Category page as "homepage" of your store

In latest guide i showed how to create product as a prestashop langing page. Now i want to show you how easily you can display category listing page as a homepage of your store. Changes will be very similar to guide related to product. This tutorial is based on prestashop 1.5 enginem but you can use it also in 1.6 release. Read full step by step guide below.

Category products listing page as homepage of your store

IndexController - homepage controller modification

To change prestashop homepage contents, we have to modify the controller of "homepage". This controller defines what kind of stuff you want to display on "index" page of your store (first page). You can find this controller in file located in your prestashop filesystem: /controllers/front/IndexController.php file. By default contents of this file looks like:

class IndexControllerCore extends FrontController
{
	public $php_self = 'index';

	/**
	 * Assign template vars related to page content
	 * @see FrontController::initContent()
	 */
	public function initContent()
	{
		parent::initContent();

		$this->context->smarty->assign(array('HOOK_HOME' => Hook::exec('displayHome'), 
			'HOOK_HOME_TAB' => Hook::exec('displayHomeTab'),
			'HOOK_HOME_TAB_CONTENT' => Hook::exec('displayHomeTabContent')
		));
		$this->setTemplate(_PS_THEME_DIR_.'index.tpl');
	}
}

Step 1

It's necessary to modify "extend" modifier of class name. Instead of FrontController we have to use ProductController, exactly as i show below. Instead of:

class IndexControllerCore extends FrontController

use

class IndexControllerCore extends CategoryController

Step 2

To define what category products listing we want to dispaly, we have to add new function there named init(). In this function we can define important params for whole controller. We have to create new variable $_GET['id_category'], exactly as i show below:

public function init(){
    $_GET['id_category']=4;
    parent::init();
}

$_GET['id_category']=4 - this is variable which defines category id number, this cateogry products listing will appear on front page of your shop. You can use there any other category id you want. Read how to get category id.

paste code above right after:

public $php_self = 'index';

Step 3

Now it's time to modify initContent() function. We have to remove all unnecessary code there. Just replace original function with this one:

public function initContent()
{
     parent::initContent();
}

... and thats all :) 

Full code of modified controller

class IndexControllerCore extends CategoryController
{
 public $php_self = 'index';
/**
 * Assign template vars related to page content
 * @see FrontController::initContent()
 */
 public function init(){
 $_GET['id_category']=4;
 parent::init();
 }
 public function initContent()
 {
 parent::initContent();
 }
}