Navigation menu with product thumbnails Magento - php

Question

Hi guys I am trying to integrate CSS3 Mashmenu onto my Magento store http://www.mybloggerlab.com/2012/07/mashable-drop-down-navigation-menu-for.html
I would like to setup the menu to show product categories which when hovered over show product thumbnails with short description for each product in that category.
The prodblem I am having is setting this up so it is dynamic as I would prefer to have the menu be controllable via admin.
If someone could tell me where I am going wrong I would be very grateful as the current code isn't working.
<div id="pageContainer">
<div class="mashmenu">
<div class="fnav"><?php echo $this->__('BROWSE PRODUCTS'); ?>+
<div class="allContent">
<?php foreach ($_categories as $_category): ?>
<?php if($_category->getIsActive()): ?>
<div class="snav"><a href="#" class="slink">
<a href="<?php echo $this->getCategoryUrl($_category) ?>"<?php if ($this->isCategoryActive($_category)): ?> class="current"<?php endif; ?>><?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_category->getName()) ?></a> (<?php echo $_category->getProductCount() ?>)</a>
<?php $collection = $_category->getProductCollection()->addAttributeToSort('name', 'asc'); ?>
<?php foreach ($collection as $_product) : ?>
<div class="insideContent">
<a href="<?php echo $this->getProductUrl($_product) ?>" title="<?php echo $this->stripTags($_product->getName(), null, true) ?>" class="product-image">
<img src="<?php echo $this->helper('catalog/image')->init($_product, 'small_image')->resize(75) ?>" width="75" height="75" alt="<?php echo $this->stripTags($_product->getName(), null, true) ?>" />
</a>
<span> <?php $sdesc = $_product->getShortDescription();
$sdesc = trim($sdesc);
$limit = 170;
if (strlen($sdesc) > $limit) {
$sdesc = substr($sdesc, 0, strrpos(substr($sdesc, 0, $limit), ' '));
} ?>
<?php echo $sdesc."..."; ?></span>
</div>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</div>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endforeach; ?>
<!-- end insideContent -->
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<script>
$j(document).ready(function(){
$j('div.mashmenu img').css({"width":"100px","height":"60px"});
$j('div.mashmenu').find('.allContent').css({"top":"38px"});
$j('div.mashmenu').mouseleave(function(){
$j('div.mashmenu .allContent').show('50');
$j('div.mashmenu .insideContent').fadeOut('50');
});
$j('.flink').mouseenter(function(){
$j('div.mashmenu .allContent').show('50');
$j(this).parent('.fnav').children('.allContent').show(200);
});
$j('.slink').mouseenter(function(){
if($j(this).parent('.snav').children('.insideContent').find('a').size() != 0 )
$j(this).parents('.allContent').css({"width":"640px","height":"500px"});
else $j(this).parents('.allContent').css({"width":"auto","height":"auto"});
$j('div.mashmenu .insideContent').fadeOut('50');
$j(this).parent('.snav').children('.insideContent').fadeIn(200);
});
$j('.snav').mouseleave(function(){
$j(this).parents('.allContent').css({"width":"auto","height":"auto"});
});
$j('.snav').mouseenter(function(){
$j(this).children('.insideContent').css({"display":"block","position":"absolute","width":"auto","height":"450px"});
});
});
</script>
<?php endif; ?>

Answer 1

<div class="insideContent">
<img src="<?php echo $this->helper('catalog/image')->init($_product, 'small_image')->resize(75) ?>" width="75" height="75" alt="<?php echo $this->stripTags($_product->getName(), null, true) ?>" /> <span> <?php $sdesc = $_product->getShortDescription();
$sdesc = trim($sdesc);
$limit = 170;
if (strlen($sdesc) > $limit) {
$sdesc = substr($sdesc, 0, strrpos(substr($sdesc, 0, $limit), ' '));
} ?>
<?php echo $sdesc."..."; ?></span>
</div>
Your $_product is undefined here, moreover you'll have only one product per category so which one to show ?
replace this by something like :
<?php $collection = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->getCollection()->addCategoryFilter($_category)->setPageSize(4);
<div class="insideContent">
<?php foreach ($collection as $_product) { ?>
//Your product here, copy your code
<?php } /*end foreach*/ ?>
</div>
It should work better like this.