Ok, I try to explain my solution, I give here most important points, but you should have some experiences like magento layouts, blocks, create custom module.
1. Create attribute which you assumed in your question.
2. Configure your products attaching them to particular category and attribute value created above.
3. Create custom block given in example (/app/code/local/Some/Module/Block/Catalog/Navigation.php):
class Some_Module_Block_Catalog_Navigation extends Mage_Core_Block_Template
{
protected $_attributeCode = 'item_branch';
/**
* @return Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Eav_Attribute
*/
public function getAttribute()
{
$attribute = Mage::getModel('catalog/resource_eav_attribute')
->loadByCode(Mage_Catalog_Model_Product::ENTITY, $this->_attributeCode);
return $attribute;
}
protected function _construct()
{
$this->addData(array(
'cache_lifetime' => false,
'cache_tags' => array(Mage_Catalog_Model_Category::CACHE_TAG),
));
}
public function getCacheKeyInfo()
{
$shortCacheId = array(
'CATALOG_NAVIGATION',
Mage::app()->getStore()->getId(),
Mage::getDesign()->getPackageName(),
Mage::getDesign()->getTheme('template'),
'template' => $this->getTemplate(),
'name' => $this->getNameInLayout(),
$this->_attributeCode
);
return $shortCacheId;
}
public function getCategoryUrl($category)
{
if ($category instanceof Mage_Catalog_Model_Category) {
$url = $category->getUrl();
} else {
$url = $this->_getCategoryInstance()
->setData($category->getData())
->getUrl();
}
return $url;
}
public function getTree()
{
$attributeId = $this->getAttribute()->getId();
$websiteId = Mage::app()->getWebsite()->getId();
$resource = new Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Setup('core_setup');
$categories = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->getCollection();
$categories
->addFieldToSelect(array('category_id' => 'entity_id', 'parent_id'))
->getSelect()
->join(array('cp' => $resource->getTable('catalog_category_product')), 'cp.category_id=main_table.entity_id', 'product_id')
->join(array('pw' => $resource->getTable('catalog_product_website')), "pw.product_id=cp.product_id AND pw.website_id = $websiteId", 'website_id')
->join(array('av' => $resource->getTable('catalog_product_entity_int')), "av.entity_id=pw.product_id AND av.attribute_id = $attributeId", array('option_id' => 'value'))
->join(array('ov' => $resource->getTable('eav_attribute_option_value')), 'ov.option_id=av.`value` AND ov.store_id = 0', array('option_value' => 'value'))
->order(array('option_value', 'category_id'));
$query = $categories->getSelectSql(true);
$data = $resource->getConnection()->fetchAll($query);
$tree = array();
foreach ($data as $row) {
$optionValue = $row['option_value'];
if (!isset($tree[$optionValue])) {
$tree[$optionValue] = array(
'label' => $optionValue,
'categories' => array()
);
}
$parentCategory = $row['parent_id'];
if (!isset($tree[$optionValue]['categories'][$parentCategory])) {
$tree[$optionValue]['categories'][$parentCategory] = array(
'category_id' => $parentCategory,
'sub_categories' => array(),
);
}
$categoryId = $row['category_id'];
$tree[$optionValue]['categories'][$parentCategory]['sub_categories'][$categoryId] = $categoryId;
}
return $tree;
}
}
I created this block to achieve caching of my custom category navigation, because of to build this navigation it is required to load extra data from db. But you can use tree build logic in code given above without using block.
4.Add this navigation to frontend using local.xml layout (/app/design/frontend/default/default/layout/local.xml):
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<layout version="0.1.0">
<catalog_category_default translate="label">
<reference name="left">
<block type="some_module/catalog_navigation" name="catalog.leftnav" before="currency"
template="catalog/navigation/myleft.phtml"/>
</reference>
</catalog_category_default>
<catalog_category_layered translate="label">
<reference name="left">
<block type="some_module/catalog_navigation" name="catalog.myleft"
template="catalog/navigation/myleft.phtml"/>
</reference>
</catalog_category_layered>
</layout>
5.Create navigation block template (/app/design/frontend/default/default/template/catalog/navigation/myleft.phtml):
<?php /* @var $this Some_Module_Block_Catalog_Navigation */ ?>
<?php $tree = $this->getTree(); ?>
<?php $categories = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->getCollection()->addAttributeToSelect('name'); ?>
<?php $_count = count($tree) ?>
<?php if ($_count): ?>
<div class="block block-layered-nav">
<div class="block-title">
<strong><span><?php echo $this->__('Browse By ') . $this->getAttribute()->getFrontendLabel() ?></span></strong>
</div>
<div class="block-content">
<?php foreach ($tree as $label => $optionCategory): ?>
<div>
<h5><?php echo $label ?></h5>
<ul>
<?php foreach ($optionCategory['categories'] as $parent): ?>
<?php $_category = $categories->getItemById($parent['category_id']) ?>
<li>
<a href="<?php echo $this->getCategoryUrl($_category) ?>"><?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_category->getName()) ?></a>
<ul>
<?php foreach ($parent['sub_categories'] as $categoryId): ?>
<?php $_category = $categories->getItemById($categoryId) ?>
<li>
--<a href="<?php echo $this->getCategoryUrl($_category) ?>"><?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_category->getName()) ?></a>
</li>
<?php endforeach ?>
</ul>
</li>
<?php endforeach ?>
</ul>
</div>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</div>
</div>
<?php endif; ?>
6.You can fix design of this menu adding some css classes and rules as you want.
By the way your attribute type should be select. Try to understand the logic and adjust it to your store, this gives me perfect result, maybe it not works via copy/paste without understanding and adjusting the code. See my result:
P.S: maybe this solution has some bugs or issues which I didn't sense, comments will be appreciated.
you cannot modify the attribute created_at in the backend.
So you need to create a module that just activates the created_at attribute for sorting.
For this you will need the following files:
app/etc/modules/[Namespace]_[Module].xml - the declaration file
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
<modules>
<[Namespace]_[Module]>
<codePool>local</codePool>
<active>true</active>
<depends>
<Mage_Catalog />
</depends>
</[Namespace]_[Module]>
</modules>
</config>
app/code/local/[Namespace]/[Module]/etc/config.xml - the configuration file
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
<modules>
<[Namespace]_[Module]>
<version>1.0.0</version>
</[Namespace]_[Module]>
</modules>
<global>
<resources>
<[namespace]_[module]_setup>
<setup>
<module>[Namespace]_[Module]</module>
<class>Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Setup</class> <!-- Make sure you use this class for setup -->
</setup>
</[namespace]_[module]_setup>
</resources>
</global>
</config>
app/code/local/[Namespace]/[Module]/sql/[namespace]_[module]_setup/install-1.0.0.php - the install script
<?php
$this->updateAttribute('catalog_product', 'created_at', 'frontend_label', 'Date Added'); //Set a label to the attribute because by default it does not have one
$this->updateAttribute('catalog_product', 'created_at', 'used_for_sort_by', '1'); //mark the attribute as used for sorting.
Clear the cache and refresh any page. Now you should have the Date Added (created_at) attribute available for sorting in any category.
Best Answer
You can just add 2 product attributes with the names you want and make them available for sorting.
If you need a custom logic behind it rewrite the method
Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Product_Collection::addAttributeToSortand add your owncasesection to handle your attributes.Here is an example on how it's done for
created_at. You can do something similar for your attributes.