Setting variables in Magento blocks - magento

Question

I have the following code in my template file:
<?php foreach($collection as $product): ?>
<?php Mage::unregister('product'); ?>
<?php Mage::register('product', $product); ?>
<?php $_product = $this->getProduct(); ?>
<div class="product-view">
<div class="product-essential">
<form action="<?php echo $this->getSubmitUrl($_product); ?>" method="post" id="product_addtocart_form"<?php if($_product->getOptions()): ?> enctype="multipart/form-data"<?php endif; ?>>
<div class="no-display">
<input type="hidden" name="product" value="<?php echo $product->getId() ?>" />
<input type="hidden" name="related_product" id="related-products-field" value="" />
</div>
<div class="product-shop">
<div class="product-name">
<h1><?php echo $_product->getName(); ?></h1>
</div>
<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('alert_urls') ?>
<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('product_type_data') ?>
<?php echo $this->getTierPriceHtml() ?>
<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('extrahint') ?>
<?php if (!$this->hasOptions()):?>
<div class="add-to-box">
<?php if($_product->isSaleable()): ?>
<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('addtocart') ?>
<?php if( $this->helper('wishlist')->isAllow() || $_compareUrl=$this->helper('catalog/product_compare')->getAddUrl($_product)): ?>
<span class="or"><?php echo $this->__('OR') ?></span>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('addto') ?>
</div>
<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('extra_buttons') ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php if ($_product->getShortDescription()):?>
<div class="short-description">
<h2><?php echo $this->__('Quick Overview') ?></h2>
<div class="std"><?php echo $_helper->productAttribute($_product, nl2br($_product->getShortDescription()), 'short_description') ?></div>
</div>
<?php endif;?>
<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('other');?>
<?php if ($_product->isSaleable() && $this->hasOptions()):?>
<?php echo $this->getChildChildHtml('container1', '', true, true) ?>
<?php endif;?>
</div>
<div class="product-img-box">
<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('media') ?>
</div>
<div class="clearer"></div>
<?php if ($_product->isSaleable() && $this->hasOptions()):?>
<?php echo $this->getChildChildHtml('container2', '', true, true) ?>
<?php endif;?>
</form>
</div>
</div>
<?php endforeach; ?>
In my layout XML I have:
<reference name="root">
<block type="catalog/product_view" name="test" template="path/to/products.phtml"/>
</reference>
I know it is called successfully as I've output static content from it. However, it appears as if
$product
isn't being recognised by the block, even though it is a valid product instance.
The code is lifted straight from default/template/catalog/product/view.phtml where it works fine. All my code does/tries to do is change the product. This is the first time I've worked with blocks and would be grateful for any help/tips/pointers as to where I've gone wrong.
Thanks in advance :-).
EDIT
It turns out my understanding of blocks/Magento was incorrect. The answer lies in reading the AlanStorm tutorials.

Answer 1

I had similar problems, first try replacing all double with single quotes in layout xml.
I hope you just dummy-quoted template="path/to/products.phtml" for presentation here and used real Magento path in your code.
Can't tell you more cause i'm also beginner in Magento. Just few useful links:
http://www.magentocommerce.com/knowledge-base/entry/magento-for-dev-part-1-introduction-to-magento
http://inchoo.net/category/ecommerce/magento/