getProductListJSON need more data - magento

Question

There is a part of the code that calls the getProductListJSON javascript function that looks like this
$.getJSON(storeRootUrl + "jsoncatalog/product/list/id/"+id, function(jsonObj) {
renderProductList(jsonObj,sid);
});
It returns the image, product name, description and id.
I would like it to return a bit more, like the type of product, as in "simple, configurable, etc"
Based on the layout:
<jsoncatalog_product_list>
<reference name="content">
<block type="paypal_catalog/json_product_list" output="toHtml" name="product_list"/>
</reference>
</jsoncatalog_product_list>
Looking at app\code\community\Paypal\Catalog\Block\Json\Product\List.php (hopefully I am looking in the right place), I can see the following code, wich I assume returns the data.
public function _toHtml()
{
try {
$array = array();
$category = Mage::registry('pp_current_category');
if (!is_null($category)) {
$array = Mage::helper('paypal_catalog')->getProducts($category->getId());
$this->setCurrenCategoryKey($category->getId());
} else {
$array = array('category' => '', 'items' => array());
}
return Mage::helper('core')->jsonEncode($array);
} catch (Exception $e) {
Mage::logException($e);
return false;
}
}
Where can I add the extra fields in that I need?
Am I on the right track, or even looking at the right template / php code that returns the data?
Please help me out here, I have not done Magento development for 2 years, so I have to re-learn allot of this stuff again....
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

This is indeed he place where output is made. However you need to dig deeper. Look at this line:
$array = Mage::helper('paypal_catalog')->getProducts($category->getId());
This fills the array where jsonEncode uses in the output routine. This is probably located somewhere in app/code/community/Paypal/Catalog/Helper/.
Alternatively, you can post-process that $array and add in your fields. However I strongly discourage that as you may have better luck (and performance) inside the helper method getProducts instead.
Good luck.

Answer 2

I ended up with the following code, which is not the most efficient, but there are never more than 5 products in the list of this mobile app solution...
Added code to:
$array = Mage::helper('paypal_catalog')->getProducts($category->getId());
$this->setCurrenCategoryKey($category->getId());
And made it:
$array = Mage::helper('paypal_catalog')->getProducts($category->getId());
foreach ($array['items'] as &$productitem) {
$productId = $productitem['id'];
$product = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load($productId);
if(!is_null($product)){
$productitem['type'] = $product->getTypeId();
//Get all options for product
$options = array();
$options = $product->getOptions();
if (count($options) > 0){
$productitem['hasoptions'] = '1';
}
else
{
$productitem['hasoptions'] = '0';
}
$addTocartUrl = $this->helper('checkout/cart')->getAddUrl($product);
$productitem['addTocartUrl'] = $addTocartUrl;
}
else{
$productitem['type'] = 'simple';
$productitem['hasoptions'] = '0';
}
}
$this->setCurrenCategoryKey($category->getId());
I was then able to change my footer.phtml with the following:
<!-- Product List Template -->
<div id="productListTemplate">
<li onclick="checkQuickAdd(jQuery(this),'%url%');">
<div class="product-image">%image%</div>
<div class="product-content">
<div class="product-title">%title%</div>
<div class="product-description"><span class="counter" style="font-weight:bold;font-size:large;"></span> %description%</div>
<div class="product-price">$%price%</div>
<div class="quickadd">+</div>
</div>
<div class="product-id" style="display:none;">%id%</div>
<div class="product-hasoptions" style="display:none">%hasoptions%</div>
</li>
</div>
Which allowed to query the values later on in a js function:
function checkQuickAdd(listitem,url)
{
var hasOptions = jQuery(listitem).find(".product-hasoptions").text();
var productId = jQuery(listitem).find(".product-id").text();
var productTitle = jQuery(listitem).find(".product-title").text();
if (hasOptions == '0'){
try {
jQuery(".ui-loader").css("display","block");
var cartUrl = "/index.php/test/jsoncheckout/cart/add/product/" + productId;
var cartno = jQuery(jQuery('.ui-page-active .menu-bar-item.itemright>div')[0]).attr('id').replace("cartCount","");
var cartCount = jQuery(jQuery('.ui-page-active .menu-bar-item.itemright>div')[0]).text();
jQuery.ajax( {
url : cartUrl,
type: "POST",
dataType : 'json',
contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
async: true,
cache: false,
success : function(data) {
//alert("added");
var counter = 1;
var strCounter = jQuery(listitem).find(".counter").text();
if (strCounter != "") { counter = parseInt(strCounter) + 1; }
if (cartCount != "") {
cartCount = parseInt(cartCount) + 1;
}
else {
cartCount = 1;
}
jQuery(listitem).find(".counter").text(counter);
// update cart number
updateCartCount(cartCount, cartno);
jQuery(".ui-loader").css("display","none");
alert("Added " + productTitle);
},
fail: function (msg) {
jQuery(listitem).find(".product-description").text(msg.d);
jQuery(".ui-loader").css("display","none");
}
});
jQuery(".ui-loader").css("display","none");
}
catch (e) {
alert(e);
jQuery(".ui-loader").css("display","none");
}
}
else{
forwardURL(url);
}
}
This must be the most inefficient code that I have written in a long time, but the time frame was very small to complete this.
I would love to do this in a more efficient way.
Any suggestions would be appreciated!