part number or description i could find the part, but if i navigated to the part, firstly via it's main category and then in to it's sub category, it appeared as if the whole sub category was empty.

 

From the admin side, I could see that the sub category was marked as visible and status checked.

I un-checked these, saved and then re-checked them, and now the sub category is navigable.

 

I had performed a data migration between two databases, so it's no doubt related, so I'm just wondering if there may be any more sub categories whach are un-navigable and if there's any way of finding/fixing them ?

[bsmither]

I think there is not an easy way. Unfortunately, there is no admin screen that shows the category hierarchy as a flat list. (Actually, in Products, Category Assignment, this a flat list, but doesn't show the Visible and Status settings.)

I don't have a good theory why the category would act any different once the Visibility and Status was unchecked then rechecked.

I would ask that you use an external utility such as phpMyAdmin to view the CubeCart_category table to see if there is an unexpected difference between rows.

[keat]

I've looked and can't see any difference between the original table, the imported table or the same table in the other database.

I guess time will tell

[bsmither]

I am wondering if this is a case of the storefront using a cached recordset of a query that had shown, at one time, this category being hidden. Even so, no matter how one gets that product to show, every method (that I am aware of) will not a show a product if there is no category associated with it that is eligible (visible and enabled).

(Keep in mind that a logged in admin will be able to see categories and products that would otherwise not be shown to customers on the storefront.)