Magento add category with images on homepage

if you would like to add category titles with images on the front page, just follow the steps:

place this snippet on your homepage cms page:

{{block type="core/template" name="homepage" template="catalog/category/homepagecategory.phtml"}}

then place this code in app/code/design/frontend/YOUR_PACKAGE/YOUR_TEMPLATE/catalog/category/homepagecategory.phtml

<?php
 $currcatId = 3;
 if($currcatId != NULL)
    {
  $collection = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->getCategories($currcatId);
  $ctr = 0;
  foreach($collection as $subcat)
  {
      //limits the categories to be shown on home page to 6 categories
      if ($ctr < 6)
   if($subcat->getIsActive())
   {
       $category = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load($subcat->getEntityId());
       $ctr++;
       if (strtolower($category->getName()) == "overige lampen") 
       {
       }
    else
   {
?>

<div class="sub-category-container" style="margin-right:<?php if(($ctr % 2) == 0) {echo "0";} else {echo "8px";} ?>; margin-bottom:10px;" >
 <a href="<?php echo $this->getBaseUrl() . $category->getUrlKey() ?>" style="background:none; border:none;">
  <div>
     <?php if($_imgUrl = $category->getImageUrl()): ?>
   <img src="<?php echo $_imgUrl; ?>" border="0" />
     <?php else:?>
   <img src="<?php echo $this->getSkinUrl('images/lampen/placeholder.jpg') ?>" border="0" width="185px" height="185px" />
     <?php endif; ?>
  </div>
  <div>
   <a href="<?php echo $this->getBaseUrl() . $category->getUrlKey() ?>"><?php echo $category->getName(); ?></a>
  </div>
 </a>
</div>

<?php
     }
   }
  }
 }
?>

Magento - Display Categories (with category images) in the homepage

<div class="top-home-category">
<?php 
/******** Don't know why I commented this
$_helper = $this->helper('catalog/output');
$_category = $this->getCurrentCategory();
$_imgHtml = '';

if ($_imgUrl = $_category->getImageUrl()) {
$_imgHtml = '<p class="category-image"><img src="'.$_imgUrl.'" alt="'.$this->htmlEscape($_category->getName()).'" title="'.$this->htmlEscape($_category->getName()).'" /></p>';
$_imgHtml = $_helper->categoryAttribute($_category, $_imgHtml, 'image');
}
****************************************/
?>

<?php // Iterate all categories in store
 $limit = 0;
$_helper    = $this->helper('catalog/output');
foreach ($this->getStoreCategories() as $_category): 
// If category is Active
if($_category->getIsActive()):
// Load the actual category object for this category
$cur_category = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load($_category->getId());
if ($_imgUrl = $cur_category->getImageUrl()){
$_imgHtml = '<img src="'.$_imgUrl.'" alt="'.$this->htmlEscape($cur_category->getName()).'" title="'.$this->htmlEscape($cur_category->getName()).'"  width="105px" />';
$_imgHtml = $_helper->categoryAttribute($cur_category, $_imgHtml, 'image');
} 
?>
<div class="home-category">
<div class="linkimage">
<a href="<?php echo $this->getCategoryUrl($cur_category) ?>" style="border:none">
<?php echo $_imgHtml; ?>
</a>
</div>
<div class="category-link-container">
<a href="<?php echo $this->getCategoryUrl($cur_category) ?>">
<?php echo $_helper->categoryAttribute($cur_category, $cur_category->getName(), 'name') ?>
</a>
</div>
</div>

// Load a random product from this category
/*$products = Mage::getResourceModel('catalog/product_collection')->addCategoryFilter($cur_category)->addAttributeToSelect('small_image');
$products->getSelect()->order(new Zend_Db_Expr('RAND()'))->limit(1);
$products->load();
// This a bit of a fudge - there's only one element in the collection
$_product = null;
foreach ( $products as $_product ) {}
?>
<div class="home-category">
<div class="linkimage"><p><a href="<?php echo $this->getCategoryUrl($_category)?>">
<?php
if(isset($_product)):
<img src="<?php echo $this->helper('catalog/image')->init($_product, 'small_image')->resize(135, 135); ?>" width="135" height="135" alt="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_product->getName()) ?>" />
<?php
endif;
?> </a></p>
</div>
<a href="<?php echo $this->getCategoryUrl($_category)?>"><?php echo $_category->getName()?></a>
</div>
*/?> <?php
$limit+=1;
endif;
if ($limit==8):
break;
endif;
endforeach;
?> 
</div>

Display Categories in the Home page

• Display Categories in the Home page
• Display a random product's picture with the category name
• It can only fetch the 1st level category

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/* PUT THIS CODE IN CATALOG/CATEGORY/LIST.PHTML (create it if not present) */

<?php // Iterate all categories in store
    $limit = 0;
    $_helper    = $this->helper('catalog/output');
    foreach ($this->getStoreCategories() as $_category):

        // If category is Active
        if($_category->getIsActive()):


            // Load the actual category object for this category
            $cur_category = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load($_category->getId());

            if ($_imgUrl = $cur_category->getImageUrl()){

                $_imgHtml = '<img src="'.$_imgUrl.'" alt="'.$this->htmlEscape($cur_category->getName()).'" title="'.$this->htmlEscape($cur_category->getName()).'"  width="105px" />';
                $_imgHtml = $_helper->categoryAttribute($cur_category, $_imgHtml, 'image');
            } ?>
             <div class="home-category">
                <div class="linkimage">
                    <a href="<?php echo $this->getCategoryUrl($cur_category) ?>" style="border:none">
                    <?php echo $_imgHtml; ?>
                    </a>
                </div>
                <div class="category-link-container">
                <a href="<?php echo $this->getCategoryUrl($cur_category) ?>">
                       <?php echo $_helper->categoryAttribute($cur_category, $cur_category->getName(), 'name') ?>
                </a>
                </div>
            </div>
<?php
           $limit+=1;
        endif;

        if ($limit==8):
            break;
        endif;

    endforeach;
?>

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/* PUT THIS CODE IN THE CMS/PAGES/HOME*/
/* IF YOU WANT TO HARDCODE IT PLACE THIS IN LAYOUT/PAGE.XML -> "Custom page layout handles" AREA */

{{block type="catalog/navigation" name="catalog.category" template="catalog/category/list.phtml"}}
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Reference