Thread

I wondering if there’s an issue with having several category groups all containg a category custom fields that have the same name. I’m working on a bilingual (English/French) site, and for every category, I need to have the category name in French, so I use the custom field name “category_name_fr”. I do this in 4 separate category groups.

The problem is that I can’t seem to display the french name using the weblog:categories tag, which according to the docs, I should be able to display custom fields:

{exp:weblog:categories weblog="contacts" category_group="4"}
  <option value="{category_id}">{if lang=="en"}{category_name}{/if}{if lang=="fr"}{category_name_fr}{/if}</option>
{/exp:weblog:categories}

This code shows a list of provinces, but in French, it actaully creates the dropdown which I can select from, the text is blank. My hunch is that this is a naming conflict, but I’d really prefer to keep the variable names consistent so that I can loop through several category groups in my templates and always know that the field is going to be “category_name_fr”, regardless of the group or weblog. Does that make any sense?

Thanks for your time!

Hm- do a quick test on a blank template

{exp:weblog:categories weblog="contacts" category_group="4" style="linear"}
 {category_name} - french: {category_name_fr}

{/exp:weblog:categories}

Does it fail to show there as well?and- you’re using a custom category field in multiple groups with the name category_name_fr?

Hi Robin,

Thanks for the quick reply - the clean template with the code above outputs:

Alberta - french:
British Columbia - french:
Manitoba - french:
...

category_name_fr is still outputting nothing. I double checked for typos in the field name etc.

Strange eh?

Hi Robin - I think I found my error - one minute…

Hi Robin,

Sorry about the mix up, the weblog:categories tag seems to be working, it’s the {categories} pair that’s giving me grief:

Here’s some sample code:

<ul>
   {exp:weblog:entries weblog="meetings" limit="3"  }
    <li>{title}

       {categories}
              {category_name} - {category_name_fr}
           {/categories}
       
<em>{entry_date format="%l %F %j%S, %Y at %g:%i%a"}</em>
        </li>
        
   {/exp:weblog:entries}
</ul>
<hr>
{exp:weblog:categories weblog="meetings"  }
  {category_name} - french: {category_name_fr}

{/exp:weblog:categories}

In the {categories} variable pair, category_name_fr is empty, but in the weblog:categories tag, it’s displayed… The meetings weblog has only one category group assigned (id:2)

Hm- try clearing the cache- ‘admin-utilities’.  Might also try specifing the group id in the weblog’s category pair:

{categories show_group="2"}

And I don’t think this is it- because I’d expect the category tag to have issues as well- but might run this fix just to eliminate one possibility.

If none of the above works, I’ll get you to walk me through duplicating the issue.

Oh- what build/version are you running?

Hi Robin,

I tried clearing the cache, and adding the show_group parameter - same result.

I’m running the latest verion/build and haven’t updated since install:

ExpressionEngine 1.6.3,  Build 20080421

Should I still try that fix you mentioned?

I tried disabling all extensions - no luck.

I did however rename the field in that one category group to category_name_fr2 and it displays perfectly. It must be a conflict of names across groups.

Crud.  This rings a vague bell, but I can’t recall if it’s this exact issue.  Let me search around, see if I can find a related thread.

OK- I had seen this before in this thread and the issue is under discussion with the crew regarding whether duplicate names across groups should be allowed.  I haven’t heard the final decision on that one yet.

So for the short term- duplicate custom field groups across category groups (or w/in the same group) should be avoided as you’re likely to run into trouble with it.  Is that going to work ok for you?

Ok - I should be able to get that working using some logic in my templates. Maybe as a decision is being made, the docs could be updated to say that “category field names bust be unique within the group and across all category groups”. I’d add a note in the doc myself but I’m still only a “Grad Student” 😉

Thanks for the help!

Yep- I already bumped the crew on it to see which way to go.  Normally would have had a bug report in on it from the first occurrence- but it wasn’t clear if it’s a bug or a documentation issue.  Sorry you got caught up in the decision making process!

And I shall go ahead and close this on out.