Is there a way to not show entries from a sub-category?

Question

I have a category (cat1) with 2 sub-cats (cat1a and cat1b). 19 entries belong to cat1, but 9 are in the sub-cats.

On the 1st level category page (cat1) is there a way to not show the 9 entries that are in the sub-cats?

Sub-categories aren't set in stone either, meaning client will add more sub-cats periodically.

Channel entry tag is being used by the way.

Thanks

Answer 1

You may have Auto-Assign Category Parents turned on, which automatically assigns the category parent when you choose a child category on save. So when viewing Cat1, all of Cat1a entries will also be displayed since the parent category is automatically set.

To turn off, go to Admin > Channel Admin > Global Channel Preferences.

Also, you will need to then go and update the 9 entries and remove the parent category. You can do this in bulk from the edit entries page. Find all 9 entries, click the checkbox next to each, then at the bottom, choose remove categories. Select the category parent to be removed.

Answer 2

Unless I've missed something here could you not simply use the parent_only="yes" paramater on the channel categories tag?

http://ellislab.com/expressionengine/user-guide/modules/channel/categories.html#parent-only

If you were looking to do something slightly more complex you could always try the GWcode Categories plugin http://gwcode.com/add-ons/gwcode-categories

Answer 3

One answer here (as mentioned) is to disable Auto-Assign Category Parents.

But, on a site where i rely on that setting to be available, i display the entry conditionally inside the categories tag. Say you want entries for category id 20 only, not children of 20, then i use a condition (or switchee) on the parent_id:

{!-- preload replace trick with segment conditional to set default --}
{if segment_2_category_id ==""}
  {preload_replace:my_cat_id="12"}
{/if}
{preload_replace:my_cat_id="{segment_2_category_id}"}


{exp:channel entries category="{my_cat_id}" ...}
  {categories}
    {if parent_id != "{my_cat_id}"}
      {!-- display the entry --}
      {title}
      {item_body}
    {/if}
  {/categories}
{/exp:channel:entries}