CODEWITHSUNDEEP
magentoblock
george
george

Reputation: 4349

Magento blocks - still not getting it

I have a custom template block (phtml) that is defined like this:

<block type="catalog/product" name="a.unique.name" template="dir/dir/customlist.phtml"/>

that is defined in CMS home page within this block 

<reference name="left">

However if I move it to header block, it does not appear

<reference name="header">

What am I missing here?

** ---- addition -----

I tried this as suggested by D. Sloof, but it does not work. (I suspect more due to my mis-actions than his explanation.)

I added getChildHtml('customlist'); ?> to 

mytheme\template\page\html\header.phtml

just under div "top-col-1"

   <div class="wrapper">
     <div class="top-col-1">        
        <?php echo $this->getChildHtml('customlist'); ?>

where "customlist" can befound in 

mytheme/template/dir/dir/customlist.phtml

What am I doing wrong?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 573

Answers (2)

Mustapha George
Mustapha George

Reputation: 2527

got it...

block name a.unique.name in xml file

<block type="catalog/product" name="a.unique.name" template="dir/dir/customlist.phtml"/>

must match what is called in mytheme\template\page\html\header.phtml 

<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('a.unique.name'); ?>

Upvotes: 1

Daniel Sloof
Daniel Sloof

Reputation: 12706

The header block is of type Mage_Page_Block_Html_Header and will not automatically render child blocks. You can have a look at the template file page/html/header.phtml how the child block html is retrieved.

You essentially have 2 options:

  • Add your own getChildHtml call in the header template (by copying it to your own theme), or;
  • Put your block inside a container that will automatically render child blocks. The left block is of type Mage_Core_Block_Text_List which will do this. There is a similar block inside the header block called top.container that is of type Mage_Page_Block_Html_Header that will do this as well: you can reference this block instead.

Upvotes: 0

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