Cant retrieve short description in category list view

Question

I am trying to display each products description in the category list view like this:

 <?php echo $_product->getDescription(); ?>

However, it just displays nothing. Since this works perfectly on the product page I am not quite sure where the problem is. How do I do this?

Answer 1

Try this

Go to backend

Catalog->Attributes->Manage Attributes

Search for "short description" -> set "Used in Product Listing" to "Yes"

Refresh cache and Reindex

I did this for a custom attribute and I see no reason why this should not work for description/short description

Answer 2

Update the description attribute's use_in_product_listing value (see catalog_eav_attribute table), either in the admin under Catalog > Manage Attributes or use an upgrade script.

The upgrade script would need to use the correct setup resource and call the following:

$installer->updateAttribute('catalog_product','description','use_in_product_listing',1);