Tableless Categories in OSCommerce listing

2007-03-28 14:36:00The categories.php page in oscommerce is coded fairly stupid. Stupid enough that you can't just glance at it and know what it is doing. I found no quick help on how to strip the tables out and apply nested unordered lists (ul & li) for the categories. Here is my categories.php file for everyone else that is trying to do this. Post in the comments if you find a better way to do this as my way is far from elegant. (Note: I wouldn't bother trying to figure this out, I just hacked it together to work. I would just paste this in and pray that it works) File: /oscommerce/catalog/includes/boxes/categories.php 
<?php
/*
  $Id: categories.php,v 1.25 2003/07/09 01:13:58 hpdl Exp $
  osCommerce, Open Source E-Commerce Solutions

  http://www.oscommerce.com
  Copyright (c) 2003 osCommerce
  Released under the GNU General Public License
*/

  function tep_show_category($counter) 
  {
    global $tree, $categories_string, $cPath_array, $lastLevel;
            
        if(!isset($lastLevel))
            $lastLevel = 0;

        if(($lastLevel+0) > ($tree[$counter]['level'] + 0))
            $categories_string .= "\t</ul>\n";

        elseif(($lastLevel+0) < ($tree[$counter]['level'] + 0))
            $categories_string .= "\t<ul>\n";

    for ($i=0; $i<$tree[$counter]['level']; $i++)
      $categories_string .= "\t";

    $categories_string .= "\t<li><a href=\"";

    if ($tree[$counter]['parent'] == 0)
      $cPath_new = 'cPath=' . $counter;
    else 
      $cPath_new = 'cPath=' . $tree[$counter]['path'];

    
    $categories_string .= tep_href_link(FILENAME_DEFAULT, $cPath_new) . '">';

    if (isset($cPath_array) && in_array($counter, $cPath_array)) 
      $categories_string .= '<strong>' . $tree[$counter]['name'] . '</strong>';
    else
      $categories_string .= $tree[$counter]['name'];    # display category name

    $categories_string .= '</a>';

    if (SHOW_COUNTS == 'true') 
    {
      $products_in_category = tep_count_products_in_category($counter);
      if ($products_in_category > 0) 
        $categories_string .= '&nbsp;(' . $products_in_category . ')';
    }
    $categories_string .= "</li>\n";

    if ($tree[$counter]['next_id'] != false) 
    {
      $lastLevel = $tree[$counter]['level'];
      tep_show_category($tree[$counter]['next_id']);
    }
  }
?>
<ul>
<?
  $info_box_contents = array();

  #$info_box_contents[] = array('text' => BOX_HEADING_CATEGORIES);
  #echo BOX_HEADING_CATEGORIES;
  #new infoBoxHeading($info_box_contents, true, false);
  $categories_string = '';
  $tree = array();

  $categories_query = tep_db_query("select c.categories_id, cd.categories_name, 
    c.parent_id from " . TABLE_CATEGORIES . " c, " . TABLE_CATEGORIES_DESCRIPTION . " 

    cd where c.parent_id = '0' and c.categories_id = cd.categories_id and 
    cd.language_id='" . (int)$languages_id ."' order by sort_order, cd.categories_name");

  while ($categories = tep_db_fetch_array($categories_query))
  {
    $tree[$categories['categories_id']] = array('name' => $categories['categories_name'],
                                                'parent' => $categories['parent_id'],
                                                'level' => 0,
                                                'path' => $categories['categories_id'],
                                                'next_id' => false);

    if (isset($parent_id)) 
      $tree[$parent_id]['next_id'] = $categories['categories_id'];

    $parent_id = $categories['categories_id'];
    if (!isset($first_element)) 
      $first_element = $categories['categories_id'];

  }
  //------------------------
  if (tep_not_null($cPath)) 
  {
    $new_path = '';
    reset($cPath_array);

    while (list($key, $value) = each($cPath_array))
    {
      unset($parent_id);
      unset($first_id);

      $categories_query = tep_db_query("select c.categories_id, cd.categories_name, 
            c.parent_id from " . TABLE_CATEGORIES . " c, " . TABLE_CATEGORIES_DESCRIPTION . 
	    " cd where c.parent_id = '" . (int)$value . "' and c.categories_id = cd.categories_id 
            and cd.language_id='" . (int)$languages_id ."' order by sort_order, cd.categories_name");

      if (tep_db_num_rows($categories_query)) 
      {
        $new_path .= $value;
        while ($row = tep_db_fetch_array($categories_query)) 
        {
          $tree[$row['categories_id']] = array('name' => $row['categories_name'],
                                               'parent' => $row['parent_id'],
                                               'level' => $key+1,
                                               'path' => $new_path . '_' . $row['categories_id'],
                                               'next_id' => false);

          if (isset($parent_id))
            $tree[$parent_id]['next_id'] = $row['categories_id'];

          $parent_id = $row['categories_id'];

          if (!isset($first_id))
            $first_id = $row['categories_id'];

          $last_id = $row['categories_id'];
        }

        $tree[$last_id]['next_id'] = $tree[$value]['next_id'];
        $tree[$value]['next_id'] = $first_id;
        $new_path .= '_';
      } else {
        break;
      }
    }
  }
  tep_show_category($first_element); 
  $info_box_contents = array();
  $info_box_contents[] = array('text' => $categories_string);

  echo $categories_string;
  #new infoBox($info_box_contents);
?>
</ul>