Thread

So I have 3 top level categories, lets say

  Exotics Birds, Small Pets, Reptiles

Underneath those, I need sub categories, lets say
  EXOTIC BIRDS (top level)
  Parrots (sub)
  Parakeets (sub)
  Cockatiels (sub)
 
  SMALL PETS (top level)
  Rabbits (sub)
    hamsters (sub)

  REPTILES (top level)
    Lizards (sub)
    Snakes (sub)
    Alligators (sub)
 
Furthermore, I have a blog, with categories such as

  Pet Care
  Diets
  Quizzes
 
 
And to complicate things further, I have 2 more sections (Resources and Food)

I need to somehow associate all these under a top level category in some way that is intuitive.

Basically the site is broken down by top level category. So choose a top level category, the page is littered with random sub cat info…. drilling down to a sub cat should display it’s food, care, any quizzes, etc.

Example:
  ** EXOTIC BIRDS (top level category)
  >> Parrots (sub category)
  - Parrot Food (treated as a blog)
      —Product One (product)
      —Product Two (product)
  - Parrot Care (blog cat)
      —Article One (blog article)
  - Parrot Quiz (blog cat)
      —Quiz One (blog article)
    —Quiz Two (blog article)
  - Parrot Resources (treated as a blog)
      —Resource one
    —Resource Two
 
 
How would I go about setting up the categories for this? Something tells me that each category should be of it’s own, and I somehow associate them across the board, because for the most part, they are all the same under each top level Cat.

I don’t think I should lay out every single sub category under each top level category, should I?.

Make sense?

Thanks

Here is attached graphic hoping to clear it up. The question is, how do I handle the blog categories, and still associate them with exotic birds and it’s categories?

Not quite clear on what you are attempting…but it sounds like you are trying to use Categories as a nav tool to get users to content that’s a mixed bag of blog entries and product pages.

If that’s the case then categories aren’t a great fit. They seem like the way to do it because they are the only place in native EE where you can establish hierarchy but they are really intended/designed as a filtering mechanism applied to a channel, not as a nav-building device across a site.

I’d recommend looking at a tool like Taxonomy, which is completely designed as a nav building tool:

http://devot-ee.com/add-ons/taxonomy