I created a sidebar for the dynamic WordPress category pages.
Example Url: https://example.com/category/firstcategory/secondcategory/othercategories/
SEO Silo:
Info about SEO Silos: What is a content silo and how does it benefit for SEO?
An imaginary company offers books, films and toys. And so the following categories are usually formed:
Company category:
* company
** books
** movies
** games
They have subcategories.
* company
** books
*** drama
*** comedy
** movies
*** drama
*** comedy
*** romance
** games
*** actions
*** for kids
*** click and point
The subcategories in turn have entries.
If I now come to the books category, only everything about books may appear in the category tree and not movies and games as well. Ideally not even the upper category, like that:
* company
** books
*** drama
---- drama Book1
---- drama Book2
If I'm in the drama category for books, I dont want to see the others like comedy in the books category too.
If I'm in the Company category, its okay to see the first subcategories like:
* company
** books
** movies
** games
If I'm in the books category:
* company
** books
*** drama
*** comedy
Problem:
The code isn't optimized yet, because I'm just trying out a lot.
Active Category level 2 already works (apart from the indentation).
- When calling up the second category, sometimes not all (existing) sub-categories appear.
- Probably the smallest problem is that the categories are not indented as a list.
// Manual: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9225920/how-to-check-which-level-category-it-is-for-wordpress
function get_the_level($id, $type = 'category') {
return count(get_ancestors($id, $type));
}
function children_sidebar_shortcode($atts) {
global $post;
if (!is_category()) {
return false;
}
$returnval = "";
$category = get_queried_object();
$category_id = $category->term_id;
$n = 0;
$item_cat_level = 0;
// Active Category is level 2 and more
if (get_the_level($category_id) >= 2) {
$returnval .= "<h2>Active Category is level 2 and more</h2>";
$args = array(
'type' => 'post',
'child_of' => 0,
'parent' => '',
'orderby' => 'term_group', //'name',
'order' => 'ASC',
'hide_empty' => 0,
'hierarchical' => 1,
'exclude' => '',
'include' => '',
'number' => '',
'taxonomy' => 'category',
'pad_counts' => false
);
} else {
$returnval .= "<h2>Active Category is level 1 or less</h2>";
$args = array(
'type' => 'post',
'child_of' => $category_id,
'parent' => '', // set here same category as you want to fetch only their 1st level category on in depth child
'orderby' => 'term_group', //'name',
'order' => 'ASC',
'hide_empty' => 0,
'hierarchical' => 1,
'exclude' => '',
'include' => '',
'number' => '',
'taxonomy' => 'category',
'pad_counts' => false
);
}
$categories = get_categories($args);
if (count($categories) > 0) {
// show the category description
//$returnval .= category_description();
$returnval .= "<ul>";
foreach ($categories as $category) {
$item_cat_level = get_the_level($category->term_id);
// Active Category is level 2 and more
if (get_the_level($category_id) >= 2) {
if (
// Category is part of the parent Categories/Terms
cat_is_ancestor_of($category->term_id, $category_id)
// SubLevel Category 2
|| $item_cat_level >= 2
// Active Category (same)
|| $category->term_id === $category_id
) {
$category_link = sprintf(
'<a href="%1$s" alt="%2$s">%3$s</a>',
esc_url(get_category_link($category->term_id)),
esc_attr($category->name),
esc_html($category->name)
);
$returnval .= sprintf("<li class='cat-item cat-item-%d %s'>%s", $category_id, ($category->term_id === $category_id) ? 'current-cat-ancestor' : '', $category_link);
}
} else {
if (
// Category is part of the parent Categories/Terms
//cat_is_ancestor_of($category->term_id, $category_id)
// SubLevel Category 2
//||
$item_cat_level <= 1
// Active Category (same)
//|| $category->term_id === $category_id
) {
$category_link = sprintf(
'<a href="%1$s" alt="%2$s">%3$s</a>',
esc_url(get_category_link($category->term_id)),
esc_attr($category->name),
esc_html($category->name)
);
$returnval .= sprintf("<li class='cat-item cat-item-%d %s'>%s", $category_id, ($category->term_id === $category_id) ? 'current-cat-ancestor' : '', $category_link);
}
}
}
$returnval .= "</ul>";
}
// Attributes
$atts = shortcode_atts(
array(
'name' => '',
),
$atts,
''
);
return $returnval;
}
add_shortcode('children_sidebar', 'children_sidebar_shortcode');
