Pseudo-type record seen as column by an older PostgreSQL version

[Slapo]

Hello everyone,

I could use some help with this function I've created (see below) that runs flawlessly on PostgreSQL 8.3.6 on my development machine but ends with an error on the production server that has PostgreSQL 7.4.8 installed (see below).

My function:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION generate_menu(varchar(255), char(2), varchar(255), int, varchar(255), int, int, varchar(255), varchar(255)) RETURNS text AS '
DECLARE
    -- declarations
    link_base        ALIAS FOR $1;
    glue            ALIAS FOR $2;
    extra_attributes    ALIAS FOR $3;
    id_parent_target    ALIAS FOR $4;
    link_categories        ALIAS FOR $5;
    last_id            ALIAS FOR $6;
    level            ALIAS FOR $7;
    translate_from        ALIAS FOR $8;
    translate_to        ALIAS FOR $9;
    link_categories_new    varchar(50) := '''';
    category        RECORD;
    subcategories        text := '''';
    output_string        text := '''';
BEGIN
    -- function body
    SELECT id, id_parent, name INTO category FROM is_categories WHERE id>last_id AND status=''1'' AND id_parent=id_parent_target LIMIT 1;
    WHILE category IS NOT NULL LOOP
        link_categories_new := link_categories || glue || category.id;
        IF substring(link_categories_new from 1 for 2) = glue THEN
            link_categories_new := overlay((link_categories || glue || category.id) placing '''' FROM 1 FOR 2);
        END IF;
 
        output_string := output_string || ''<div><span class="level'' || level || ''"><a href="'' || link_base || link_categories_new || glue || translate(category.name, translate_from, translate_to) || ''" title="'' || category.name || ''" '' || extra_attributes || ''>'' || category.name || ''</a></span></div>'';
        SELECT * INTO subcategories FROM generate_menu(link_base, glue, extra_attributes, category.id, link_categories_new, category.id, (level + 1), translate_from, translate_to);
        output_string := output_string || subcategories;
        SELECT id, id_parent, name INTO category FROM is_categories WHERE id>category.id AND status=''1'' AND id_parent=id_parent_target LIMIT 1;
    END LOOP;
 
    RETURN output_string;
END;
' LANGUAGE plpgsql;

PostgreSQL 7.4.8 error:

ERROR:  column "category" does not exist
CONTEXT:  PL/pgSQL function "generate_menu" line 19 at while
 
In statement:
select * from generate_menu('index.php?/eshop/category/', '__', '', 0, '', 0, 1, 'áäčďéěíľĺňóôŕřšťúůýžÁÄČĎÉĚÍĽĹŇÓÔŔŘŠŤÚŮÝŽ /', 'aacdeeillnoorrstuuyzAACDEEILLNOORRSTUUYZ_-');

Category mentioned in the error is of the pseudo-type record and I can't see why PostgreSQL would think it's a column.

Any help would be appreciated as I can't find anything on this.

Thanks in advance :)

[Slapo]

I'll reply to myself here:
changing:

WHILE category IS NOT NULL LOOP

to:

WHILE category.id IS NOT NULL LOOP

solved the problem.