Magento home page popular products - magento

Question

Hi All I want to show 4 popular products on the home page of my magento 1.7.1 install. (The I can select by putting them into a category).
I've set this up by creating a hidden category called popularhome and added 4 products into it.
I've included this in a static block into my home page template by using:
{{block type="catalog/product_list" column_count="4" category_id="17" template="catalog/product/listhome.phtml"}}
My listhome.phtml template looks like this:
<div class="row popularproducts">
<?php
$_productCollection=$this->getLoadedProductCollection();
$_helper = $this->helper('catalog/output');
?>
<?php if(!$_productCollection->count()): ?>
<div class="alert fade in">
<a class="close" data-dismiss="alert">×</a>
<?php echo $this->__('There are no products matching the selection.') ?>
</div>
<?php else: ?>
<?php // List mode ?>
<?php if($this->getMode()!='grid'): ?>
<?php $_iterator = 0; ?>
<?php else: ?>
<?php // Grid Mode ?>
<?php $_collectionSize = $_productCollection->count() ?>
<?php $_columnCount = $this->getColumnCount(); ?>
<?php $i=0; foreach ($_productCollection as $_product): ?>
<?php if ($i++%$_columnCount==0): ?>
<?php endif ?>
<div class="c3">
<?php if(($i-1)%$_columnCount==0): ?><?php elseif($i%$_columnCount==0): ?><?php endif; ?>
<div class="thumbnail">
<img src="<?php echo $this->helper('catalog/image')->init($_product, 'small_image')->resize(225); ?>" alt="<?php echo $this->stripTags($this->getImageLabel($_product, 'small_image'), null, true) ?>" />
<div class="caption">
<h2 class="product-name"><?php echo $_helper->productAttribute($_product, $_product->getName(), 'name') ?></h2>
<?php if($_product->getRatingSummary()): ?>
<?php echo $this->getReviewsSummaryHtml($_product, 'short') ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php echo $this->getPriceHtml($_product, true) ?>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<?php if ($i%$_columnCount==0 || $i==$_collectionSize): ?>
<?php endif ?>
<?php endforeach ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
</div>
However this is only showing 2 of the 4 products yet I cannot figure out why? Does anyone see anything I am missing?
Thanks!

Answer 1

First you need to check ,the products that you want to be appear in category page,
Is they really belong to that categories.
After that make sure Backend > Manage Categories > Edit categories > Display settings >
is Anchor = yes Then re-index your catalog.
To verify you need to cross check catalog_category_product and catalog_category_product_index.
If the category id and product id is mapped properly in these tables you should be good to go.
hope this will sure help you!