Default Category Submission

[mikeh00]

When I create new categories under the com_content extension, it always sets the default parent at No Parent. How would I set that default parent category to uncategorized when my users create their categories? Some skim right over that part and forget to add a parent (thus leaving it at No Parent), which ends up creating categories at the top level, which ruins some things. Thanks!

[mikeh00]

well I do know the link would be:

index.php?option=com_categories&view=category&layout=edit&extension=com_content&parent_id=2

but I don't know how to get the 'new' button to take me to that link. Any ideas?

[rcarey]

My solution is to write a plugin that adds the needed variable (in your case, parent_id=2) and do so only if the JInput variables indicate this is the edit form for a new article category. (I just shared the plugin with you.)

It is tempting to override the edit form and set the default value for this field, but that approach is not as straight-forward as it appears at first. The edit form for creating new categories is re-used for any component that uses Joomla categories - so any one default value is applicable only when the newly created category is for a particular component. ...so in this case I prefer the plugin solution.