Magento: HOW-TO add active products in a drop-down in Main Navigation Menu

Question

Instead of categories I would like products to appear in the drop-down navigation menu similar to lowes.com. Is this possible? I am not paying for anything either :)

Answer 1

Maybe one generic category call "All products", and link all products to it?

Then make only that category visible.

That is one solution at least, without braking the system.

Answer 2

After a bit of experimenting I've got this working! Below is the new code to use in

app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/Block/Navigation.php

function _renderCategoryMenuItemHtml (swap 'local' for 'core' if localizing)

protected function _renderCategoryMenuItemHtml($category, $level = 0, $isLast = false, $isFirst = false, $isOutermost = false, $outermostItemClass = '', $childrenWrapClass = '', $noEventAttributes = false)
{
    if (!$category->getIsActive()) {
        return '';
    }
    $html = array();

    // get all children
    if (Mage::helper('catalog/category_flat')->isEnabled()) {
        $children = (array)$category->getChildrenNodes();
        $childrenCount = count($children);
    } else {
        $children = $category->getChildren();
        $childrenCount = $children->count();
    }
    $hasChildren = ($children && $childrenCount);

    // get products listing
    $cur_category = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load($category->getId());
    $_productCollection = Mage::getResourceModel('catalog/product_collection')->addCategoryFilter($cur_category)->setOrder('position','ASC');
    $k = 1;
    $hasProduct1 = $_productCollection->count();
    $phtmlChildren = '';
    if ($hasProduct1 >= 1) {
        $l = $level+1;
        foreach ($_productCollection as $_product) {
            $cur_product = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load($_product->getId());
            if ($cur_product->getStatus()) {
                $phtmlChildren .= '<li';
                $phtmlChildren .= ' class="level'.$l;
                $phtmlChildren .= ' nav-'.$this->_getItemPosition($l);
                if ($k == $hasProduct1) {
                    $phtmlChildren .= ' last';
                }
                $phtmlChildren .= '">'."\n";
                $phtmlChildren .= ' <a href="'.$cur_product->getProductUrl().'">'.$this->htmlEscape($cur_product->getName()).'</a>'."\n";
                $phtmlChildren .= '</li>';
                $k++;
            }
        }
    }

    // select active children
    $activeChildren = array();
    foreach ($children as $child) {
        if ($child->getIsActive()) {
            $activeChildren[] = $child;
        }
    }
    $activeChildrenCount = count($activeChildren);
    $hasActiveChildren = ($activeChildrenCount > 0);

    // prepare list item html classes
    $classes = array();
    $classes[] = 'level' . $level;
    $classes[] = 'nav-' . $this->_getItemPosition($level);
    if ($this->isCategoryActive($category)) {
        $classes[] = 'active';
    }
    $linkClass = '';
    if ($isOutermost && $outermostItemClass) {
        $classes[] = $outermostItemClass;
        $linkClass = ' class="'.$outermostItemClass.'"';
    }
    if ($isFirst) {
        $classes[] = 'first';
    }
    if ($isLast) {
        $classes[] = 'last';
    }
    if ($hasActiveChildren) {
        $classes[] = 'parent';
    }

    // prepare list item attributes
    $attributes = array();
    if (count($classes) > 0) {
        $attributes['class'] = implode(' ', $classes);
    }
    if ($hasActiveChildren && !$noEventAttributes) {
         $attributes['onmouseover'] = 'toggleMenu(this,1)';
         $attributes['onmouseout'] = 'toggleMenu(this,0)';
    }

    // assemble list item with attributes
    $htmlLi = '<li';
    foreach ($attributes as $attrName => $attrValue) {
        $htmlLi .= ' ' . $attrName . '="' . str_replace('"', '\"', $attrValue) . '"';
    }
    $htmlLi .= '>';
    $html[] = $htmlLi;

    $html[] = '<a href="'.$this->getCategoryUrl($category).'"'.$linkClass.'>';
    $html[] = '<span>' . $this->escapeHtml($category->getName()) . '</span>';
    $html[] = '</a>';

    // render 'product' children
    $htmlChildren = '';
    if ($hasChildren) {
        $j = 0;
        foreach ($children as $child) {
            if ($child->getIsActive()) {
                $htmlChildren .= $this->_renderCategoryMenuItemHtml($child, $level + 1, $j++ >= $k);
            }
        }
    }
    if ((!empty($htmlChildren)) || (!empty($phtmlChildren))) {
        $html[] = '<ul class="level'.$level.'">'."\n".$htmlChildren.$phtmlChildren.'</ul>';
    }

    // render children
    $htmlChildren = '';
    $j = 0;
    foreach ($activeChildren as $child) {
        $htmlChildren .= $this->_renderCategoryMenuItemHtml(
            $child,
            ($level + 1),
            ($j == $activeChildrenCount - 1),
            ($j == 0),
            false,
            $outermostItemClass,
            $childrenWrapClass,
            $noEventAttributes
        );
        $j++;
    }
    if (!empty($htmlChildren)) {
        if ($childrenWrapClass) {
            $html[] = '<div class="' . $childrenWrapClass . '">';
        }
        $html[] = '<ul class="level' . $level . '">';
        $html[] = $htmlChildren;
        $html[] = '</ul>';
        if ($childrenWrapClass) {
            $html[] = '</div>';
        }
    }

    $html[] = '</li>';

    $html = implode("\n", $html);       
    return $html;
}

Basically there are two new added sections. The first section builds the product collection to get relevant info (name, url, etc). The second section appends the new unordered list inside the existing root category list items. Hope this helps someone. Now you don't need to pay $99 for the extension that is out there :)

Tested on v.1.6.1

Answer 3

Jared Eitnier's method works except on the log in, cart, and checkout pages - for example /customer/account/login the products' URL breaks it becomes /customer/account/login/product-seo-url

Oddly the products' URLs work on the CMS pages...

I am using Magento 1.6.2

I have changed this line -

$phtmlChildren .= ' <a href="'.$cur_product->getUrlPath().'">'.$this->htmlEscape($cur_product->getName()).'</a>'."\n";

With this -

$phtmlChildren .= ' <a href="'.$cur_product->getProductUrl().'">'.$this->htmlEscape($cur_product->getName()).'</a>'."\n";

And now it works on every page! Hopefully this helps somebody out.