Listing sub-categories on a category page with category images.

This tutorial is going to show you one of the ways to list sub-categories on category pages of your Magento store. In order to display thumbnails of subcategories and their names on your category pages:
1:-In your Magento admin go to CMS -> Static Blocks
2:-Click “Add New Block” at the top right.

3:-Create a new static block as follows:
Block Title: Sub Category Listing
Identifier: subcategory_listing
Status: Enabled
Content:

{{block type="catalog/navigation" template="catalog/navigation/subcategory_listing.phtml"}}

4:-Click "Save Block" at the top right.
5:-From the Top menu go to Catalog –> Manage Categories.
6:-Select the category that has sub-categories and under the "Display Settings Tab" reflect the following:
Display mode: Static Block only
OnlyCMS Block: Sub Category Listing
Is Anchor: No.
7:-Click "Save category" at the top right.
8:-On your computer create a new file called “subcategory_listing.phtml” with the following content:

<?php
$_categories=$this->getCurrentChildCategories();
if($_categories->count()):
$categorycount = 0;
foreach ($_categories as $_category):
if($_category->getIsActive()):
$cur_category=Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load($_category->getId());
$layer = Mage::getSingleton('catalog/layer');
$layer->setCurrentCategory($cur_category);
$catName = $this->getCurrentCategory()->getName();
if ($categorycount == 0){
$class = "first";
}
elseif ($categorycount == 3){
$class = "last";
}
else{
$class = "";
}
?>


<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_category->getName()); ?>

<?php
endif;
if($categorycount == 3){
$categorycount = 0;
echo "
\n\n
";
}
else{
$categorycount++;
}
endforeach;
endif;
?>

9:-upload the file to the following directory:
app/design/frontend/default/MY-TEMPLATE-DIR/template/catalog/navigation/ (if any folder from this directory is missing, you will need to re-create it)
10:-Navigate to app\code\core\Mage\Catalog\Block\Navigation.php.
11:-Copy the Navigation.php file to your computer On this Location.
app\code\local\Mage\Catalog\Block\ and upload the copied Navigation.php to this directory ( you need to create folders). 12:-In the "Navigation.php" look for this part:

<?php
public function getCurrentChildCategories()
    {
        $layer = Mage::getSingleton('catalog/layer');
        $category   = $layer->getCurrentCategory();
        /* @var $category Mage_Catalog_Model_Category */
        $categories = $category->getChildrenCategories();
        $productCollection = Mage::getResourceModel('catalog/product_collection');
        $layer->prepareProductCollection($productCollection);
        $productCollection->addCountToCategories($categories);
        return $categories;
    } 
?>

13:-And replace it with this:

<?php
public function getCurrentChildCategories()
   {
        $layer = Mage::getSingleton('catalog/layer');
        $category   = $layer->getCurrentCategory();
        /* @var $category Mage_Catalog_Model_Category */
        $collection = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->getCollection();
        /* @var $collection Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Eav_Mysql4_Category_Collection */
        $collection->addAttributeToSelect('url_key')
            ->addAttributeToSelect('name')
            ->addAttributeToSelect('is_anchor')
            ->addAttributeToSelect('image') 
            ->addAttributeToFilter('is_active', 1)
            ->addIdFilter($category->getChildren())
            ->setOrder('position', 'ASC')
            ->joinUrlRewrite()
            ->load();
 
        $productCollection = Mage::getResourceModel('catalog/product_collection');
        $layer->prepareProductCollection($productCollection);
        $productCollection->addCountToCategories($collection);
        return $collection;
    } 
?>

14:-From the front end of your site open the category with the sub-categories added to it. Now it should show the sub-categories listing.