Customize Product Page Layout

[gdelorey@mitcs.com]

Hi -

I'm trying to add a third column to the Product layout that will hold the SimpleCategoryList control. I've gone to Website > Layouts > Product and chose SimpleCateogryList for the Left Sidebar section. When I check the layout page in Visual Studio, it updates the layout page and adds in the new DIV properly. However, when I save and view a product that is using this layout, the left hand category navigation does not display at all. Looking at the page source, the leftColumn DIV is loaded but it's empty. I've I also choose to show another control on the left sidebar, it renders properly.

Is there a bug with the product layout page and showing the SimpleCategoryList control?

Thanks,
Greg

[gdelorey@mitcs.com]

Still unable to get this. Any assistance from AC would be much appreciated.

Thanks!
Greg

[mazhar]

SimpleCategory list expects to be provided with some valid category id to list the child categories. In your case since control is not able to find and suitable category it doesn't lists anything. You can confirm this by just visting some product details page and then add ?CategoryId=1 to URL and refresh again. This time it will list all child from Category with ID=1. You have two options either you pass the category id along with product URL or you set some fixed category by editing the layout you created updating control usage to have CategoryId=1

[gdelorey@mitcs.com]

Thanks, Mazhar. I guess I was confused as I just expected it to list the top level categories on each product page so the navigation is consistent. I'll poke around and see if I can get something like that to work.

Thanks,
Greg