Question

I’m trying to develop a hierarchical menu in my e-commerce website in which my categories are dynamically shown in order to add more categories without having to touch the code.

So I’ve organized my database like that, with 3 different ranks for my categories:

I got 3 different ranks:

• First rank: Informatics [id=1] Accessories[2] vêtements[3] Hifi ..

• Second rank: Hardware[parent_key=1][id=10] software[parent_key=1][id=11] Men[parent_key=3][id=30] ..

• Third rank: motherboard[parent_key=10][id=100] processor[parent_key=10][id=101] Windows7[parent_key=11][id=110] Shoes[parent_key=30][id=300] ..

So you’ve understood that the “parent_key” refers to the parent id of my category abd for each category of rank 1 I got several rank 2 categories and so on ..

For now, I’ve hard-coded my menu in something like this:

<div id="main_menu">
  <ul id="nav">
    <li class="current"><a href="<?php echo base_url();?>">Home</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">High Tech</a>
      <ul>
        <li><a href="#">Informatique</a>
          <ul>
            <li><a href="#">Hardware</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Ecrans</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Clavier</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Souris</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Imprimantes</a></li>

          </ul>
        </li>
        <li><a href="#">TV</a>
          <ul>
            <li><a href="#">LCD</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Plasma</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">3D</a></li>
          </ul>
        </li>
        <li><a href="#">Appareils Photos</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">GPS</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Smartphones</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Lecteur MP3</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Hi-Fi</a>
          <ul>
            <li><a href="#">Amplificateurs</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Enceintes</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Cables</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Autres</a></li>
          </ul>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </li>
  </ul>
  <br class="clear" />
</div>

I’m coding in MVC, and I don’t know exactly how to build my model, my controller, and my view. I guess I’ll have to do some if/else and foreach loop but I can’t figure it out by myself.

If anyone wanna help to solve this problem, he is more than welcome 🙂

Answer 1

Okay, thanks for all you post, but I found a way to deal with my problem, here my personal solution :

So I first begin by retrieving all the categories in a array : “allCategories”

Then, while I build the menu, with while loops and if conditions, I get what I want :

so we have, for each category

• Category[‘cat_id’] which is the id of the category

• Category[‘cat_title’] the name of the cat

• Category[‘cat_order’] the rank of the category

• Category[‘cat_parentkey’] the id of the parent of my categorie (Parent of motherboad: Hardware)

  $token1=TRUE;
  $token2=TRUE;
  
  foreach($allCategories as $Categories1){ //we are going to check all the cats :: on fait defiler toutes les catégories
  
      if($Categories1['cat_order']==1){ // if its rank 1 :: si le rang de la categorie est 1
          $key = $Categories1['cat_id']; // we save its ID
          echo '<li><a href="#">';
          echo $Categories1['cat_title'];
          echo '</a>'; // this is the loyaout to print the list, the /li comes further :: on fait la mise en page pour afficher la liste, le /li venant plus bas
  
          foreach($allCategories as $Categories2test){ // We gonna check if there is AT LEAST ONE categorie with an inferior rank, otherwise we do not print the <ul> which produce an ugly bar next to the menu :: on va tester si il existe AU MOINS UNE catégorie de rang inférieur, sinon on n'affiche pas de ul afin d'éviter une barre moche dans le menu
  
              if($Categories2test['cat_order']==2 AND $Categories2test['cat_parentkey']==$key AND $token1==TRUE){ // We do a test with a token which, once we do 1 loop inside, tell us there is at least one cat with an inferior rank :: on fait donc un test avec un token qui, une fois qu'on passe dedans 1 fois, nous dis qu'i'il y a donc au moins un rang inféireur
  
                  echo '<ul>'; // layout of our menu, is printed only if there is inferioir cats :: mise en forme du sous menu, ne s'affiche donc qu si il ya une categorie de ranf inferieur.
  
                      foreach ($allCategories as $Categories2){ // One again, we check all the cats :: on fait défiler les catégories
                          if($Categories2['cat_order']==2 AND $Categories2['cat_parentkey']==$key){ // If there is at least one of rank 2 so .... :: si il y en a 1 de rang 2 alors ...
                              $key2 = $Categories2['cat_id'];
                              echo '<li><a href="#">';
                              echo $Categories2['cat_title'];
                              echo '</a>';
  
                              foreach($allCategories as $Categories3test){
                                  if($Categories3test['cat_order']==3 AND $Categories3test['cat_parentkey']==$key2 AND $token2==TRUE){
                                      echo "<ul>";                                            foreach ($allCategories as $Categories3){
                                          if($Categories3['cat_order']==3 AND $Categories3['cat_parentkey']==$key2){
                                              $key3 = $Categories3['cat_id'];
                                              echo '<li><a href="#">';
                                              echo $Categories3['cat_title'];
                                              echo '</a>';
                                              echo "</li>";
                                          }
                                      }
  
                                      echo "</ul>";
                                      $token2=FALSE; 
                                  }
                              }
                          echo"</li>";
                          }
                      $token2=TRUE;
                      }
  
                  echo'</ul>';
                  $token1=FALSE; // We put our token to FALSE in order to avoid that loop for that particular rank1 category :: on met notre token à FALSE afin de ne plus refaire cette boucle pour cette catégorie de rang1
              }
          }
          echo "</li>"; 
      }
      $token1=TRUE; // We put the token to TRUE in order to do that loop again for the other rank 1 categorie :: on remet le token à 0 afin de repasser dans la boucle pour la catégorie de rang 1 suivante
  }
  

  ?>