This is silly. You have not understood the menu item at all.

This menu item type is called "List all Categories"
So obviously if there are no categories as children of the Top Level category it will not display any categories on the page.

The problem is that you seem to think that it should also list the articles and it doesnt - it lists the categories. Thats why it is called list all categories

You still did not understand the issue as stated in #31110.
There is a bug indeed but the effect is that such a wrong parametered menu item has consequences when the items pertaining to the top level category can’t be displayed and give a 404.

The menu item itself gives a 404...

Even if the bug is solved, it is clever to explain how it works by the existing tip.

I tested the other issue and the menu does not give a 404

Reinstating tips as it is very easy to not understand that the Top Level category does not include that category.

You are mistaking the menu item. It is to display categories not articles.

I know what this menu item does.

You are right. No 404, no error, just a blank page when clicking on the allcategories menu item or the link to the category in article top.

The consequences of the error is only visible for the articles concerned when Search Engine Friendly URLs is on.

Bug there is, but why have'nt anyone remarked it in the last 10 years? Simple: the tip was there to explain what the menu item would do. Reinstating the tip is simple and does not harm.

Good luck to solve the bug itself...

I have tested this item ✅ successfully on 17fca47

That better explains what this setting is supposed to do. Good. The original problem remains.

My Bunkum menu item now uses my Animals top level category. it has one sub-category, Ants. Following the menu link produces this:

There is no mention of the parent category, Animals. Pity!

Clearly, I don't know enough about Joomla as a CMS user! It turns out I can set whatever I need above Ant in the Page Display tab. Thank you for your patience.

To get a mention of your top category level, You have to specify some parameters:
In the case oof root:

With root I have

but with a generic category you do not see the articles.

The XML Description appear under the field, but it doesn't solve the issue.

but with a generic category you do not see the articles.

Because this menu type is to display a list of categories (and if there are articles in those categories they will be displayed).
If you want to have a menu type that displays a list of artciles in the category then you should use the other menu type

Yes, correct:

Menu:

Categories:

Frontend:

I have tested this item ✅ successfully on 17fca47

The PR help to doesn't use the item menu category to try to show the article by adding a description.

I have tested this item ✅ successfully on 17fca47

The description appears and seem to help to understand what will be shown (just categories UNDER selected category)

RTC

This PR should not be accepted - it doesnt add anything

... - it doesnt add anything

Hmm, maybe I have fata morgana, but to me it seems to add a description to a text field ?

it doesnt add anything of value. there was a reason that useless descriptions were removed.

To me this one seems not to be useless, but that's a matter of taste maybe.

what does it add? It is obvious. Might as well add them all back :(

In my opinion the title "List All Categories" and the label "Select a Top Level Category" doesn't fit, isn't there a better wording for it?

Also "ROOT" as the category root is hard to understand for a user, especially when the categories under this "root" node having a wrong indentation.

So instead of adding the description back we should solve the other 3 Text strings and fix the selected list.

I found the tip useful, but that was because I did not understand what would be shown without doing it. So @HLeithner has a point. With another sub-sub-category added I only just realised that 'List All Categories' really means 'List All Categories within a Category'. So I now have Animals / Ants / Flying Ants and with my Ants sub-category selected it comes out like this:

I think the combination of 'List All Categories' and the default set to 'Root' was misleading.

I agree with the problem of the term root - as thats a technical term not familiar to windows users however it is the correct term and it is used throughout joomla

Otherwise I dont see the need for any change.

When you create the menu item you have selected

It did exactly what it said it would do but for some reason you thought it would show articles as well

Also please note that this type of menu is not just limited to articles. Any component that has categories has the same menu type eg contacts and newsfeeds. So if this really is a change that must be made then it must be made there as well.

For me the word "All" is misleading and people don't read descriptions ;-)

Do we have a better word then ROOT?

For me the word "All" is misleading and people don't read descriptions ;-)

I have no problem with the word ALL being removed

Do we have a better word then ROOT?

Parent? but that still doesn't indicate the very top. And again this term root is used all over joomla

Top Level /
Main Level /
Main dir(ectory) /
Webroot

All are not perfect, as some user may install Joomla inside of sub-dir(s) of the main root.

What about instead of a static word, but using actually the full resolved path as replacement of "Root"?

Like "<Your domain>(/possible-sub-dir)/"

<Your domain> replaced by the webdomain (if to long, partly shortened)

Don't know if that's better .. or even worse.

Over on the right the Parent Item is Menu Item Root. I think maybe 'Select a Top Level Category' could be 'Select a Parent Category'. The tip then seems apt.

I agree that the label is bad now. And the PR works as described.
But don't like adding a description here (there are many places where descriptions could be re-added :) )

Suggestion:

"List categories in a category tree"
"Select the parent category"

Removing RTC till we agreed on the best solution for the problem

Removing RTC till we agreed on the best solution for the problem

one month later …

Having a description makes sense to me, but even the one in question is not 100% understandable. The menu item shows categories under a category that have (viewable for a user ???) items. Btw. have never used this menu item type, don't see so much value for it.

The all categories menu item (for each component using them) is very handy as it provides correct urls for any display with no specific menu item.
This is why we create it systematically as hidden when installing multilingual sample data.

I have no issue with adding a description but it needs to be useful. If it is just stating the obvious it is not useful. If it is just restating what has already been displayed then it not useful. In the specific case that raised this issue the proposed description would have had no impact at all

my suggestion after a speaking with a non technic friend:
No description
better menu item description
Small change in label

Good proposal by @chmst
Please make PR. I close this one.