Category list not working on category page - Magento

Question

Firstly I am new to Magento, so please explain in detail if you can help.

I have used the following code:

  <div class="left-nav-inner">  
    <h3 id="products">Products</h3>
    <h4>Shop by:</h4>
    <ul id="product-menu">

<?php
/* Get the categories that are active for the store */
$_main_categories=$this->getStoreCategories();

/* Get the current category the user is in */
$_current_category=$this->getCurrentCategory();

/* Get the current category path */
$_categorypath = $this->getCurrentCategoryPath();
?>
<?php
if ($_main_categories):
    /* This bit cycles through the categories - setting the next one to current */
    foreach ($_main_categories as $_main_category):
      if($_main_category->getIsActive()):                             
           $cur_category=Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load($_main_category->getId());
           $layer = Mage::getSingleton('catalog/layer');
           $layer->setCurrentCategory($cur_category);     

/* Write the main categories */           
?>                
<li><a href="<?php echo $this->getCurrentCategory()->getUrl()?>"><?php echo $this->getCurrentCategory()->getName();?></a></li>   


<?php 

/* Check the category variable loop against the current category path if it is - print sub categories */
if (in_array($this->getCurrentCategory()->getId(), $_categorypath)): ?>
<?php $_maincategorylisting=$this->getCurrentCategory()?>                        
<?php $_categories=$this->getCurrentChildCategories()?>
<?php if($_categories->count()):?>


<?php /* This resets the category back to the original pages category
****     If this is not done, subsequent calls on the same page will use the last category
****    in the foreach loop
*/   ?>
<?php $layer->setCurrentCategory($_current_category);  ?> 
<?php endif; ?>   

<?php endif; ?>                                   

<?php         
endif;
endforeach; 
else:
?>
<p>$_main_categories array was empty.</p>
<p>This might be because you are referencing this phtml file with a wrong type attribute. You should use <block type="catalog/navigation" ... /> !</p>
<?php endif; ?>
</div>

This displays listings on my left menu as required however when I click the category urls the category page will not show the products..

I can get the products to show if I remove the left column within:

app/design/frontend/default/default/layout/catalog.xml

I did this with the following code:

---

Category default layout

---

<catalog_category_default translate="label">
    <label>Catalog Category (Non-Anchor)</label>
    <remove name="left" />

As you can see I added the 'remove name=left'.

I need to have the left menu with the categories displaying on every page of the website and I need the products to show up when I click on the categories...

Please help.

Answer 1

I would recommend that you use Alan Storm's Layoutviewer to debug what's happening on your target url. You can download it from this article, note that you will need to create your own module declaration xml to insert into app/etc/modules for the module to be activated.