Display categories on home page in Magento - magento

Question

I am a newbie in Magento and wanted to display all categories on the Magento home page rather than a top nav menu.
I read a lot of articles on it, but nothing has helped. Please point me to the right direction.
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The code below does a couple of things, first it will get all the store’s categories - it then checks to see if they are active before continuing.
Code Courtesy : magentocommerce forum
<?php
/* Get the categories that are active for the store */
$_main_categories=$this->getStoreCategories();
/* Get the current category the user is in */
$_current_category=$this->getCurrentCategory();
/* Get the current category path */
$_categorypath = $this->getCurrentCategoryPath();
?>
<ul>
<?php
if ($_main_categories):
/* This bit cycles through the categories - setting the next one to current */
foreach ($_main_categories as $_main_category):
if($_main_category->getIsActive()):
$cur_category=Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load($_main_category->getId());
$layer = Mage::getSingleton('catalog/layer');
$layer->setCurrentCategory($cur_category);
/* Write the main categories */
?>
<li><?php echo $this->getCurrentCategory()->getName();?></li>
<?php
/* Check the category variable loop against the current category path if it is - print sub categories */
if (in_array($this->getCurrentCategory()->getId(), $_categorypath)): ?>
<?php $_maincategorylisting=$this->getCurrentCategory()?>
<?php $_categories=$this->getCurrentChildCategories()?>
<?php if($_categories->count()):?>
<ul>
<? foreach ($_categories as $_category):?>
<? if($_category->getIsActive()):
$cur_subcategory=Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load($_category->getId());
$layer = Mage::getSingleton('catalog/layer');
$layer->setCurrentCategory($cur_subcategory);
?>
<li> <?php echo $_category->getName()?></li>
<? endif;?>
<?endforeach?>
</ul>
<?php /* This resets the category back to the original pages category
**** If this is not done, subsequent calls on the same page will use the last category
**** in the foreach loop
*/ ?>
<?php $layer->setCurrentCategory($_current_category); ?>
<?endif;?>
<?endif;?>
<?php
endif;
endforeach;
else:
?>
<p>$_main_categories array was empty.</p>
<p>This might be because you are referencing this phtml file with a wrong type attribute. You should use <block type="catalog/navigation" ... /> !</p>
<?php endif; ?>

Answer 2

I got where the problem was.
The solution is at this link http://samsami2u.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/add-categories-with-images-on-homepage-magento/ and I was trying to add this line
{{block type="catalog/navigation" name="catalog.category" template="catalog/category/list.phtml"}} to home page from back end in layout update xml under design tab but the correct way was to place it in content tab.