Enhanced Categories Module

Installation

Upload the ZIP as a plugin via the MANUAL process*. From the WordPress admin panel

• Go to Plugins->Add New,
• Click on the “Upload” link, and then click on Browse Now to locate the ZIP file you just downloaded.
• Click OK once you find it on your local computer
• Click the Install Now button to start the process.
• After the installation completes, click the “Activate Plugin” link to turn on the module

*NOTE: If you are using a Mac, the file may be automatically unzipped when you download it. You can change the default setting in Safari to only download the ZIP file and not unpack it. To do this: 1. Open Safari, 2. Click Preferences, 3. Under the General tab, uncheck the option Open “safe” files after downloading

Purpose

Enhanced Categories basically allows for two new behaviors in the plugin: The ability to add images to the Directory Categories page, like so:

And the ability to have only parent categories show at the top:

With children showing underneath when clicked:

Administration

Enhanced Categories adds two sets of options to configure. They are both found under the Directory Admin->Manage Options->Premium Modules->Enhanced Categories tab:

Main Directory Behavior:

These options control what Enhanced Categories does to your directory.

Enable ABC Filtering?:  This turns on the option to have an “alphabet filter” at the top of your directory, like this:

Clicking the letters will show all listings whose title starts with that letter.  Title is the same as “Business Name” in this example.

Operation Mode:  Here you can determine the behavior of categories on the Main Directory page. Using “Parent + Child” means all categories will be displayed. If you select “Parent Only Categories”, then the main directory will start with ONLY parent categories in it. Selecting a parent category will display a secondary category screen with the children of ONLY that parent in it. This is a useful option if you have a very complicated set of parent/child categories and showing them all at once is too much for users to sort through.

Show listings from child categories in parent categories: This setting controls what listings are visible when you select a parent category.  You can have it so that ONLY listings that belong in a category appear, OR listings from that category or any CHILD category also appear.

Example:  Suppose you have the categories “Animals”, “Dog” and “Cat”.  Dog and Cat are child categories of Animal.  If you have this setting on, and click on the Animal category, you will see all Animal listings AND all Dog and Cat listings.  If you turn this setting OFF, then you would only see listings that are exactly an Animal, but not a Dog or Cat.

Force selection of parent category before child category: This setting controls whether users see ALL parent and child categories at once, or if they instead, only see parent categories and must pick one before selecting a child category.  This setting affects the MAIN directory page only.  It used to control the Submit Listing page, but now with the 5.0 workflow change, the selection control does not support this AND allow for multiple categories to be chosen at the same time.

Number of Category Columns to Use:  You can control the category column display using the “Number of Category Columns to Use”. This option may have trouble with certain themes that try to aggressively manage the layout, so know that this works most, but not all, of the time.

Category Images:

Display the Category List with Images:  Here you can turn on the ability to display images and how large they should be. The default is to leave this setting OFF, so if you’re not seeing images, be sure to check the “Display the Category List with Images” option.

Category image height/width:  Allows you to set the size of the images that are displayed.  If you change these settings, you may need to upload new copies of images to your categories if they are not displaying without pixelation or distortion.