OpenCart - Showing category description on category menu module

Question

OpenCart - Showing category description on category menu module. try to display category image and description on category list, Image working fine but the description of the category doesn't work.

here catalog\\controller\\module\\category.php

<?php  
class ControllerModuleCategory extends Controller {
    protected function index($setting) {
        $this->language->load('module/category');

        $this->data['heading_title'] = $this->language->get('heading_title');

        if (isset($this->request->get['path'])) {
            $parts = explode('_', (string)$this->request->get['path']);
        } else {
            $parts = array();
        }

        if (isset($parts[0])) {
            $this->data['category_id'] = $parts[0];
        } else {
            $this->data['category_id'] = 0;
        }

        if (isset($parts[1])) {
            $this->data['child_id'] = $parts[1];
        } else {
            $this->data['child_id'] = 0;
        }

        $this->load->model('catalog/category');

        $this->load->model('catalog/product');

        $this->data['categories'] = array();

        $categories = $this->model_catalog_category->getCategories(0);

        foreach ($categories as $category) {
            $total = $this->model_catalog_product->getTotalProducts(array('filter_category_id' => $category['category_id']));

            $children_data = array();

            $children = $this->model_catalog_category->getCategories($category['category_id']);

            foreach ($children as $child) {
                $data = array(
                    'filter_category_id'  => $child['category_id'],
                    'filter_sub_category' => true
                );

                $product_total = $this->model_catalog_product->getTotalProducts($data);

                $total += $product_total;

                $children_data[] = array(
                    'category_id' => $child['category_id'],
                    'name'        => $child['name'] . ($this->config->get('config_product_count') ? ' (' . $product_total . ')' : ''),
                    'href'        => $this->url->link('product/category', 'path=' . $category['category_id'] . '_' . $child['category_id']) 
                );      
            }
            // image cat code
            $this->load->model('tool/image');
            $image = empty($category['image']) ? 'no_image.jpg' : $category['image'];
            $thumb = $this->model_tool_image->resize($image, 50, 127);



            $this->data['categories'][] = array(
                'category_id' => $category['category_id'],
                'name'        => $category['name'] . ($this->config->get('config_product_count') ? ' (' . $total . ')' : ''),
                'children'    => $children_data,
                'thumb'    => $thumb,
                'href'        => $this->url->link('product/category', 'path=' . $category['category_id'])
            );  
        }

        if (file_exists(DIR_TEMPLATE . $this->config->get('config_template') . '/template/module/category.tpl')) {
            $this->template = $this->config->get('config_template') . '/template/module/category.tpl';
        } else {
            $this->template = 'default/template/module/category.tpl';
        }

        $this->render();
    }
}
?>

and here template\\module\\category.tpl

<div class="menu-left">
  <div class="title"><?php echo $heading_title; ?></div>

    <ul>
      <?php foreach ($categories as $category) { ?>
      <li class="sub">
        <?php if ($category['category_id'] == $category_id) { ?>
       <span> <a href="<?php echo $category['href']; ?>" class="active"><?php echo $category['name']; ?></a></span>
        <?php } else { ?>
        <span><a href="<?php echo $category['href']; ?>"><?php echo $category['name']; ?></a></span>
        <?php } ?>
        <?php if ($category['children']) { ?>
     <div class="panel">
        <ul>
          <?php foreach ($category['children'] as $child) { ?>
          <li>
            <?php if ($child['category_id'] == $child_id) { ?>
            <a href="<?php echo $child['href']; ?>" class="active"> - <?php echo $child['name']; ?></a>
            <?php } else { ?>
            <a href="<?php echo $child['href']; ?>"> - <?php echo $child['name']; ?></a>
            <?php } ?>
          </li>
          <?php } ?>
        </ul>


  <div class="desc">

<?php if(isset($category_info)) { ?>
<?php echo $category_info['description']; ?>
<?php } ?>
    <div class="img-desc"><img src="<?php echo $category['thumb']; ?>" /></div>


  </div>



        </div>
        <?php } ?>
      </li>
      <?php } ?>
    </ul>

</div>

Answer 1

There are two problems:

1. You are not setting the category description within the controller.
2. The template is referencing a blank variable since the $category_info variable is not set within the controller thus the description won't work, solution is below.

Add the line into the controller shown below:

            $this->data['categories'][] = array(
                'category_id' => $category['category_id'],
                'name'        => $category['name'] . ($this->config->get('config_product_count') ? ' (' . $total . ')' : ''),
                'children'    => $children_data,
                'thumb'       => $thumb,
/*THIS IS NEW*/ 'description' => $category['description'],
                'href'        => $this->url->link('product/category', 'path=' . $category['category_id'])
            );

Now declare the variable via string in your template:

<div class="desc">
    <?php echo $category['description']; ?>
    <div class="img-desc"><img src="<?php echo $category['thumb']; ?>" /></div>
</div>

Answer 2

The problem is with lacking html_entity_decode.

Replace:

'description' => $category['description'],

With:

'description' => html_entity_decode($category['description'], ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8'),