Category with multiple parent categories?

[australisagencies]

Hi all,

Can I create a category with multiple parent categories?

I sell apparel and promotional merchandise. Some apparel, such as hats and t-shirts, belong in both Apparel and Promotional. Can this be done? Or do I have to have two separate categories for Hats, one in each of Promotional Merchandise and Apparel, and then just add the products to both categories?

If I have more than one category with the same name, how does search work? I presume search results only show one of each product, since the products themselves aren't duplicated, just linked to multiple categories (ironically, really - the shirts themselves are just T-Shirts. It's the category that should be double-linked!) But when the user clicks the result, is there a breadcrumb/folder path displayed in the product listing page? And which will display?

[zen]

I am maybe not answering your question for real... but I can tell you that each category can have only one parent,

products can have also only one categorie 'by default' BUT can be assigned to as much categories as you want.

The breadcrumb when viewing a product will show the default category path of this product.

[dynambee]

4 hours ago, australisagencies said:

Can I create a category with multiple parent categories?

No, the database structure is set up in such a way that each category can only have one parent category. While nothing is impossible it is impractical to change such a fundamental part of the products/categories system.

You can assign each product to more than one category but if you are going to have multiple categories called "hats" then you will want to include the category ID as part of the URL. Otherwise you will end up with non-unique category URLs and this will get very messy.