Easy Catalog Images extension

CONTENTS

1. Description

2. Installation

3. General configurable options

4. Use cases

5. Support

Description

If you are owner of online store with a lot of categories and subcategories, the extension Easy Catalog Images is surely the best solution for you. The default Magento drop down menu doesn’t provide user friendly way to browse stores with large catalogs. So please check our free extension Easy Catalog Images 2.0 to make the usability of store interface more user-friendly.

The extension provides better navigation such as child categories listing on the category page and any other part of your store. Also you can add more links and keywords to category page, which leads to an improvement of visual perception in terms SEO.

Categories images used in Easy Catalog images blocks can be taken both from category thumbnails and category images attribute. If thumbnails field is empty, the category's image will be used instead of that. We recommend you to assign category's image for thumbnails field to display it like a banner on category view layout.

Easy Catalog Images will help you to place category listing using Magento widget on any store page according to your requirements. Furthermore the extension integration with Navigation Pro module will allow you to add "Shop By" menu before first menu item.

Installation

Thank you for downloading our magento extension. Please follow these instructions to proceed with the installation of your theme:
Turn store compilation off
Navigate to Admin -> Tools -> Compilation and deactivate compilation mode for your store.
Copy all files into your magento directory
Simply copy all files from "extension source x.x.x" directory into your magento store directory.In case you have different then "default" default folder - rename folders app/design/frontend/default/default and skin/frontend/default/default.
Turn your magento cache off
Navigate to Admin -> System -> Manage Cache and deactivate cache for your store.
Refresh your admin user access rights
Simply logout from your store admin and then login back.
Next steps
  1. Login to your store admin and log out.
  2. Navigate to System > Configuration > Templates-Master > Easy Catalog Images and enable extension for any store you need.
  3. Configure Easy Catalog Images module according to your needs.

General configurable options

Flexible configuration of Easy Catalog Images extension allows you to set image size, number of categories to display, enable the image resize, etc. To start configuring, please go to Admin>System>Configuration>Easy Catalog Images.
  • Enabled - please select Yes to enable the extension.
  • Use category image, when thumbnail is not available - select Yes to apply the image display instead of thumbnail.
  • Use image helper to resize images - select Yes to guarantee the equal sized images.
  • Background color - allows to you define the color in RGB mode for images background during resize. Please specify comma separated 0,0,0 if you want to have black colored background.
  • Enabled for default categories - select Yes to enable the subcategories' block on the category page.
  • Enabled for anchor categories - select Yes to enable the subcategories’ block with layered navigation on the category page.
  • Number of categories to show - specify the number of categories to be shown on the category page.
  • Columns count - specify the number of columns on the category page.
  • Show images - select Yes to display images on the category page.
  • Image width - specify the image width.
  • Image height - specify the image height.
  • Number of subcategories to show - specify the number of subcategories to be displayed on the category page.

Use cases

Placing category listing on the Home page using Magento widget
Please go to Admin>CMS>Pages and follow next recommendations :
  1. In the grid select Home page to edit.
  2. At Information tab in Content fieldset please press Insert Widget button.
  3. In the Widget type select Easy Catalog Images.
  4. Now you can fill the appropriate fields according to your needs.
  5. Click on Insert Widget.
Adding "Shop By" menu before first menu item
Please follow next recommendations:
  1. Navigate to Navigation Pro backend interface and select menu to edit.
  2. Select first visible category.
  3. Open Siblings tab and press 'Add New Sibling' button.
  4. Fill the form with following values:
How to display images near subcategory links
  • Open

    app/design/frontend/base/default/template/tm/easycatalogimg/list.phtml

<li>
	<a href="<?php echo $_subcategory->getUrl() ?>"
        title="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_subcategory->getName())?>"
            class="category-name child-category"><?php
        echo $this->htmlEscape($_subcategory->getName());?>
    </a>
</li>
  • Replace them with:
  • <li>
        <a href="<?php echo $_subcategory->getUrl() ?>"
            title="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_subcategory->getName())?>"
          class="category-name child-category"
          ><img src="<?php echo Mage::helper('easycatalogimg/image')->resize($this->getImage($_subcategory), 60, 60) ?>"
              width="60"
              height="60"
              alt="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_subcategory->getName()) ?>"
          /><?php
          echo $this->htmlEscape($_subcategory->getName());?>
    	</a>
    </li>
    
  • Save file and clear Magento cache at System > Cache Management.
  • Add the css styles to your theme to make subcategory links look nice:
  • .easycatalogimg .list-subcategories li {
        background: none !important;
        padding: 0 !important;
        line-height: 60px !important;
    }
    .easycatalogimg .list-subcategories li a {
        text-decoration: none !important;
    }
    .easycatalogimg .list-subcategories li img {
        margin-right: 4px !important;
    }
    

    Support

    Template Master team is always ready to assist you with any issue related to our products.

    We do offer:

    1. Free commercial products installation services
    2. Free updates within offered support period
    3. 3 months of free guaranteed support

    Our duties:

    1. Responsibility for resolving products bugs.
    2. Help with technical queries.
    3. Support of popular web browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer 7+).
    4. Technical support in installation and usage of our products.
    Common questions and ideas

    Come up with new ideas!

    Questions:

    Posted by Scott Brown, Friday, November 17, 2017 on page Easy Catalog Images user manual
    • 0
      vote
      A: Yes sure. Please check how xml block is added for example to all categories pages at app\design\frontend\base\default\layout\tm\easycatalogimg.xml
      Posted by Peter D. on Tuesday, November 28, 2017
    Posted by Steve Racicot, Wednesday, September 13, 2017 on page Easy Catalog Images user manual
    • 0
      vote
      A: Sorry but our module use same order of all categories that are used at categories tree. Please contact our support in case categories are sorted in wrong order.
      Posted by Peter D. on Wednesday, September 13, 2017
    Posted by Tommy, Sunday, February 26, 2017 on page Easy Catalog Images user manual
    • 0
      vote
      A: Yes sure you can edit all styles via css. You can check and modify current styles at "skin\frontend\base\default\css\tm\easycatalogimg.css"
      Posted by Peter D. on Monday, February 27, 2017
    Posted by ken avila, Thursday, April 30, 2015 on page Easy Catalog Images user manual

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