Default image for subcategories

Question

In Joomla 3.7.2, I have made an override of com_content/categories/default_items.php to show a default image if the category does not have an image like so:-

        <?php if ($item->getParams()->get('image')) : ?>
                <img src="<?php echo $item->getParams()->get('image'); ?>"/>
        <?php elseif (($item->getParams()->get('image')) == null) : ?>
                <?php echo "<img src=/defaultimage.png>"; ?>
        <?php endif; ?>

This works and displays the default image for all categories (parents and child) which do not have an image set but I would like to modify this to only show the default image on subcategories, therefore the default image would not be displayed for top-level (i.e. root) categories.

How can I achieve this within this scope? I have tried the following:-

        <?php if (($item->getParams()->get('image')) == null && ($item->parent_slug != '1:root')): ?> 
                <?php echo "<img src=/defaultimage.png>"; ?>
        <?php endif; ?>

Unfortunately this returns the following error:-

Undefined property: JCategoryNode::$parent_slug in /templates/t3_bs3_blank/local/html/com_content/categories/default_items.php on line 41

The source of default_items.php is here. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Answer 1

$item->parent_slug doesn't exist. Do a print_r($item); to see what the $item object contains.

Either $item->parent_id; or $item->level; should grab you the information you need. The former will return "root" and the latter "1" if it is a root level category.