I have some custom extensions. They're shown in the right sidebar, and I previously had them appearing directly underneath the sidebar cart, which appears at the top, as it has before="-" in the checkout.xml file.
Since upgrading to 1.4.2, my custom extensions now appear at the top of the sidebar. I've added after="cart_sidebar" to the extensions xml layouts, but they still appear above the sidebar cart regardless.
Changing the order of the extensions, they only move amongst themselves, always at the top - for example, if I add after="-" to any of them, they just appear after the other custom extensions, but still at the top above the cart and other default sidebar items.
Anyone any idea why?
UPDATE:
I turned on the "Template Path Hints", and for my custom sidebar blocks, the red text showing the template paths appears further down the sidebar, where the block should be showing, but the actual html of the block is appearing at the top of the sidebar still!
Before trying to find out what's happening in here you should notice following:
All Magento modules and extensions are loaded in such an order that they meet their declaration section requirements (xmls in app/etc/modules/). So that modules that depend on other modules are loaded only after them.
If modules are equal by their needs, then priority goes to 'Mage' namespace, then to custom modules namespaces. Inside namespaces priority is given by alphabetical order.
Module layout configuration is created during module load. So result of "before" and "after" instructions depends on blocks already added by previously loaded modules. I.e. when some block has 'before="-"' instruction - it places block first, but later other blocks from next modules can use their instructions to be attached before this block.
Now let's return to your case. Your problem can have multiple reasons heavily depending on your Magento configuration.
First of all I recommend to
Turn off whole cache - so that you'll see all changes instantly
Turn off all your extensions and test things only with one of them
Turn on default Magento CE theme and skin ("default" package)
Then check following cases:
Maybe your layout scheme is modified and your extension not referencing correct block (same as "cart_sidebar" uses) to put self in.
Maybe some extension deletes original cart_sidebar block and then puts it last in queue of blocks.
Maybe some CSS or JS rules place block only visually before other blocks (check blocks order in original html source)
Maybe some extension is modifying layout composition rules. Try to turn only one of them. Then try to turn only other one and check result.
Related
I am having a little trouble here with a Magento installation here, which I "inherited" from a company who did some pretty heavy customizations to the theme.
I tried to rationalize most of the changes and was pretty successful with it. The problem is now, that I have some template files which have only one line of change.
In this specific case for example it would be a <button> that is now an <a> link. This is pretty much only one line in a 300 line template file.
Similar problems occurred with layout files of extensions. They have ONE dirty line in there, which for example resets the whole layout.
I then need to overwrite the complete layout XML file in the design, just to make a little change in one line, because those layout files are either overwritten or not. There is not merging process involved.
I took a look into the designer's documentation of Magento, but could not find anything useful.
I know that I could do some specific layout changes in the "local.xml" in my design, but those are more or less "contextless", which is not that great if those changes do belong to a certain extension.
Do you know a way to apply little template changes like mentioned in the first half or partially layout file overrides?
My main goal is to keep the files automatically updatable, which pretty much means: Download the module, replace files, done.
No manual updates to any overwritten files.
Use the "inherited" template as default template in a new package and add a child template with your changes. Example:
app/design/frontend/[package_name]/default - here will be the "inherited" old template
app/design/frontend/[package_name]/[your_child_template] - here will be your new child template
skin/design/frontend/[package_name]/default - here will be the "inherited" old template
skin/design/frontend/[package_name]/[your_child_template] - here will be your new child template
Partially layout file overwrides can be done for all pages or extensions in one local.xml file. Example:
app/design/frontend/[package_name]/[your_child_template]/layout/local.xml
If you want to add changes for a certain extension just add the extension xml file in your template folder. It will be the last one rendered and will wthe original. Example for the checkout cart page:
app/design/frontend/[package_name]/[your_child_template]/template/checkout/cart.phtml
For a small change inside a phtml file like your button example you will have to overwrite the whole phtml file. There is no way in Magneto to overwrite just a part of a phtml file.
Can somebody give me an eagle eye perspective on Magento blocks, layout and templates and how they relate to each other?
I understood that blocks are the basic building-blocks that a page is made of and that they are kind of mini-controllers.
I also understood that layout brings these blocks somehow together.
But there is still some uncertainty about templates and how they relate to blocks and layouts and vice versa.
What are blocks?
There are basically 4 things you need to know:
There are two types of blocks: those that automatically render their
children and those that don't. Knowing which type you're using will
help you in debugging.
Magento blocks are essentially models that contain logic for your view templates. Mind you - this is not business logic, but it is logic
related to the display of the information you're presenting. This is
by definition presentational logic. If you're familiar with Zend
Framework's Zend_Layout you could draw a comparison between custom
view objects and layout helpers.
The template file assigned to a block object can execute code as if it is local to that object. That is, $this corresponds directly to
the block class.
Layout actions are a thing that people use.
Two types of blocks
There are two types of blocks at the end of the day - those that
render automatically and those that don't. Take notes because this is
on the Magento Certification exam!!
Auto-rendered blocks
When defined in a layout, any block of type core/text_list will
automatically render all its children. While core/text will
automatically render itself it really only should contain text and
therefore is not useful for layout purposes (though some clever things
can be achieved with them).
Other blocks
Any other block type will need to be rendered manually. Provide the
block an alias which can then be passed to getChildHtml, returning the
content which you then echo.
Layouts And Templates
As the name suggests, layout files are useful in rendering front pages
of Magento. Layout files are XML files that reside in in app > design
frontend > your interface > your theme > layout. Here, you can see that there are many layout files for any given module. Each Magento
module has its own layout files much like the customer module has the
customer.xml layout file, catalog module have catalog.xml layout file
etc. These layout files contain structural blocks and content blocks.
read the following blogs. it will clear your concepts for magneto.
http://alanstorm.com/category/magento
http://devdocs.magento.com/guides/m1x/magefordev/mage-for-dev-4.html
http://blog.philwinkle.com/the-most-misunderstood-concept-in-magento/
http://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/custom-layouts-and-templates-with-magento--cms-21419
Blocks are the building modules of a page. They can be treated as "bricks". Now every block comes inside a layout. Layout is used to define the "shape" of the page. Now templates are used to define the behaviour of a particular block. That means each block or "brick" will have different charateristic depend upon the template it is used.
That is, to construct a magento page, you need to define a layout first that will give you an idea of shape of that page. Now you fill the layout with blocks. Each blocks now concentrate on a particular section of the entire layout. That means depending upon the "nature" of block, each small section will behave differently. To define the unique nature of a particular section, blocks uses templates (templates actually holds the webpage building codes, ie html + js + php)
I hope that will give you a short idea.
Try to google this. I am sure there are lot of lot of tutorials, blogs available about this.
I am willing to create a logic in which If I can fetch only desirable module in a particular position.
As we know that Joomla displays the module on basis of positions given to modules created, hence there could be several modules for a single position.
Now what If I only want a single module from those modules who has the position, say "positon-1".
Thanks
Each module can be told to be shown only on specific pages. Look in the module settings at the "Menu Assignment" part. There you can set it to show on
all pages
No pages
Only on the pages selected
On all pages except those selected
So you can set a module to show on the homepage in position-1, but on all other pages there is a different module shown on the same position.
Don't position names like position-1, although the example templates shipped with Joomla! do so. Use semantic names for the module positions. Then, within your template, you define, where these positions live.
Now what If I only want a single module from those modules who has ... [a certain] position
That will never happen then. You're going to have a position called search where the serach field is located, and maybe another one called navigation, where you publish your navigational menus. You get a lot more positions, but also much more flexibility. So if you have a module that needs its own position as in your question, let's have it that.
there are tutorials on the web about gow to create index.html, css file and template.xml that contain placeholders. ok, i got it, it's simple. but i need a template that has some different views. for example:
-all pages have a topmenu, header, left sidebar, mainarea and a footer but:
-first page has no header .topmenu after which sidebar, mainarea and footer comes.
-second page has sidebar moved from left to right
-third page has four blocks (blocks for special offers) instead of mainarea.
as far as i can see, i need to create three standalone templates with unique set of placeholders for each template. because i can't see the way to change laarge mainarea placeholder with four placeholders for offers blocks on some pages. dynamically.
is there if-statements in joomla templates to simply determine a document id to view four placeholders instead of mainarea. or to not show header on the main page (f.e. doc. id="mainpage")
but i want it to be selectable like:
-this page has first case of that template (index_1.php)
-and that page has a second case of the same template (index_2.php)
like a selectbox.
is that possible?
I will make this an answer as opposed to a comment since I believe it will do what you are looking for.
Once your articles are setup and your links to them are established (the site has the info on it you're looking for), you can create the modules containing the data that you want shown from time to time.
Go to the module manager - on the right you should see 'module assignment' or something along the lines of 'display this module on the following pages'; you can then pick which pages you want the module to show on. You can specify all pages, none, specific pages, however you want.
This will enable you to show them only where needed however you like.
You can ALSO do this programatically inside the module (if you do custom HTML and use an extension like Sourcerer to add PHP to the module) with PHP should you want a little more flexibility, but just choosing the pages to show on should work for what you're doing.
I have written some modules to have it look nicely. What I need now is to re-order Joomla's standard viewing of the content. I have looked into com_content, and my first idea was to write my own component for it. But now I realized it would be about 90% a copy of com_content.
The problem is: When you open a link to a section, com_content views a list of the categories. But I want a list of the articles in category News of each viewed, and a link to every article in category Infos on the menu to the left. And of course, view each on click.
Is there a way to achieve that without writing an own component? Or would it be advisable to customise com_content to my needs? I want this done with a minimum of fuss and complexity.
You can override components view-templates in your theme.
In your case, for articles: Articles are part of the content component. components/com_content/views/article/tmpl/default.php is the default view of an article.
To override it copy the file to templates\<yourtheme>\html\com_content\article/default.php.
As an example, see the default theme ja_purity or beez, which also override it.
That way, you will only change the layout and only for your theme. The component will stay in tact and updates will not be as complicated as otherwise.
The visible components on your website are called modules. See the modules section in the admin section. The category-view is one of the default modules. There is also a module to display a list of categories (AFAIK). That is what you want, right? The modules listed in the module section are not all available ones, but all that are created. You can create a new one and set its type to the category-list for example, and define in what block of the theme it should display.
If you want to do your own Module, do so. Code it, then add it in your admin section and you’re done.