Left Sidebar Navigation for all Pages?

[ajasko]

I was wondering whether anyone has configured a template where the left navigation sidebar appears on every single page on the website. The majority of websites have this configured. A left navigation bar that is consistent throughout the site is tremendously useful to the average visitor, as opposed to confusing breadcrumbs and always navigating back to the homepage - usually requiring 1-2 extra clicks. As it stands the sidebar is only on the homepage, requiring the user to scroll backwards to the homepage every time they want to go to a different product category than the one they are currently viewing. Additionally, having a left sidebar enables all of your pages to be 1-2 clicks away from the homepage, and to have a better internal linking structure. Search engines LOVE this, and it HIGHLY increases Page Rank and search engine ranking - internal linking structure and navigation bars are bigtime for SEO, as well as being tremendously user friendly. Has anyone attempted to add the side bar to every page of an AbleCommerce template? If not, I would suggest/request this project for some of you expert designers (coming from a little SEO guy who can't design much!)

[Mike718NY]

I think you need to do this:

The standard sidebar1 needed to be moddified as follows:

[[conlib:SimpleCategoryList CategoryId="0"]]

The default looked like this:

[[conlib:SimpleCategoryList]]

from:

viewtopic.php?t=5426

[ajasko]

I made this change and nothing is different. I want the Standard Sidebar 1 to appear on every single page in my entire site. Can this been done?

[mazhar]

You need to set the Active Layout for each page to Left Sidebar and then set the Sidebar to Standard Sidebar 1. You can easily do this job through the scriptlet editor available at the bottom of your store pages when you select the Edit option for the page.

[ajasko]

I did this, thanks. However, my problem is that Standard Sidebar 1 only shows the subcategories of the current category being viewed. I want it to be static, always showing the root categories of my site, so that everything is always 1 click away.

Also, it would be even better if the Standard Sidebar 1 was a nested tree display, showing all the root categories and expanding to show the subcategories. I saw a beta version of this, but I was wondering if there was a nicer looking version with all the bugs worked out.

Anyway, as it is Standard Sidebar 1 shows the subcategories for the given category. As a result, it is of no use for my product pages. It shows no categories whatsoever for product pages, as products by default do not have any subcategories under them. I want all my product pages and category pages to have a sidebar on the left that always has all of my categories - as a standard, static, site-wide navigation bar. Most major sites have something like this, especially large product sites.

[Mike718NY]

Try this
Put both of these line in the "Standard Sidebar 1.htm"

[[ConLib:Custom/SimpleCategoryList CategoryId="0" ]]
[[ConLib:CategorySearchSidebar Visible="false"]]

Note:
if you are using Custom version of the Sidebar,
make sure you change it in the Custom folder
and not the Default folder.

[mmackrell]

this worked great, thanks for the tip. I am wondering though how to get the second level of categories to appear in this list. I'm sure it's a simple setting, but I am new and getting frustrated with this Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Margie

[jmestep]

That menu is set up to get the first level categories only. If you use the ConLib/CatalogTree, that will show subcategories .
If you want to make it more attractive, in the CatalogTree,ascx file, you can change it to get rid of the lines like this.
<componentart:treeview id="TreeView1" runat="server" enableviewstate="true" ShowLines="false" >
</componentart:treeview>

[GrfxDan]

Okay, so I'm in the process of making some changes to my site and would actually like for the left sidebar to only show the subcategories of the current category ...the "problem" that asjasko was having. My site currently has a nice left sidebar menu complete with 2 levels of flyouts. I'm working on changing over to a horizontal menu in the header with mega drop downs instead of multiple levels of flyouts. Once I change my primary navigation I'd like to have the left sidebar show the subcategories of whatever category the user is currently viewing. Can someone tell me how to do this? Thanks in advance.

[mazhar]

Have a look at this thread.
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=8566

[GrfxDan]

Thanks Mazhar, but the post you referred to is about replacing the left sidebar menu with a top horizontal menu. I've already got that under control. What I need to know now is how to make a vertical menu (in the left sidebar) that only shows the subcategories of the whatever category is currently being displayed. This was what asjasko was describing in his 3rd post above. He wanted to show all categories but was only seeing the subcategories for the category currently being viewed. I actually want what he had and was trying to change.

[jmestep]

We have an assortment of menus at W2M. I just don't know what the prices would be, but you can contact the company.
Here are a couple doing what it sounds like you want:
http://storeforknowledge.com/
http://shop.hihealth.com/

[GrfxDan]

I did a little poking around tonight and found that ConLib:SimpleCategoryList does exactly what I need. Just wanted to update here in case anyone else is looking to do the same thing too.