I need a little bit of guidance. im new to Magento and getting lost with the Templates/Layout structure when it comes to design of a custom theme.
From my understanding there are two types of blocks:
Structure Blocks and Content blocks.
Structure blocks define the structure of the site and Content blocks call .phtml template files to populate the structure blocks with content (please correct me if im wrong).
I have an area that i would like to update, when i turn on the debugging in magento i am advised that the area that i wish to update is located at:
frontend\meigeetheme\default\template\meigee/meigeewidgets/grid_2.phtml
Essentially what i would like to do is get a Categories menu in this area. I expected to find the structural block in a folder within the layout directory called meigee, but i am unable to find any .xml document that represents the defining structure that this template is called in to.
Any idea how i go about it?
All advice and criticisms welcome. Thanks in advance.
Oki doki, so doing my research i found a very useful peace of code. I would like to give credit to user: djdy.
If you include within a .phtml file:
$this->getLayout()->getBlock('root')->getTemplate();
obviously:
<?php echo $this->getLayout()->getBlock('root')->getTemplate(); ?>
it will do a nice little echo of the layout being used.
Proved quite helpful in resolving my task. It seemed that grid_2.phtml was being loaded within:
frontend\meigeetheme\default\template\page\1column.phtml
then according i was able to add the block i needed in page.xml and call using getChildHtml. Hope this helps!
Related
I've inherited a Magento shop site, and the previous developer has gone AWOL. So I'm left with a sheet of paper essentially telling me how to do basic things such as changing the banner on the home page. That's pretty much it.
The person who owns the page now wants to change an advert that's held on the right hand side on the product pages. I've searched in the Admin panel under CMS and drawn a blank. I've navigated through the template files and I've found the 3 column HTML file that I thought contains the actual advert.
It doesn't. Instead, it has the following code:
<div class="col-right sidebar"><?php echo $this->getChildHtml('right') ?></div>
Where can I find the Child HTML? I've searched all of the folders for the file that I'm assuming is called "Right". But I can't seem to find it.
Anyone know where something like this could or would be held?
That is the absolute most root function, anything that is placed in the child "right" will be displayed here and is most certainly not where you want to be doing your editing.
There are literally a hundred different ways content could be posted here and what I would recommend to start with is first determining if it is a static block or a template file.
Go to System -> Configuration -> Developer.
Change "Current Configuration Scope:" to the store you are currently troubleshooting.
Find your IP and place it in "Allowed IPs (comma separated)", this way the next steps will only be visible to you.
Under the "Debug" section you should now see "Template Path Hints" enable this and reload the page.
If that block now has something like: "app/design/base/default/catalog/product/view.phtml" you know it is in a phtml file and you can go there. If it doesn't:
It could be a banner, go to CMS -> Banners and check there.
It could be a static block, go to CMS -> Static Blocks
It could be...any number of things.
You stated that it is on the product page, next step is check catalog.xml in your layout folders. Search for and see if anything inside of there makes sense about what it could be. If the previous developer was any kind of proficient it won't be in catalog.xml but in local.xml OR a custom module's .xml file in the layout directory of the custom theme.
Try doing a search on the code base for the content inside of the block and see if anything pops up. If nothing, use phpmyadmin to search the database for some of the content.
Hope this helps a little.
Search for:
<reference name="right">
I've recently made my first couple of simple modules for magento. Basically just trying out making a module that printed 'hi'. Then one that included the site design, and finally one that inserted it's own block into the content area to print some stuff.
Now, what I really want with this module is to be able to list products (using the same layout as normal product listing) but based on ID's. Like from cookies or as an example, static array of product ID's.
How would I go about to reuse the product listing code as much as possible and retaining the theming for it? Also if there is some small detail I wanted to change in the layout - how could i make a small template adjustment on the fly/programmatically?
Is this even the right way to go about it, to create a new module and somehow include existing functionality in it? Or should I just try to recreate the product listing and mimic the design?
Lots of questions I know, but it's hard to find relevant information beyond the very simplest modules. TIA.
if getChildHtml('product_type_data') ?> maps directly to catalog/product/view/type/simple.phtml by default, how do I map to my own file? If I wanted to create a file that would produce a small image to place on the product page, right under "availability" how would I tell magento to map to where I have put the file? From what I understand getChildHtml('product_type_data') ?> defaults to the file path: catalog/product/view/type/simple.phtml so how can I customize the magento defaults and tell it to map to my custom files i've created?
Could I do something like getChildHtml('etc/etc/my-file.phtml') ?>
Essentially, what I am trying to do is add a small image under "availability" of my site (ex: http://climbhigh.com/climbing/climbing-ropes/petzl-dragonfly-rope-8-2mm.html) that says free shipping. Just trying to find the best way to do it.
I hope I have explained this well enough, if not, please let me know and I will try to explain more. Any help or guidance would be awesome. Thanks.
The code getChildHtml('product_type_data') doesn't always map directly to the template file catalog/product/view/type/simple.phtml. It only maps to that file if the layout handle PRODUCT_TYPE_simple is loaded, i.e. if the current product is a simple product. In order to change the template to be a different one you need to update the template attribute in the layout. At it's most simple this can be achieved by editing app/design/frontend/base/layout/catalog.xml and changing the template attribute.
<block type="catalog/product_view_type_simple" name="product.info.simple" as="product_type_data" template="your/new/path.phtml">
Of course editing core files is a bad idea, so you should make a quick search for how to correctly add layout updates via either local.xml or customer layout update files.
I ended up figuring out what I needed to do. I simply wanted to add a small image to my product detail page that highlight a free shipping option. All I had to do was create a static block in the admin panel of magento and go into catalog>product>view.phtml file and insert:
getLayout()->createBlock('cms/block')->setBlockId('your_block_id')->toHtml(); ?>
it worked like a charm!
thanks for the help Crags
Sorry for the redundancy of this question, but none of the example and solutions have worked for me. I have a custom module that extends Mage_Catalog_Block_Product_List. The only function in it is _getProductCollection which sets the product collection based on which attribute you want to filter on. It's pretty simple and there are no layout updates involved. I put the block on the page by putting the following into the Content section of a CMS page:
{{block type="vps_featured/list" name="vps_featured_list" attribute_name="best_sellers" template="catalog/product/sale_list.phtml"}}
Since it extends Mage_Catalog_Block_Product_List, I get all the bells and whistles for a product list page, including the toolbar. However, the pager isn't there. I've tried a number of different suggestions but none have helped.
I looked in Toolbar.php in the core code and found where it calls getPagerHtml. I put some debug statements in there and determined that it calls this function when putting my custom block on the page but $this->getChild('product_list_toolbar_pager') is not returning the block, presumably because it isn't there. I tried adding the block using a layout update XML file and adding the <frontend><layout><updates>... tags to my config, but this didn't seem to do anything.
I have Alan Storm's CommerceBug extension, so I pulled that up and exported the layout XML for the page. It doesn't contain any toolbar block at all, despite the fact that the toolbar is on the page and only the pager isn't working. If I do the same thing on a category landing page, it shows the toolbar block in the layout xml. So I've clearly missed something here, but I'm at a loss as to what. I hope someone can help :)
Brian
As it turns out, the solution found HERE works great! You have to add the block using the Layout Update XML rather than adding it in the content section. I still don't quite understand why, but it works.
There already was question about Getting pager to show on magento list
I have create a module which at this point does nothing but exist the next step I need to figure out is how to make it does something when someone views the a product at this point I don't care if it says hello world next to the image
can someone help me I can't seem to figure out what I need to extend if i need to use and observer or what I seem to be lost .... or drowning
Depending on what you want to accomplish, you could go in many different directions from here. If you're looking for visual feedback, creating a new block and adding it to the product page might be a good direction. Try creating a new block in your module (Yournamespace_Yourmodule_Block_Product_View in the file app/code/local/Yournamespace/Yourmodule/Block/Product/View.php) and define a method toHtml in that block that echos some HTML (say "hello world"). Look at other blocks in the system to see how to set up such a class (what to descend from, etc). Later on, you'll want to turn this into a proper template, but this approach will help you understand blocks. Check Alan's other tutorials for how to set up your config.xml to define where blocks are found.
Now, inside your theme, in /templates/catalog/product/view.php, create an instance of your block and display it's contents like this:
<?php print $this->getLayout()->createBlock("yourmodule/product_view")->toHtml(); ?>
This should echo some HTML onto the product view page.
I want to emphasize that this skips several of the steps to doing it the "right" way, but it should get you quick visual feedback and help you understand how a page is built inside of magento.