Display categories on home page in Magento

Question

I am a newbie in Magento and wanted to display all categories on the Magento home page rather than a top nav menu.

I read a lot of articles on it, but nothing has helped. Please point me to the right direction.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The code below does a couple of things, first it will get all the store’s categories - it then checks to see if they are active before continuing.

Code Courtesy : magentocommerce forum

   <?php
     /* Get the categories that are active for the store */
      $_main_categories=$this->getStoreCategories();
      /* Get the current category the user is in */
      $_current_category=$this->getCurrentCategory();
      /* Get the current category path */
      $_categorypath = $this->getCurrentCategoryPath();
      ?>
      <ul>
      <?php
      if ($_main_categories):
          /* This bit cycles through the categories - setting the next one to current */
          foreach ($_main_categories as $_main_category):
            if($_main_category->getIsActive()):                             
          $cur_category=Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load($_main_category->getId());
                 $layer = Mage::getSingleton('catalog/layer');
                 $layer->setCurrentCategory($cur_category);     
      /* Write the main categories */           
      ?>               
      <li><a href="<?php echo $this->getCurrentCategory()->getUrl()?>"><?php echo $this->getCurrentCategory()->getName();?></a></li>   
      <?php
      /* Check the category variable loop against the current category path if it is - print sub categories */
      if (in_array($this->getCurrentCategory()->getId(), $_categorypath)): ?>
      <?php $_maincategorylisting=$this->getCurrentCategory()?>                       
      <?php $_categories=$this->getCurrentChildCategories()?>
      <?php if($_categories->count()):?>
      <ul>
      <? foreach ($_categories as $_category):?>                   
         <? if($_category->getIsActive()):                   
            $cur_subcategory=Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load($_category->getId());
                 $layer = Mage::getSingleton('catalog/layer');
                 $layer->setCurrentCategory($cur_subcategory); 
      ?>                         
      <li><a href="<?php echo $this->getCategoryUrl($_category)?>"> <?php echo $_category->getName()?></a></li>
          <? endif;?>
      <?endforeach?>
      </ul>           
      <?php /* This resets the category back to the original pages category
      ****     If this is not done, subsequent calls on the same page will use the last category
      ****    in the foreach loop
      */   ?>
      <?php $layer->setCurrentCategory($_current_category);  ?>
      <?endif;?>   
      <?endif;?>                                   
      <?php         
      endif;
      endforeach;
      else:
      ?>
      <p>$_main_categories array was empty.</p>
      <p>This might be because you are referencing this phtml file with a wrong type attribute. You should use <block type="catalog/navigation" ... /> !</p>
      <?php endif; ?>

Answer 2

I got where the problem was. The solution is at this link http://samsami2u.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/add-categories-with-images-on-homepage-magento/ and I was trying to add this line {{block type="catalog/navigation" name="catalog.category" template="catalog/category/list.phtml"}} to home page from back end in layout update xml under design tab but the correct way was to place it in content tab.