Missing ajax dropdown category logic

Currently, adding an Ajax dropdown menu to a block based on categories will not take into account the main block category filter. An example:

Cars
- BMW
- Audi

Colors:
- Red
- Blue

Block Category filter: "BMW"

Ajax filter: "filter by categories"
Ajax dropdown: "show the following IDs": Red, Blue

Now selecting the “Red”, “Blue” from the Block Ajax filter, will also show every “Red” and “Blue” Audi . Is there not a way to apply some needed logic to the functions or make the ajax dropdown respect the block category filter:

Show ajax category where Colors “Red” and “Blue” AND Cars = “BMW”.

Without the logic I’ll have to triple categories and even have multiple sub categories with the same name (not ID).

Can you plese offer a solution or at least point to the specific functions (either the framework og the jquery scripts) needed to make the modifications?

• This topic was modified 10 years by Phonetic.
• This topic was modified 10 years by Phonetic.

Hi Catalin.

I’m a developer myself. Can you point me to which part of the framework I need to take a look at?

The specific function is in td_ajax.php:case 'td_category_ids_filter': // by category - the user selected a category from the drop down. if it's empty, we show the default block atts
if (!empty($ajax_parameters['td_filter_value'])) {
$ajax_parameters['td_atts']['category_ids'] = $ajax_parameters['td_filter_value'];
unset($ajax_parameters['td_atts']['category_id']);
}
break;

• This reply was modified 10 years by Phonetic.
• This reply was modified 10 years by Phonetic.

Hi Bogdan.

I’ve implemented the changes to the backend and added a new option ‘Filter by categories and block filter’ for blocks (td_config.php)

    static function get_map_block_ajax_filter_array() {
        return array(
            //custom filter types
            array(
                "param_name" => "td_ajax_filter_type", //this is used to build the filter list (for example a list of categories from the id-s bellow)
                "type" => "dropdown",
                "value" => array('- No drop down ajax filter -' => '', 'Filter by categories' => 'td_category_ids_filter', <strong>'Filter by categories and block filter' => 'td_category_ids_parent_filter'</strong>, 'Filter by authors' => 'td_author_ids_filter', 'Filter by tag slug' => 'td_tag_slug_filter', 'Filter by popularity (Featured | All time popular)' => 'td_popularity_filter_fa'),
                "heading" => 'Ajax dropdown - filter type:',
                "description" => "Show the ajax drop down filter. The ajax filters (except by popularity) require an additional parameter. If no ids are provided in the input below, the filter will show all the available items (ex: all authors, all categories etc..)",
                "holder" => "div",
                "class" => "",
                "group" => "Ajax filter"
            ),

I’ve added an new case to td_block.php:

                    case 'td_category_ids_parent_filter': // by category AND block / menu category filter
                        $td_categories = get_categories(array(
                            'include' => $td_ajax_filter_ids,
                            'exclude' => '1',
                            'number' => 100 //limit the number of categories shown in the drop down
                        ));

                        // check if there's any id in the list
                        if (!empty($td_ajax_filter_ids)) {
                            // break the categories string
                            $td_ajax_filter_ids = explode(',', $td_ajax_filter_ids);

                            // order the categories - match the order set in the block settings
                            foreach ($td_ajax_filter_ids as $td_category_id) {
                                $td_category_id = trim($td_category_id);

                                foreach ($td_categories as $td_category) {

                                    // retrieve the category
                                    if ($td_category_id == $td_category->cat_ID) {
                                        $td_pull_down_items [] = array(
                                            'name' => $td_category->name,
                                            'id' => $td_category->cat_ID,
                                        );
                                        break;
                                    }
                                }
                            }

                        // if no category ids are added
                        } else {
                            foreach ($td_categories as $td_category) {
                                $td_pull_down_items [] = array(
                                    'name' => $td_category->name,
                                    'id' => $td_category->cat_ID,
                                );
                            }
                        }
                        break;

I could have done it the lazy way:

case 'td_category_ids_filter' && 'td_category_ids_parent_filter':

But might as well add a proper case.

I’ve also modified td_ajax.php to handle category ids as an array (this is needed for td_data_source.php – see below):

				case 'td_category_ids_parent_filter': // by category AND block main category  - the user selected a category from the drop down. if it's empty, we show the default block atts

					if (!empty($ajax_parameters['td_filter_value'])) {
						$ajax_parameters['td_atts']['category_ids'] = array($ajax_parameters['td_atts']['category_id'], $ajax_parameters['td_filter_value']);
						unset($ajax_parameters['td_atts']['category_id']);	
					}

					// debug
					// $output = print_r($ajax_parameters['td_atts'], true);
					// file_put_contents('ajax_query.txt', $output);					

					break;

Finally changes to td_data_source.php:

        // if $category_ids = array then only get posts with main block / menu category AND ajax filter set
        // if $category_ids is an aray then prepare query with "category_and" instead of "cat"    
        if (!empty($category_ids) and is_array($category_ids)) {
            $wp_query_args['category__and'] = $category_ids;
        }

Checks for $category_ids == array and then prepares query with “category__and” instead of “cat”.

Changes enables you so choose the function with the main block / menu category id as parent for data in sub tabs.

Let me know if you guys want the diffs from code. I’m pretty sure a lot of your customers would love this imho much needed added feature.

Disregard the out-commented debug code.

Cheers 🙂

• This reply was modified 10 years by Phonetic.

You’re welcome Bogdan.

Forgot to remove the code indentation. code quotes are a bit messy 🙂

I’ll write a guide post when I got some spare time. Launch is in less than two weeks 🙂

I was reading your post and it’s amazing, i don’t know if you could share the guide for achieve this, i’m looking for something familiar i have a session set in my header and the only think i want is that all the post use category__and for create a division. I hope you can help me, thanks in advance.