There are many ways to build a product catalog with Ubercart. We have used almost every method possible, Ubercart Catalog, Views, and even Apache Solr. I want to show what we think is a great alternative to the Ubercart Catalog and Views catalog. This will not get you the performance and facets that an Apache Solr catalog will get you. We will leave that for another post.
I refer to this method I am going to show you as the Ubercart Taxonomy Catalog.
The Ubercart Catalog module had some great features and configuration options our of the box, however customizing it it sometimes where most people see the wall at the end of the road. People often then try and replicate the catalog module in views which is a great start but leaves a big gap in terms of SEO and user friendliness.
The problem comes from the general concept of having duplicate content between your product catalog and the taxonomy pages. Also when a user clicks on a term on a product page they are directed to the taxonomy page rather that the product catalog for that term.
The best thing we could do is to make the taxonomy pages the actual product catalog. This reduces duplicate content and solves the problem of user clicking on the taxonomy terms and being thrown into the ugly river of product teasers.
Let me walk you through the painless process.
Step 1 - Setup your taxonomy structure the way you want it.
Don’t limit yourself to one vocabulary here. We suggest product type, manufacturer, and any other major divisions in your products. We suggest multi select where it makes sense, stay away from the required and tag options for this catalog use case.
Step 2 - Create your taxonomy term header view.
For my example I am using a simple table with the term image and term description. You will need the term image module installed for this wo work. This is Views import code.
$view = new view;
$view->name = 'taxonomy_term_header';
$view->description = '';
$view->tag = '';
$view->view_php = '';
$view->base_table = 'term_data';
$view->is_cacheable = FALSE;
$view->api_version = 2;
$view->disabled = FALSE; /* Edit this to true to make a default view disabled initially */
$handler = $view->new_display('default', 'Defaults', 'default');
$handler->override_option('fields', array(
'tid' => array(
'label' => '',
'alter' => array(
'alter_text' => 0,
'text' => '',
'make_link' => 0,
'path' => '',
'link_class' => '',
'alt' => '',
'prefix' => '',
'suffix' => '',
'help' => '',
'trim' => 0,
'max_length' => '',
'word_boundary' => 1,
'ellipsis' => 1,
'strip_tags' => 0,
'html' => 0,
),
'imagecache_preset' => 'product_list',
'link_to_taxonomy' => 0,
'exclude' => 0,
'id' => 'tid',
'table' => 'term_image',
'field' => 'tid',
'relationship' => 'none',
),
'description' => array(
'label' => '',
'alter' => array(
'alter_text' => 0,
'text' => '',
'make_link' => 0,
'path' => '',
'link_class' => '',
'alt' => '',
'prefix' => '',
'suffix' => '',
'help' => '',
'trim' => 0,
'max_length' => '',
'word_boundary' => 1,
'ellipsis' => 1,
'strip_tags' => 0,
'html' => 0,
),
'exclude' => 0,
'id' => 'description',
'table' => 'term_data',
'field' => 'description',
'relationship' => 'none',
),
));
$handler->override_option('arguments', array(
'tid' => array(
'default_action' => 'not found',
'style_plugin' => 'default_summary',
'style_options' => array(),
'wildcard' => 'all',
'wildcard_substitution' => 'All',
'title' => '',
'breadcrumb' => '',
'default_argument_type' => 'fixed',
'default_argument' => '',
'validate_type' => 'none',
'validate_fail' => 'not found',
'break_phrase' => 0,
'not' => 0,
'id' => 'tid',
'table' => 'term_data',
'field' => 'tid',
'validate_user_argument_type' => 'uid',
'validate_user_roles' => array(
'2' => 0,
),
'relationship' => 'none',
'default_options_div_prefix' => '',
'default_argument_user' => 0,
'default_argument_fixed' => '',
'default_argument_php' => '',
'validate_argument_node_type' => array(
'product' => 0,
'page' => 0,
),
'validate_argument_node_access' => 0,
'validate_argument_nid_type' => 'nid',
'validate_argument_vocabulary' => array(
'4' => 0,
'2' => 0,
'3' => 0,
),
'validate_argument_type' => 'tid',
'validate_argument_transform' => 0,
'validate_user_restrict_roles' => 0,
'validate_argument_php' => '',
),
));
$handler->override_option('access', array(
'type' => 'none',
));
$handler->override_option('cache', array(
'type' => 'none',
));
$handler->override_option('style_plugin', 'table');
$handler->override_option('style_options', array(
'grouping' => '',
'override' => 1,
'sticky' => 0,
'order' => 'asc',
'columns' => array(
'description' => 'description',
'tid' => 'tid',
),
'info' => array(
'description' => array(
'separator' => '',
),
'tid' => array(
'separator' => '',
),
),
'default' => '-1',
));
Step 3 - Create your product grid view.
For this example I am creating a node view of products in a grid format.
This is Views import code.
$view = new view;
$view->name = 'product_grid_view';
$view->description = '';
$view->tag = '';
$view->view_php = '';
$view->base_table = 'node';
$view->is_cacheable = FALSE;
$view->api_version = 2;
$view->disabled = FALSE; /* Edit this to true to make a default view disabled initially */
$handler = $view->new_display('default', 'Defaults', 'default');
$handler->override_option('fields', array(
'title' => array(
'label' => '',
'alter' => array(
'alter_text' => 0,
'text' => '',
'make_link' => 0,
'path' => '',
'link_class' => '',
'alt' => '',
'prefix' => '',
'suffix' => '',
'help' => '',
'trim' => 0,
'max_length' => '',
'word_boundary' => 1,
'ellipsis' => 1,
'strip_tags' => 0,
'html' => 0,
),
'link_to_node' => 1,
'exclude' => 0,
'id' => 'title',
'table' => 'node',
'field' => 'title',
'relationship' => 'none',
),
'model' => array(
'label' => '',
'alter' => array(
'alter_text' => 0,
'text' => '',
'make_link' => 0,
'path' => '',
'link_class' => '',
'alt' => '',
'prefix' => '',
'suffix' => '',
'help' => '',
'trim' => 0,
'max_length' => '',
'word_boundary' => 1,
'ellipsis' => 1,
'strip_tags' => 0,
'html' => 0,
),
'link_to_node' => 0,
'exclude' => 0,
'id' => 'model',
'table' => 'uc_products',
'field' => 'model',
'relationship' => 'none',
),
'sell_price' => array(
'label' => '',
'alter' => array(
'alter_text' => 0,
'text' => '',
'make_link' => 0,
'path' => '',
'link_class' => '',
'alt' => '',
'prefix' => '',
'suffix' => '',
'help' => '',
'trim' => 0,
'max_length' => '',
'word_boundary' => 1,
'ellipsis' => 1,
'strip_tags' => 0,
'html' => 0,
),
'exclude' => 0,
'id' => 'sell_price',
'table' => 'uc_products',
'field' => 'sell_price',
'relationship' => 'none',
),
'addtocartlink' => array(
'label' => '',
'alter' => array(
'alter_text' => 0,
'text' => '',
'make_link' => 0,
'path' => '',
'link_class' => '',
'alt' => '',
'prefix' => '',
'suffix' => '',
'help' => '',
'trim' => 0,
'max_length' => '',
'word_boundary' => 1,
'ellipsis' => 1,
'strip_tags' => 0,
'html' => 0,
),
'exclude' => 0,
'id' => 'addtocartlink',
'table' => 'uc_products',
'field' => 'addtocartlink',
'relationship' => 'none',
),
));
$handler->override_option('arguments', array(
'tid' => array(
'default_action' => 'not found',
'style_plugin' => 'default_summary',
'style_options' => array(),
'wildcard' => 'all',
'wildcard_substitution' => 'All',
'title' => '',
'breadcrumb' => '',
'default_argument_type' => 'fixed',
'default_argument' => '',
'validate_type' => 'none',
'validate_fail' => 'not found',
'break_phrase' => 0,
'add_table' => 0,
'require_value' => 0,
'reduce_duplicates' => 0,
'set_breadcrumb' => 0,
'id' => 'tid',
'table' => 'term_node',
'field' => 'tid',
'validate_user_argument_type' => 'uid',
'validate_user_roles' => array(
'2' => 0,
),
'relationship' => 'none',
'default_options_div_prefix' => '',
'default_argument_user' => 0,
'default_argument_fixed' => '',
'default_argument_php' => '',
'validate_argument_node_type' => array(
'product' => 0,
'page' => 0,
),
'validate_argument_node_access' => 0,
'validate_argument_nid_type' => 'nid',
'validate_argument_vocabulary' => array(
'4' => 0,
'2' => 0,
'3' => 0,
),
'validate_argument_type' => 'tid',
'validate_argument_transform' => 0,
'validate_user_restrict_roles' => 0,
'validate_argument_php' => '',
),
));
$handler->override_option('filters', array(
'is_product' => array(
'operator' => '=',
'value' => '1',
'group' => '0',
'exposed' => FALSE,
'expose' => array(
'operator' => FALSE,
'label' => '',
),
'id' => 'is_product',
'table' => 'uc_products',
'field' => 'is_product',
'relationship' => 'none',
),
'status' => array(
'operator' => '=',
'value' => '1',
'group' => '0',
'exposed' => FALSE,
'expose' => array(
'operator' => FALSE,
'label' => '',
),
'id' => 'status',
'table' => 'node',
'field' => 'status',
'relationship' => 'none',
),
));
$handler->override_option('access', array(
'type' => 'none',
));
$handler->override_option('cache', array(
'type' => 'none',
));
$handler->override_option('items_per_page', 12);
$handler->override_option('style_plugin', 'grid');
Step 4 - Override the taxonomy page theme function
At the bottom of your themes template.php file add the following code.
function MYTHEME_taxonomy_term_page($tids, $result) {
$output = '';
// we use this view to render the content rather than normal taxonmy behaviour
$output .= views_embed_view('taxonomy_term_header', 'default', $tids[0]);
$output .= views_embed_view('product_grid_view', 'default', $tids[0]);
return $output;
}
