Set position of block programmatically in Magento - php

Question

I want to set the position of a block programmatically in Magento.
For example I wish that I can set the position of a block as:
Below 'content' of product view page
In the side bar (left/right)
Before/after any other block.
Please suggest the way to do it.

Answer 1

I have found a solution for this. You can set the block position dynamically using the observers.
First of all create the Observer.php in <Namespace>/<Module>/Model directory. Write following code in this file:
class <Namespace>_<Module>_Model_Observer
{
public function set_block($observer)
{
$action = $observer->getEvent()->getAction();
$fullActionName = $action->getFullActionName();
$position = 'right';
$sub_position = 'before="cart_sidebar"';
$myXml = '<reference name="'.$position.'">';
$myXml .= '<block type="obc/obc" name="obc" template="obc/obc.phtml" '.$sub_position.' />';
$myXml .= '</reference>';
$layout = $observer->getEvent()->getLayout();
if ($fullActionName=='catalog_product_view') { //set any action name here
$layout->getUpdate()->addUpdate($myXml);
$layout->generateXml();
}
}
}
Now in config.xml write following lines to call the observer:
<events>
<controller_action_layout_generate_blocks_before>
<observers>
<module_block_observer>
<type>singleton</type>
<class><Namespace>_<Module>_Model_Observer</class>
<method>set_block</method>
</module_block_observer>
</observers>
</controller_action_layout_generate_blocks_before>
</events>
Now you can set the position of your block anywhere on the page using observer.