Category Controller overriding to allow multiple Categories in URL

Question

My custom module (AKA AraujoPhillips/SpecialCategories) should allow URLs with multiple categories, like:

example.com/category1/category2.html

example.com/sales/phones.html

The following custom router manage these kind of URLs (Which is working):

AraujoPhillips/SpecialCategories/Controller/Router.php

public function match(Zend_Controller_Request_Http $request)
{
    $this->request = $request;
    $this->realUri = /* Some code here */;
    $this->mainCategoryPath = /* Some code here */;

    if ($this->isSpecialCategoryUri($this->realUri)) {
        $urlRewrite = Mage::getModel('core/url_rewrite');

        $urlRewrite->setStoreId(Mage::app()->getStore()->getId())
            ->loadByRequestPath($this->mainCategoryPath);

        $this->request->setPathInfo($this->mainCategoryPath);
        $this->request->setModuleName('catalog');
        $this->request->setControllerName('category');
        $this->request->setActionName('view');

        $this->request->setParam(
                            'id', 
                            $urlRewrite->getCategoryId()
                        );

        $urlRewrite->rewrite($this->request);

        return true;
    }

    return false;
}

/**
  * Eval if the category allows more categories in URL
  * @param string
  * @return boolean
  */
 private function isSpecialCategoryUri($uri){
    // Do something
 }

Everything looks good at this point.

Then, I'm trying to extend CategoryController.php from Mage_Catalog_CategoryController:

AraujoPhillips/SpecialCategories/etc/config.xml

<config>
    <modules>
        <AraujoPhillips_SpecialCategories>
            <version>0.1.0</version>
        </AraujoPhillips_SpecialCategories>
    </modules>
    <global>
        ...
        <events>
            <controller_front_init_routers>
                <observers>
                    <araujophillips_specialcategories>
                        ...
                    </araujophillips_specialcategories>
                </observers>
            </controller_front_init_routers>
        </events> 
    </global>
    <frontend>
        <routers>
            <catalog>
                <args>
                    <modules>
                        <AraujoPhillips_SpecialCategories before="Mage_Catalog">AraujoPhillips_SpecialCategories</AraujoPhillips_SpecialCategories>
                    </modules>
                </args>
            </catalog>
        </routers>
    </frontend>
</config>

And finally:

AraujoPhillips/SpecialCategories/controllers/CategoryControllers.php

require_once Mage::getModuleDir('controllers','Mage_Catalog').DS.'CategoryController.php';

class AraujoPhillips_SpecialCategories_CategoryController extends Mage_Catalog_CategoryController
{
    public function viewAction()
    {
        echo 'It worked!!';
        die();
    }
}

The message 'It worked!!' is not being shown so the CategoryController.php file is not being extended.

Where is the error?

Answer 1

Everything was OK!!!

The controller wasn't being overridden because another extension (Amasty_Shopby in my case) is also overriding it!

So, I applied the following modification to my config.xml:

AraujoPhillips/SpecialCategories/etc/config.xml

<config>
    <modules>
        <AraujoPhillips_SpecialCategories>
            <version>0.1.0</version>
        </AraujoPhillips_SpecialCategories>
    </modules>
    <global>
        ...
    </global>
    <frontend>
        <routers>
            <catalog>
                <args>
                    <modules>
                        <AraujoPhillips_SpecialCategories before="Amasty_Shopby">AraujoPhillips_SpecialCategories</AraujoPhillips_SpecialCategories>
                    </modules>
                </args>
            </catalog>
        </routers>
    </frontend>
</config>

I also added the modules dependency in app/etc/modules XML file:

app/etc/modules/AraujoPhillips_SpecialCategories.xml

<config>
    <modules>
        <AraujoPhillips_SpecialCategories>
            <active>true</active>
            <codePool>local</codePool>
            <depends>
                <Amasty_Shopby />
            </depends>
        </AraujoPhillips_SpecialCategories>
    </modules>
</config>

Answer 2

You should be focusing on rewrites not routers and controllers. Also, there’s an option in the store configurations to add category paths to URLs.