Magento Product Images Full URL Path Instead of Cached - magento

Question

The code below works for products that have images, but for products that don't have images, the placeholder small image doesn't show.
echo Mage::getModel('catalog/product_media_config')->getMediaUrl( $_product->getSmallImage());

Answer 1

<?php
// get image full url
echo $imageUrl = Mage::getBaseUrl(Mage_Core_Model_Store::URL_TYPE_MEDIA) . 'catalog/product' . $_product->getImage();
// get image using custom size with url
echo $imageCacheUrl = Mage::helper('catalog/image')->init($_product, 'image')->resize(135,135);
?>

Answer 2

The code that affects what you want to do is
//file: app/code/core/Mag/Catalog/Helper/Image.php
//class: Mage_Catalog_Helper_Image
/**
* Return Image URL
*
* #return string
*/
public function __toString()
{
try {
//...
} catch (Exception $e) {
$url = Mage::getDesign()->getSkinUrl($this->getPlaceholder());
}
return $url;
}
The interesting line is
$url = Mage::getDesign()->getSkinUrl($this->getPlaceholder());
So in your code you need to test the return value of $_product->getSmallImage() and if it is false or null use Mage::getDesign()->getSkinUrl($this->getPlaceholder()); instead.
You might want to inspect $_product->getSmallImage() to see what it returns when no value is set.
Oh, and I just checked: getPlaceholder() is a function not a magic getter. This is the function:
public function getPlaceholder()
{
if (!$this->_placeholder) {
$attr = $this->_getModel()->getDestinationSubdir();
$this->_placeholder = 'images/catalog/product/placeholder/'.$attr.'.jpg';
}
return $this->_placeholder;
}
So you will have to unravel some $this (hint $this->_getModel() is Mage::getModel('catalog/product_image') )
or to cut a long story short just fall back to the default:
echo ($this->helper('catalog/image')->init($_product, 'small_image'));
in your phtml file if $_product->getSmallImage() doesn't exist.
Update following your comment:
Specifcically in the .phtml file that you are using to generate the HTML that displays the small image you could write:
$testSmallImageExists = $_product->getSmallImage();
if($testSmallImageExists)
{
echo Mage::getModel('catalog/product_media_config')->getMediaUrl( $_product->getSmallImage());
}
else
{
echo ($this->helper('catalog/image')->init($_product, 'small_image'));
}
Or just simply use
echo ($this->helper('catalog/image')->init($_product, 'small_image'));
I'm sure that is the standard Magento way.