Getting NULL in template - OpenCart 2.0 - php

Question

I am trying to render product_list.tpl file in home.tpl but it's giving me NULL
Controller File:
/controller/product/product_list.php
Code:
class ControllerProductProductList extends Controller {
public function index() {
$this->load->model('catalog/category');
$this->load->model('catalog/product');
$this->load->model('tool/image');
$filter_data = array(
'filter_tag' => 'featured',
'limit' => 9
);
$data['results'] = $this->model_catalog_product->getProducts($filter_data);
if (file_exists(DIR_TEMPLATE . $this->config->get('config_template') . '/template/common/productlist.tpl')) {
$this->response->setOutput($this->load->view($this->config->get('config_template') . '/template/common/productlist.tpl', $data));
} else {
$this->response->setOutput($this->load->view('default/template/common/productlist.tpl', $data));
}
}
}
Template to render
/template/product/productlist.tpl
Code:
<?php var_dump($results); ?>
<h2>Product are here</h2>
Then adding this line in home.php controller
$data['special_mod'] = $this->load->controller('product/product_list');
and printing $special_mod in common/home.tpl file

Answer 1

The problem was in /controller/product/product_list.php
the method $this->response->setOutput doesn't just return the value but send the user to the different page while what I wanted was to just output the productlist.tpl as string so for that I had to replace the code
if (file_exists(DIR_TEMPLATE . $this->config->get('config_template') . '/template/common/productlist.tpl')) {
$this->response->setOutput($this->load->view($this->config->get('config_template') . '/template/common/productlist.tpl', $data));
} else {
$this->response->setOutput($this->load->view('default/template/common/productlist.tpl', $data));
}
with
if (file_exists(DIR_TEMPLATE . $this->config->get('config_template') . '/template/common/productlist.tpl')) {
return $this->load->view($this->config->get('config_template') . '/template/common/productlist.tpl', $data);
} else {
return $this->load->view('default/template/common/productlist.tpl', $data);
}