Not Planned Category tag (for easy identification) of Showcase Items

The Data required to display category details in those blocks is available to that template (both category_id and category_name are in the items arrays). You can modify the look/layout all you want to. That is why I make separate templates with each having their own CSS file. I left Category out because it just did not look good no matter how I laid things out. Category names can be up to 50 characters in length, so no, it will not work where the "views" are.

for example, if you edit the nflj_showcase_module_top_rated_items template you can add the following bit of code to the template (as long as its between the foreach loop) to display the category name as a link to its category page.

HTML:

<a href="{xen:link showcase-category, $tItem}">{xen:helper snippet, $tItem.category_name, 35}</a>

NOTE: I am using a helper to trim the length of the category name to 35 characters.

NOTE 2: Each item array is "named" differently, so you can't just pop this into ANY template. You need to look at the foreach loop to see what the individual variable name is (in this template, its $tItem). In the Popular Items its pItem and so on.
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As far as your 2nd question...

The Items on the Showcase Tab on a members profile not only include the category name, but they are linked to take you directly to the category pages themselves.

TITLE
some text of the item
member, date, category <--- Category NAME and its linked to the category page.

 

We (between the community and myself) can help you with the customization(s) when it comes to that point