Show a Custom H1 Heading on Magento Category Pages
It may or may not have come to your attention that the category name that you set for your categories is used as your first heading on that category page and is also used in your main navigation. This is fine, but what happens when you want them to be different? If you want a more descriptive heading you’re going to potentially ruin your menu navigation with a long category title.
I have developed this small extension to conquer that issue. It simply creates a new category attribute called ‘Category Heading’, and if a value is given to this attribute, the category will use that as it’s H1 heading instead of the Category Name.
I have attached the module as a download at the bottom of this post. For those interested, here are the scripts I’m using:
Creare/Seoheading/Model/Category.php
I am simply overwriting the getName() method for a Category. The danger is that if you use this anywhere else it will overwrite it there too. I have put a Mage::registry check around it so that it will only affect getName() when used on the category page. If you intend to use getName() more than once on the category page, you could simply create a new getName() method, return it’s parent and just call it out as something else on your category page.
<?php
class Creare_Seoheading_Model_Category extends Mage_Catalog_Model_Category
{
public function getName()
{
if (Mage::registry('current_category'))
{
if ($this->_getData('creare_category_heading'))
{
return $this->getCreareCategoryHeading();
} else
{
return parent::getName();
}
} else
{
return parent::getName();
}
}
}
Creare/Seoheading/sql/seoheading_setup/mysql4-install-0.0.1.php
My install script creates the Category attribute ‘creare_category_heading’ and puts it in the ‘General Information’ tab. Older versions of Magento use just ‘General’ so have a look and change if necessary.
<?php
/*
* SEO Heading Category Attribute Setup
*/
$installer = new Mage_Eav_Model_Entity_Setup('core_setup');
$installer->startSetup();
$installer->addAttribute('catalog_category', 'creare_category_heading', array(
'group' => 'General Information',
'input' => 'text',
'type' => 'varchar',
'label' => 'Category Heading',
'visible' => 1,
'required' => 0,
'user_defined' => 1,
'global' => Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Eav_Attribute::SCOPE_STORE
));
$installer->endSetup();
Creare/Seoheading/etc/config.xml
For those interested, my config.xml:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
<modules>
<Creare_Seoheading>
<version>0.0.1</version>
</Creare_Seoheading>
</modules>
<global>
<models>
<seoheading>
<class>Creare_Seoheading_Model</class>
</seoheading>
<catalog>
<rewrite>
<category>Creare_Seoheading_Model_Category</category>
</rewrite>
</catalog>
</models>
<resources>
<seoheading_setup>
<setup>
<module>Creare_Seoheading</module>
</setup>
<connection>
<use>core_setup</use>
</connection>
</seoheading_setup>
<seoheading_write>
<connection>
<use>core_write</use>
</connection>
</seoheading_write>
<seoheading_read>
<connection>
<use>core_read</use>
</connection>
</seoheading_read>
</resources>
</global>
</config>
The end result is an extra category attribute for you to use to your leisure.
Thanks for reading, if anyone has any suggestions or improvements I’d be glad to hear your feedback. Yyou can download the module zip here: Creare_Seoheading.zip
Adam is Ecommerce Manager and a PHP developer at Creare Group. Adam is responsible for training Magento development within the company. Follow Adam on Twitter: http://twitter.com/adampmoss. - Read my other posts.