Direct link to category?

Question

I'm trying to build up a menu of category links for specific categories I'd like to highlight and apply styling/classes to.

I've tried this sort of thing.

<li><a href="<?php get_site_url(); ?>category/Gadgets"> Gadgets</a></li>

And

 <li><a href="category/Gadgets"> Gadgets</a></li>

It's showing up as sitename/category/category/category/gadgets on the front end.

I can't use <?php wp_list_categories('orderby=name&title_li='); ?> because it's going to spit out all of them and limit the styling I can do on the html.

I just want to link to categories directly, by name, preferably without hard coding in the site name.

Answer 1

There is a function called get_category_link() which might be helpful for you. This will be able to generate an appropriate link without having to hard-code it, except for the category name or ID.

Examples from the Wordpress Codex:

<?php
    // Get the ID of a given category
    $category_id = get_cat_ID( 'Category Name' );

    // Get the URL of this category
    $category_link = get_category_link( $category_id );
?>

<!-- Print a link to this category -->
<a href="<?php echo esc_url( $category_link ); ?>" title="Category Name">Category Name</a>

http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_category_link

Answer 2

Specific to your demand, try this:

<li><a href="<?php echo home_url() ?>/category/Gadgets"> Gadgets</a></li>

Answer 3

use wp_list_categories('include=3,5,9,16');, replace "3,5,9,16" with your category ids ( comma separated

another method

get_category_link( $category_id );

see wordpress codex here

One more method is to create category menu in admin and print it in your theme ( if theme supports menus )

Answer 4

get_site_url() returns a string with the URL, it does not print it. So you may try

<?php echo get_site_url(); ?>

or better:

<?= get_site_url(); ?>