This module adds many features to the category block and reduces the load time of the module by loading only top-level categories initially and loading the other levels as needed using AJAX.
On the configuration page, the "Tree Settings" section provide many settings to control the category tree. The "Maximum depth" option lets you limit how many levels of categories are displayed. The "Hide empty categories" option makes it so that categories without any products are not displayed, unless one of the category's subcategories contains a product. Enabling the "Hide parent categories" option causes only the subcategories of the current category to be displayed. The "Hide sub-subcategories" option makes it so that only the direct subcategories of the current category are displayed. It can be used in combination with the "Hide parent categories" option so that only the direct subcategories of the current category are displayed. The "Show breadcrumbs" option can be used with the "Hide parent categories" option so that the parent categories of the current category are displayed like a breadcrumb for the current category, making it easier to access parent categories of the current category. The "Show products" option lets you include products in the category block as if they were categories. Clicking on a product will go directly to that product's page. The "Highlight colour" option is used to set which colour is used to highlight the current category.
The "Product numbers" option lets you display the number of products in each category. If the "Category" option is chosen, then only the products directly in each category are included in the product count. If the "Category and subcategories" option is chosen, then all products in a category and its subcategories will be included in the product count. For this second option, the module creates a cache of product counts to improve performance so that products don't need to be recounted every time the page is loaded. You can also set up a cron job to automatically update the cache on a regular basis. Also, the "Hide zero counts" makes it so that only non-zero product counts are displayed. An override is used so that product counts are displayed on category pages too.
The "Animation Settings" section on the configuration page lets you change settings related to the animation applied to the categories. The "Animation mode" lets you choose between "None", "Original" and "Accordion". The "None" option displays all categories without any animation. The "Original" mode is the same as the default category block that comes with PrestaShop. It adds a +/- icon next to categories to expand or collapse them. The "Accordion" mode uses an accordion to display only one set of subcategories at a time. This saves vertical space and allows the +/- icons to be removed to save horizontal space too. Instead, clicking on the category name expands the subcategories. The "Slide animation" option lets you choose the animation used when expanding and collapsing categories: "None", "Default", "Ease" or "Bounce". The "Mouse event" option lets you choose which event causes categories to be expanded or collapsed: "Click" or "Hover". In "Accordion" mode, the "Collapsible" option makes it so that subcategories can be collapsed as well as expanded. The "Dynamically load" option lets you dynamically load subcategories using AJAX. The "Save state" option lets you choose whether the current category is reloaded in the category block so that the state stays the same when clicking on categories and products. The "Open categories" option lets you choose which subcategories are expanded initially.
AJAX Sliding Categories Main Features
