show category and subcategories in a tree menu using codeigniter

Question

I want to show categories and subcategories like a tree menu:

Category

• Subcategory
• Subcategory 2

Category 2

• Subcategory
• Subcategory 2

my database contains 3 colomns:

categoryId, categoryName, categoryParentId

I really don't have an idea how to do this?! Can somebody help me?! I found some codes on the net, but I couldn't make them work

Answer 1

The best way to make such a structure would be to implement either an Adjacency List model or Nested Set model . You can read more about them in this excellent article by Mike Hillyer.

Of course, you can always come up with a home-made solution, but in my experience, they often don't come up as good, effective and flexible as the two mentioned above.