Joomla · Joomla Setup

Joomla 1.6 – Display Multiple SubCategories in Category Blog Layout

Now in Joomla 1.6 you can choose a menu item to show all articles in a category and their subcategories.  You can even specify how many levels you want Joomla 1.6 to drill down.

So for example you have a menu “DIET” and a menu item called “‘FOOD” created as a Category Blog Layout. You have the parent category – Foodies, and it’s child categories.  You normally would just display articles in a parent category, but if you want to display all articles in your parent and it’s subcategories you can as well.  Below I will show you how:

  • Menu name: DIET
  • Menu item in your Joomla 1.6 named: FOOD
  • For example you have a Parent Category called:  Foodies
  • Child/Subcategories under it called: Fruit, Vegetables, Meat

This is how you would display articles from parent and multiple subcategories in a Menu Item Category Blog Layout.

1.  Log into your Joomla 1.6 administrator panel.

2.  Click on Menus, ‘DIET’.

3.  Edit the FOOD menu item.

4.  Menu Type = Category Blog

5.  Under Required Settings, Choose a category = Foodies

6.  Under Blog Layout Options, Include Subcategories = 1

7.  Save your FOOD menu item.

After you refresh your website, click on the DIET link on the menu.   You should now see articles from all your parent category – Foodies and all articles from it’s subcategories – Fruits, Vegetables and Meat.

In Step 6, I chose ‘1’ because I only wanted to go down 1 level of categories.  If you have parent-child-subchild-subsubchild categories and want to display articles from all your parent subsubcategories you can easily show these articles by changing:

# 6.  Under Blog Layout Options, Include Subcategories = All

Also you can modify the category blog layout by changing the following options in the menu item.  These options are exactly the same as how you would configure your features articles blog layout.  It is located under your your Blog Layout Options (step 6)- specify number of articles to show as:

  • # Leading Articles
  • # Intro Articles
  • # Columns
  • # Links
  • Multi Column Order

Thanks,

Elaine

16 thoughts on “Joomla 1.6 – Display Multiple SubCategories in Category Blog Layout

  1. Thanks Elaine, this was exactly what I was trying to find out how to do. Your hint solved my problem in an instant, much appreciated!

  2. Thanks for this step by step! When I make my menu link to the Subcategory, there is a title SUBCATEGORIES that appears, and I can not figure out how to turn that off. Do you?

  3. Thanks again for this other useful post.

    I was just wondering if there is a way to show images of subcategories.

    I’ve made a menu item of type Category Blog, associated to a category. This category contains subcategories. These subcategories all have an image, set in the Basic Options panel of the subcategory, and they also have a description.
    When I click on the menu item the subcategories show with their title and description, but I also want the images associated with them to show next to the description. Is it possible?

    Thanks anyways.

  4. Hi Elaine,
    I followed your directions in this article, but the blog on our site does not show articles in the subcategory. Do you do any consulting on Joomla sites? Could we hire you to help with this issue?

  5. Stephanie,
    Thanks for the post.
    I noticed that when I select “Most recent first” as the article order, the articles from the first subcategory show up first in chronological order, followed by the articles in the next subcategory. The result is that old articles from the first subcategory show up before more recent articles in the following categories.
    Is there a way to have the most recent articles among all articles in the subcategories show up first without first going through all articles in the first subcategory?
    Thanks,
    Manny

    1. Hi Manny,
      You can go to your Article Manager options and set ‘Category order = no order”. I’ve created a post here. Try that out and let me know if you still have problems.
      Thanks for your visit,
      Elaine

  6. Hi Elaine,

    Got the same question that has been asked a couple of times already. Is there a way to show the images of a subcategory? Or is your silence to the other questioners a sign of impossibility? 😉

    1. Hi Edward,
      haha thanks for your question again. I was trying to find a solution but haven’t found one yet. Then I put it off and procrastinated. I will look into it again for you.
      Thanks for your visit,
      elaine

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