In the discussion regarding the Two-Level Subcategories Display Issue within the horizon-theme, Noble_Fish reported that two-level subcategories are not well-supported, causing text and icons to shift too far left, risking overflow beyond the category block’s rounded corners. chapoi requested the specific category page layout to better diagnose the visual error. pfaffman clarified that modifying the hidden DISCOURSE_MAX_CATEGORY_NESTING setting is not well-supported by default themes and often requires custom CSS or theme customization to function correctly. Noble_Fish confirmed their layout is set to “Categories and Latest Topics” and noted that the specific two-level display issue only manifests when three-level subcategories are enabled and present. Upon further investigation, Noble_Fish realized their initial understanding was incorrect; when third-level categories are disabled, second-level categories correctly render as small blue blocks (similar to topic indicators) rather than large blocks, resolving the perceived layout conflict. The user acknowledged that the default theme installation settings influenced the behavior they were observing.
Another issue: It appears that two-level subcategories in the Categories list are not well supported, with the text and icon positioned too far to the left, to the extent that there is a significant risk that the rounded corners of the Category block under this theme cannot ensure the icon is contained within its boundaries.
In the screenshot, there are indeed three-level subcategories enabled through hidden settings, but they only change the style on top of the same layout as the Foundation theme, which is unrelated to the display issue of two-level subcategories that is the main focus of this question, and they have no visual errors.
That’s right. Changing the hidden DISCOURSE_MAX_CATEGORY_NESTING isn’t well-supported in many themes, that’s why the setting is hidden. If you’re going to change hidden settings you’ll need to do some customization to make them work.
However, the Two-Level subcategory style in the screenshot is only displayed when the Three-Level subcategory is enabled and at least one Two-Level subcategory under that category has a Three-Level subcategory, so it should be a relatively fixed scenario.
Although the issue with the Three-Level subcategory might be somewhat beyond the originally planned scope of the work…
Ah, I see that it was one of the themes available by default during installation, so I didn’t consider that aspect.
After a little exploration, you’re right. I just unchecked all the third-level categories, and the second-level categories are no longer regular large blocks similar to the first-level categories. Instead, they appear as small blue blocks, just like the category indicators for third-level categories and topics.
Initially, I even thought that even without third-level categories, the second-level categories should still be the same large blocks as the first-level categories… I misunderstood.
