Have Categories display a item count

I think a nice addition would be for the CATEGORIES box where it list the different categories also have an option to show the number of products in that category.

I sometimes may have a category that is currently out of products...so even though its listed I would want it to show 0 next to it.

If a category has 5 unique products then it would show (5) next to it.

Example:

CATEGORIES
Hats (3)
Shoes (5)
Ties (0)

This would keep someone from clicking on a category that may be EMPTY for the moment. Makes for a better surfing experience.

KEEP ON MAKING IT BETTER !!!!

x2 on this!

Hi,

Question:
Should this count be all products in the category or only available (in stock) if you do not allow customers to by products that are currently out of stock?

If you DON'T allow products to be purchased when OUT OF STOCK then I believe it should NOT be counted. However, if you allow out of stock items to be ordered regardless then it should show the product in the count for that category.

Why show a product if the customer isn't allowed to order it. Again, its all part of making the surfing experience as easy as possible so in the end they hopfully purchase a product.

Any consideration for this being integrated into the opencart package? If not anyone worked on this as a mod to the files?