rendering blocks and child blocks within a theme - magento

Question

I am currently trying to get a better understanding of how blocks work in Magento. I have looked at some of the files to get a better idea and it has helped a little, but they are a too to complex for my limited skills at the moment and I still do not have proper understanding of what is going on and how to implement them into my site. I realise they are essential to understand for working with Magento so I thought I would set up a list of things to try and achieve:
display a block (done)
display a block and child block
display a block within a magento layout
position a block on the page of a magento layout
learn the most commonly used 'type' attributes and when to use them
So far I have put together
_index_index
Namespace/Module/etc/config.xml
<frontend>
....
<layout>
<updates>
<learningblocks>
<file>Namespace/Module/childblocks.xml</file>
<file>Namespace/Module/blocks.xml</file>
</learningblocks>
</updates>
</layout>
</frontend>
Namespace/Module/controllers/IndexController.php
class Namespace_Module_IndexController
extends Mage_Core_Controller_Front_Action
{
public function indexAction()
{
$this->loadLayout('learningblocks')->renderLayout();
}
public function blocksAction()
{
$this->loadLayout('blocknode')->renderLayout();
}
}
frontend/base/default/layout/namespace/module/blocks.xml
<layout>
<blocknode>
<block type="core/text" name="blocktest" output="toHtml" >
<action method="setText">
<args>some text to display on screen</args>
</action>
</block>
</blocknode>
</layout>
The above worked as expected and displayed the string 'some text to display on screen' on a white page. But thats all i've been able to do, I cannot get child blocks to render onto the screen and I cannot display anything within a theme, let alone try and move it about within that theme
Below is one of my attempts that I cant seem to get to work. Why is this not working?
frontend/base/default/layout/namespace/module/childblocks.xml
<layout>
<abcde>
<block type="core/template" name="childblocks" output="toHtml" template="namespace/module/childblocks.phtml">
<block type="core/text" name="anyname">
<action method="setText">
<args>Some text to add to this page</args>
</action>
</block>
</block>
</abcde>
<learningblocks_index_index>
<update handle="abcde" />
</learningblocks_index_index>
</layout>
frontend/base/default/template/namespace/module/childblocks.phtml
<p>from the childblock.phtml page</p><?php $this->getChildHtml(); ?>
NB: I have changed the namespaces and module names to be more generic, in the hope it is easier to read (they wern't very well chosen names).

Answer 1

I know this is not a complete answer, but it may help those who have struggled with the same problem. I have not gone into great depth as I assume if your searching for an answer you will have already read THIS ARTICLE and that covers it all, I assume you have the same issue as I did i.e. a misunderstanding of what you had learnt from this tutorial.
On reading this answer please be aware I am very new to Magento and there could be some inaccuracies in here, if there are I am sure someone will correct me and edit accordingly.
Firstly this is wrong
public function indexAction()
{
$this->loadLayout('learningblocks')->renderLayout();
}
It should be this
public function indexAction()
{
$this->loadLayout()->renderLayout();
}
and then you will have to map learningblocks node in layout xml to that action module_controller_action. Doing this will display the block in the page within your theme.
So to render a child block
Add something like this in you layout.xml
<module_controller_action>
<reference name="content">
<block type="module/blockname" name="unique_name" output="toHtml" template="path/toyou/template.phtml" >
<block type="module/blockname" name="another_unique_name" output="toHtml" template="path/toyou/template.phtml" />
</block>
</reference>
</module_controller_action>
then in your template file echo out
$this->getChildHtml('another_unique_name')
If you want to remove blocks from your page use the remove node such as
<remove name="right"/>
<remove name="left"/>
This page will offer a list of attributes that can be used to be honest I found that looking through the magento files helped more than that page though