show zero items by default

Hi,

I urgently need to know how not to show all portfolio items by default, but only from one single categorie.

I think it is in this piece of code, but my Javascript is not that good at all.

//Start Echo Categories
        $output.='<ul id="afp-filter">
        ';
        foreach ( $cats as $cat ){
            	$output.='
<li><a href="#">cat_name) . '">' . $cat->cat_name . '</a></li>
';
        }
        $output.='';
		//End Echo Categories

		//Start Echo Portfolio Items
        $output.='<ul class="afp-items">';
        $k = 1;
        foreach ($items as $item ){
            	$output.='<li class="afp-single-item" data-id="id-' . $k . '" data-type="' . ereg_replace("[^A-Za-z0-9]", "", $item->item_category) .'">
                <a>item_description . '" href="' . $item->item_image . '"><img alt="" class="img-link-initial" src="' . $item->item_thumbnail . '"></a>
                <ul class="afp-item-details">';
                    if($item->item_title != null) { $output.='
<li><strong>' . $item->item_title . '</strong></li>
'; }
					if($item->item_client != null) { $output.='
<li>' . $item->item_client . '</li>
'; }
					if($item->item_date != '0000-00-00') { $output.='
<li>' . date("m/d/Y", strtotime($item->item_date)) . '</li>
'; }
					if($item->item_link != null) { $output.='
<li><a>item_link . '">Project Link</a></li>
'; }
                $output.='
            ';

            $k++;
		}
        $output.='

    </div>

Can someone please help me with this?

Kind regards,

Roland