Thread: Not able to figure out how to set up the categories to display how I need them

Not able to figure out how to set up the categories to display how I need them

I am setting up a nationwide directory for attorneys. I thought this would be simple enough, but now I am not sure if Vantage can natively do what would like to do. Hopefully I am just missing something.

So what I want is simple. I would like the top level categories to be the 50 states. Then I was going to set up the cities as subcategories in each state. I started to do this and thought it was going well until I realized a few things.

Here is what I am trying to accomplish

I want to be able to pull up a list of 50 states with no cities showing underneath each state (figured that out in settings)
When I click on a state I would like it to be able to list all the subcategories in that state (set with parent) but not show any listings.
Then when I click on a city I want the listings in that city to show.

This seems simple but my problem seems to be that when I click on a state, instead of showing me a list of all the cities (sub categories) it is taking me to the listings and showing every listing in the entire state.

You can see how this would be frustrating for a user looking for an attorney in a small city in California to click on the state, and not be able to drill down further to the city but instead see 100's of listings for every attorney in California.

I am sure there must be a simple way to do what I need and I am just missing it.

If anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate it.

Again, just want the user to be able to click "find attorney" at the top, pulls down 50 states (with no listings showing), click a state, pulls down all the cities within that state (no listings showing) then clicks a city and sees only the listings in that city.

I know I can do it just by making my own formatted pages, instead of categories, but it seems like it would be smoother if I could use the core functionality of the category listings in Vantage for this. This seems pretty straight forward for the needs of a nationwide directory focusing on one niche, which was what all the reviews say Vantage was sort of designed for.

Thanks for any help you can offer.