Is it possible to display a list of category "grand children"?

Question

We have our articles organized as shown below - the main Producers category has a subcategory for each Producer, which then has a category for each of their Programs. I've been tinkering with the dozens of options in a Joomla Category List, to list all the grandchild categories of a given category, but with no luck.

My inclination is to add a new view and related MVC files to com_content, but that doesn't seem like a good idea, nor do I know how the installation package would do that.

In short, i'd like a page that displays all the categories (not articles) that are grandchild categories of Producers. I'm pretty sure that the core content component doesn't handle this, so am looking for some "best practice" approach, or perhaps a known extension that might do the trick.

Category Structure

Producers (category)
  -> John Doe (child category)
      -> Program1 Name (grandchild category)
             -> Article for Episode 1-1
             -> Article for Episode 1-2
             -> Article for Episode 1-3
      -> Program2 Name (grandchild category)
             -> Article for Episode 2-1
             -> Article for Episode 2-2
  -> Mary Smith (child category)
      -> Program87 Name (grandchild category)
             -> Article for Episode 87-1
             -> Article for Episode 87-2

Desired List of Categories to be displayed:

PROGRAMS         PRODUCER         EPISODES
Program1         John Doe         3
Program2         John Doe         2
Program87        Mary Smith       2

Answer 1

This is a candidate for a CCK, like Zoo.

You want to structure content based on different factors, and select multiple categories, etc. It's possible with Joomla articles but it's not the most organized or elegant way.

With a CCK, each item type has its own fields, structure, and display layout-- if you customize it that far. And for your proposed application, you should.

Items can be related and categorized, but also the structure of the items themselves can be customized for the presentation of your information.

• For instance, a profile on the producer is an item of type "producer"
• Programs would have entirely different fields
• Episodes have fields related to, well, specific episodes

By setting up a CCK, you'll have a more organized and elegant presentation, but you'll also streamline your ongoing content management. Each item type (producer, program, episode) "styles itself" and you can focus on just plugging in raw information.

EDIT: if you already have the content set up as articles, CCKs like Zoo can import them to speed up your conversion time. :)