Magento layout XML file override

Question

I'm trying to develop my own magento module, and I got an issue with the xml layout file I want to override. I'm working on a way to personalize the login form, from /customer/account/login.

For this purpose, i have the following files

app/
  etc/
    modules/
      - IT_CustomerCar.xml 
  code/
      local/
          IT/ 
              CustomerCar/ 
                  Block/
                      Customer/
                          From/
                              Login.php
                  controllers/
                    - AccountController.php
                  etc/
                    - config.xml
design/
    frontend/
        base/
            default/
              layout/
                  - customercar.xml
              template/
                  customercar/
                      form/
                          - login.phtml'

My goal is to override the /design/frontend/base/default/layout/customer.xml file to personalize the login form.

Now, to be more specific about my files

The config.xml contains these lines :

<config>
<modules>
    <it_customercar>
        <version>0.1.0</version>
    </it_customercar>
</modules>
<global>
    <rewrite>
        <it_customercar_customer_account>
            <from><![CDATA[#^/customer/account/#]]>
            </from>
            <to>/customercar/account/</to>
        </it_customercar_customer_account>
    </rewrite>
    <blocks>
        <customer>
            <rewrite>
                <form_login>IT_CustomerCar_Block_Customer_Form_Login</form_login>
            </rewrite>
        </customer>    
        <helpers>
            <customercar>
                <class>It_CustomerCar_Helper</class>
            </customercar>
        </helpers>
    </blocks>
</global>
<frontend>
    <routers>
        <it_customercar>
            <use>standard</use>
            <args>
                <module>IT_CustomerCar</module>
                <frontName>customercar</frontName>
            </args>
        </it_customercar>
    </routers>
    <layout>
        <updates>
            <it_customercar>
                <file>customercar.xml</file>
            </it_customercar>
        </updates>
    </layout> 
</frontend>

My customercar.xml (which is suppose to be my xml layout file) is the following one :

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<layout version="0.1.0">
    <default>
    </default>
    <customercar_account_login>
        <label>MODULE : Customer Account Login Form</label>
        <reference name="content">
            <block type="core/template" name="customercar_form_login" output="toHtml" template="customercar/form/login.phtml" ></block>
        </reference>
    </customercar_account_login>
</layout> 

On my block, IT_CustomerCar_Block_Customer_Form_Login, I add this line return $html . 'block'; to check if it is indeed called. And it is. There is a "block" string just below my login form, as expected.

On the other hand, the customercar.xml file seems to be ignored. I used the Allan Storm LayoutViewer module to check my page, and the layout is still the one from the core.

edit: I also add a var_dump($this->getTemplate()); on my _toHtml methode from the Block class. And it shows that line : string(36) "persistent/customer/form/login.phtml". I don't really understand why btw. I expected "/customer/form/login.phtml", and not the one from the "persistent" folder.

I guess I'm missing something obvious, but I tried to follow a lot of advices from forums and tutorials without any success. This problem seems to be very common, and I thought I could fix it quick. I was wrong... I hope you'll be able to help me,

Thanks :)

Solution

I manage to fix that, with the dagfr answer.

First, I disable the persistent module from the backend and the /app/etc/modules/Mage_Persistent.xml.

Then, I change my customercar.xml file for

<customer_account_login>
<reference name="customer_form_login">
    <action method="setTemplate"><template>customercar/form/login.phtml</template></action>
</reference>

Answer 1

1) You must remove the persistent thing, it will not help finding problem as it's not using the right template.

2) The change you made, will make the yoursite.com/customercar/account/login page using your template but not the yoursite.com/customer/account/login page. Is it what you need ?

3) you use :

<block type="core/template" name="customercar_form_login" output="toHtml" template="customercar/form/login.phtml" ></block>

This is not supposed to be a core/template block but the customer/form_login block (overwritten by your block).

4) you change its name, so it won't be called if you don't have a getChildHtml in the right file.

To sum up, you should do it this way :

<customer_account_login>
    <reference name="customer_form_login">
        <action method="setTemplate"><template>customercar/form/login.phtml</template></action>
    </reference>
</customer_account_login>

This will say that the login block (the overwritten one) use your new template in the original page