Need help...:(

markstone

I am a complete beginner to PHP and can't figure what is wrong with this code?

<?php

$children = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->getCategories(3);
foreach ($children as $category)
{

<a href="<?php echo $category->getUrl()?>">
<span><?php echo $category->getName()?></span>

</a>
}?>

I tried looking for ways to incorporate <a href> or just HTML inside "foreach" but to no avail....does only "echo" go inside "foreach"?

I am trying to modify this piece of code to have links for $category:

$children = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->getCategories(3);
foreach ($children as $category) {
echo $category->getName();
}

i've tried getUrl(); to no avail....sorry if I posted this in the wrong section, but any help would be greatly appreciated!

bradgrafelman

markstone wrote:
does only "echo" go inside "foreach"?

Not necessarily... any PHP statement (or statements) can go inside of a foreach() structure. However, this:

<a href="<?php echo $category->getUrl()?>">
<span><?php echo $category->getName()?></span>
</a>

is not PHP code... it's HTML with PHP code in the middle of it.

If you want PHP to output that HTML code to the user, however, then [man]echo[/man] (or [man]print[/man]) is a good place to start.

markstone

bradgrafelman;10979440 wrote:
Not necessarily... any PHP statement (or statements) can go inside of a foreach() structure. However, this:
<a href="<?php echo $category->getUrl()?>">
<?php echo $category->getName()?>
</a>
is not PHP code... it's HTML with PHP code in the middle of it.

If you want PHP to output that HTML code to the user, however, then [man]echo[/man] (or [man]print[/man]) is a good place to start.

Thank you very much for your replay...unfortunately I am still quite lost.

I have tried using echo to output <a href></a> but have no idea how to approach it especially since it is necessary to have the php echo inside the <a> tag since that portion of the website (it's a navigation menu) will be dynamic and the output link will change systematically

perhaps something like this? (which just doesn't display anything 🙁 )

<?php
$children = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->getCategories(3);
foreach ($children as $category)
{
echo ('<a href="<?php echo $category->getUrl()?>">
<?php echo $category->getName()?>
</a>');
}?>

bradgrafelman

markstone wrote:
it is necessary to have the php echo inside the <a> tag

No it isn't. What you want is to output the string that $category->getUrl() returns in that location. All you need to do is use concatenation, e.g.:

function foo() { return "world"; }

echo "Hello " . foo() . "!"; // output: Hello world!

markstone wrote:
which just doesn't display anything

Well there are no longer any parse errors in that code snippet, so if it isn't outputting anything then you've got other problems.

However, are you sure it isn't outputting anything? In other words, did you view the source code of the page in your browser rather than simply glancing at the browser's rendered version of the data received (which will probably be nothing, since '<?php .. ?>' will just be interpreted as an invalid HTML element)?

markstone

bradgrafelman;10979442 wrote:
No it isn't. What you want is to output the string that $category->getUrl() returns in that location. All you need to do is use concatenation, e.g.:
function foo() { return "world"; }

echo "Hello " . foo() . "!"; // output: Hello world!
Well there are no longer any parse errors in that code snippet, so if it isn't outputting anything then you've got other problems.

However, are you sure it isn't outputting anything? In other words, did you view the source code of the page in your browser rather than simply glancing at the browser's rendered version of the data received (which will probably be nothing, since '<?php .. ?>' will just be interpreted as an invalid HTML element)?

Thank you for your patience and willingness to help out 🙂

It is outputting "getName()?>" and it links to "<?php echo $category->getUrl()?>"...I can see how that is happening, perhaps it's due to the fact that I can't just insert php inside HTML...but I thought as long as I close up the php tag inside the HTML then they will be interpreted separately?

Here is the code that I tried to manipulate...I don't need mine to be as extensive so I took out the top portion of it, but I seem to have issues with the curly bracket or something else...but this code seems to have no issue with having php inside HTML in the "foreach" section .... 😕😕

<?php
$category = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load(7); // 7 is the ID of Main Category
$subcategory = $category->getAllChildren(true);
array_shift($subcategory);
if($subcategory!=null)
{

foreach ($subcategory as $sub)
{
$sub1 = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load( $sub);?>
<a href="<?php echo $sub1->getUrl();?>">
<?php echo $sub1->getName();

}?>
<?php }?>

markstone

not sure if this helps but the code will be in a .phtml document...

markstone

Does anybody have any suggestions? Any help would be appreciated!

markstone

Found this little piece that seems more in line with what Brad was talking about -

<?php
$storeCategories = $this->getCats('my-category-url-key');
        foreach ($storeCategories as $category):
            echo '<li><a href="' . $category->getUrl() . '">' . $category->getName() . '</a></li>';
        endforeach;
?>

but for some reason the output item just links to the same web page that it's on?

bradgrafelman

What does the generated HTML look like? Are you sure $category->getUrl() isn't returning null or an empty string?

markstone

bradgrafelman;10979511 wrote:
What does the generated HTML look like? Are you sure $category->getUrl() isn't returning null or an empty string?

yea $category->getUrl() basically returns nothing in HTML, not sure if it's null or empty string...how does one tell?

The html in firebug looks exactly like this:

<li><a href="">sub-category-name</a></li>

seems like only getName() works?

bradgrafelman

markstone;10979514 wrote:
not sure if it's null or empty string...how does one tell?

Well, you could use [man]var_dump/man to get detailed information about the value being returned... but whether it's NULL or an empty string or an empty object or... it doesn't really mater; the point is the data you're after obviously wasn't there.

markstone;10979514 wrote:
seems like only getName() works?

It would appear you are correct, yes.

markstone

bradgrafelman;10979518 wrote:
Well, you could use [man]var_dump/man to get detailed information about the value being returned... but whether it's NULL or an empty string or an empty object or... it doesn't really mater; the point is the data you're after obviously wasn't there.

It would appear you are correct, yes.

Wow, does that mean it's hopeless? I have seriously been trying to do this for over 10 hours :o

I have found this little piece here that pulls out all children whereas I only want to have the first level children categories...the getUrl() in there seems to work just fine?

<?php
$category = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load(3); // 7 is the ID of Main Category
$subcategory = $category->getAllChildren(true);
array_shift($subcategory);
if($subcategory!=null)
{

foreach ($subcategory as $sub)
{
$sub1 = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load( $sub);?>
<li><a href="<?php echo $sub1->getUrl();?>"><span>
<?php echo $sub1->getName();

}?>
<?php }?>

Do you know what's the difference between this code and mine? I have revised the code I started out last night in my original post (before resorting to your suggested echo method) and figured out how to do it without creating a parsing error:

	<?php
$children = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->getCategories(3);
foreach ($children as $category) 
{ 
?>

<li><a href="<?php echo $category->getUrl()?>">
<span><?php echo $category->getName()?></span></a></li>

<?php 
}
?>

However, in this piece of code the getUrl() also doesn't work.....:quiet: I wonder what it is about the above code that pulls out all children categories that makes the getUrl() function correctly????