How to add topLinks to a cms page in magento - magento

Question

The answer is probably out there as a combination of several posts but I am not very good at Magento yet so I have to ask anyway:
I would like to have the topLinks inserted into a cms page.
I tried <?php echo $this->getChildHtml('topLinks') ?> but that does not work, it just shows the code as text on the page.
I tried {{block type="core/template" name="top.Links" as="topLinks" template="page/template/links.phtml"}} but nothing shows up.
I did successfully add the search form to the cms page with {{block type="core/template" name="top.search" as="topSearch" template="catalogsearch/form.mini.phtml"}} so I figured I probably just have the block type wrong or something.
What did I do wrong?

Answer 1

TL;DR: Well...You can't.
Why?:The topLinks block is a "container" block of type page/template_links. This is just added in the layout, but other layout handles or blocks add links to it. For example this part of xml in the customer.xml layout file
<reference name="top.links">
<action method="addLink" translate="label title" module="customer"><label>My Account</label><url helper="customer/getAccountUrl"/><title>My Account</title><prepare/><urlParams/><position>10</position></action>
</reference>
adds the My account link to it. There are others.
In conclusion the topLinks block does not have meaning on it's own. It is just a placeholder that can e modified by other blocks.
When a cms page is rendered the layout is already loaded parsed, so the block you add cannot be modified anymore by other blocks or layout files.

Answer 2

You can hardcode put top links in your cms pages like this..
<ul id="nav">
<li class="level0 parent"><span>My Account</span></li>
<li class="level0 parent"><span>My Wishlist</span></li>
<li class="level0 parent"><span>My Cart</span></li>
<li class="level0 parent"><span>Checkout</span></li>
<li class="level0 parent"><span>Log In</span></li>
</ul>

Answer 3

#Marius Thanks, I learned something new there. I am still struggling with understanding the intricate details of Magento's structure but I'm working on it.
#chirag I tried that but php does not work directly in cms pages so it tries to link to http://mymagentopage/<?php echo $this->getUrl('customer/account')?>. I can of course link directly to http://mymagentopage/customer/account but for a few links I would miss functionality:
"Login" changing to "Logout" when logged in and logging the customer out instead of going to the account screen.
"Cart" changing to "Cart(2)" when product is added to the cart.
etc (I don't use wishlist)
Is there a way to regain this functionality?
I found this snippet that does it but it's php which won't work in cms pages:
<?php if (Mage::getSingleton('customer/session')->isLoggedIn()==0): ?>
<?php echo $this->__('Log In') ?>
<?php else: ?>
<?php echo $this->__('Log Out') ?>
<?php endif ?>I would also be happy with a solution to enable me to use php in cms pages, I am the only admin anyway.
EDIT
I found a working solution:
I created a new phtml file containing the above mentioned snippet. I created a new folder 'customphp' in my template folder and saved it there as test.phtml.
In the cms page I added a block: {{block type="core/template" name="whatever_unique-name-i-want" template="customphp/test.phtml"}}
Tada!
This is where I got the idea: http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/viewthread/439880/