Magento module - overridden a controller, adding templates - php

I am currently working on a Magento extension, and I have overridden a core controller, which works fine.
I have now added a new action to my controller. Problem is that whenever I call the action a blank page is produced. If I echo something it is displayed correctly.
Therefore I dug into the core of the Customer module and controllers. I saw there that methods like indexAction() implement the layout this way:
<?php
public function indexAction()
{
$this->loadLayout();
$this->_initLayoutMessages('customer/session');
$this->_initLayoutMessages('catalog/session');
$this->getLayout()->getBlock('content')->append(
$this->getLayout()->createBlock('customer/account_dashboard')
);
$this->getLayout()->getBlock('head')->setTitle($this->__('My Account'));
$this->renderLayout();
}
I transferred this to my own action and the layout is now rendered correctly. Now for the question:
No matter what I enter into the ->createBlock('...') call, nothing is rendered into the content area.
How do I specify the location of my own block to be rendered as the content of the page while still decorating it with the layout?
I tried fiddling with the xml files in /design/frontend/base/default/layout/myaddon.xml but couldn't really make it work.

Covering the entirety of the Magento layout system in a single StackOverflow post is a little much, but you should be able to achieve what you want with the following.
$block = $this->getLayout()->createBlock('Mage_Core_Block_Text');
$block->setText('<h1>This is a Test</h1>');
$this->getLayout()->getBlock('content')->append($block);
Starting from the above, you should be able to build up what you need. The idea is you're creating your own blocks, and then append them to existing blocks in the layout. Ideally, you're creating your own block classes to instantiate (rather than Mage_Core_Block_Text), and using their internal template mechanism to load in phtml files (separating HTML generation from code generation).
If you're interested in learning the internals of how the layout system works, you could do a lot worse than to start with an article I wrote on the subject.

Related

silverstripe: use another "root" - template instead of "Page.ss"

Is it possible to render another "root" template instead of the Page.ss file for some specific pages / controllers? There are already some pages using the Page.ss template, but now there will be a new "Intranet" section on the website where the pages should have another "root" template: IntranetPage.ss.
Page.ss should stay as is and should not be touched at all.
I mainly want different "root" templates because both templates load different JS and CSS files. Also the "container" HTML is quite different.
I was able to create a custom controller which does manually what I need. Something like this:
class IntranetPageController extends PageController
{
public function index()
{
return $this->customise([
'Layout' => $this->renderWith(['Intranet/Layout/IntranetPageLayout'])
])->renderWith(['Intranet/IntranetPage']);
}
}
The code is inspired from here: https://docs.silverstripe.org/en/4/developer_guides/templates/rendering_templates/
IntranetPage.ss is used now as the "root" template. IntranetPageLayout.ss is displayed for the $Layout placeholder.
That seems to work, however I have many pages which have to be based on IntranetPage.ss. It feels strange to write for every new Controller the very same index function (with a small adjustment to load another LayoutPage).
I am sure, Silverstripe has some convention to do that automatically :)
What I need is very close to having a individual theme per page, but I am not sure if that is possible...
Instead of extending PageController, extend your IntranetPageController in new controllers. Whenever index is called, it will call your index function from your parent class, in your case IntranetPageController.

Style admin page in Yii

Im here again with a question about yii framework.
I've got a page under views/myviewname/admin.php.
I've got a page under views/myotherviewname/admin.php.
Now i want to give those pages another style. But how do i do that?
I've created a page under themes/classis/views/myviewname/admin.php and in that file i got this:
<?php /* #var $this Controller */ ?>
<?php echo $content; ?>
But i get an error. Because $content is not defined.
How do i style those pages? Would be nice if i can style all admin pages at once.
First of all, this is undeniable that $content variable will be known as undefined, since it can only be used in Layouts, not Views.
As you probably know, if you already have set a theme for your application(in main config file by 'theme'=>'myTheme'), Yii looks for that into themes/myTheme and all views will be rendered in themes/myTheme/views/x/y.php instead of views/x/y.php. Also, your layouts will be overridden by layouts located into themes/myTheme/layouts.
Now, lets assume that we want to create 2 themes:
DarkTheme
LightTheme
We should create structures like below:
+themes
+darkTheme
+views
+layouts
+main.php
+myLayout1.php
+myLayout2.php
+myController
+myView1.php
+lightTheme
+views
+layouts
+main.php
+myLayout1.php
+myLayout2.php
+myController
+myView1.php
We have a main.php which holds our base theme structure(skeleton), and 2 layouts named myLayout1.php and myLayout2.php respectively. Also we already defined a default layout into our base controller(Usually Controller.php) like below:
public $layout='//layouts/myLayout1';
Now, we have a main layout which shows everything inside myLayout1 by default. We can change layout in out action like below:
$this->layout="myLayout2";
Also we can change application theme like below:
Yii::app()->theme="lightTheme";
Note: Theme name is case-sensitive. If you attempt to activate a theme that does not exist, Yii::app()->theme will return null.
Above codes can be written into beforeAction() method or every action. Please note that, if you render myView1($this->render('myView1')) and if the theme is set to darkTheme, Yii will render themes/darkTheme/views/myController/myView1.php instead of views/myConteoller/myView1.php.
To be more clear, $content will be used in layouts. Also, this is remarkable that, $content will be replaced by everything inside a view. So if you want to modify the whole page's schema, you must modify main.php layout. In front, if you want to modify the style of a view's content, you need to modify your layout.

Fat Free PHP Layouts

I'm going through some of the code and projects provided here http://fatfreeframework.com/development. My goal is to create a lightweight MVC kickstarter projecting using F3. I know it's been done before, but I'm using this as a learning exercise and I hope to have something useful come out of it in the end.
The biggest stumbling block I'm coming across right now is the concept of layouts. I know the documentation mentions using templates within templates, but I'm struggling to implement it in practice. In the end, I want to have 1 or 2 layouts (default layout, maybe a custom one for modal popups, etc), and then have my views rendered wrapped inside of those layouts. I want a default layout and then the ability to override the default for the few pages that need custom ones. Here's the code I've been using:
// this is the handler for one of my routes, it's on a controller class called Index
public function index($f3, $params)
{
// this (or anything else) should get passed into the view
$f3->set('listOfItems',array("item1", "item2"));
// set the view
$f3->set('content', 'index.htm')
// render the layout
\Template::instance()->render('layout.htm');
}
Unfortunately, I keep getting a blank page. Am I going about this completely the wrong direction, or am I on the right track? Is there a way to set a default layout somewhere so it's used until it's overridden?
Well you could create a base class with a default layout. Then you extend it for each controller class. For example:
abstract class Layout {
protected $tpl='layout.htm';
function afterRoute($f3,$params) {
echo \Template::instance()->render($this->tpl);
}
}
Then:
class OneController extends Layout {
function index($f3,$params) {
$f3->set('listOfItems',...);
$f3->set('content','one/index.htm');
}
}
class AnotherController extends Layout {
protected $tpl='popup.htm';//override default layout here
function index($f3,$params) {
$f3->set('listOfItems',...);
$f3->set('content','another/index.htm');
}
}
In layout.htm:
<body>
<div id="content">
<include href="{{#content}}" if="isset(#content)"/>
</div>
</body>
Structure of the UI folder:
/ui
|-- layout.htm
|-- popup.htm
|-- one
|-- index.htm
|-- another
|-- index.htm
This is just one example of how you could organize your code. F3 is loose enough to let you organize it in a multitude of ways.
I had exactly the same problem - set everything up as required, rendered the layout, and kept getting a blank page. Also when I checked the HTML source of the rendered page it was completely empty.
If you look closely however rendering the layout is not enough, you have to also print it using the echo command. So rather than the following example which appears at first glance to be correct:
$f3->route('GET /',
function($f3) {
// Instantiates a View object
$view = new View;
// Render the page
$view->render('template/layout.php');
you actually need the last line to start with echo:
echo $view->render('template/layout.php');
For more examples see:
http://fatfreeframework.com/views-and-templates
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-the-fat-free-php-framework
http://takacsmark.com/fat-free-php-framework-tutorial-4-database-models-crud/
Also for some reason (which I'm sure will become clear soon - I've only just started using the Fat Free Framework) you seem to also be able to render an .htm file which contain embedded PHP (i.e. they don't have to have the .php extension).

Silverstripe get the values in Security login page

I am using SS 3.02 and have made a lots of modification in the core files. I am facing the issue that I am trying to set the color of the navigation background dynamically. This works fine for pages other than security/login page. Suppose I am getting the value in $navbgcolor, this shows up well on home page or about us page or any other page. But this does not show up on the Security/login page. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Firstly, it is never a good idea to alter the core files as this prevents you from easily updating your version of SilverStripe. You could miss out on bug fixes and important security updates.
The reason this isn't working on the login page is because the login page works from the Security controller which directly extends Controller. Your code (presumably in Page_Controller) will be completely bypassed.
Here is a way you could apply your code to all controllers, without touching the core:
<?php
class MyControllerExtension extends Extension {
public function onAfterInit() {
//... Your code here...
}
}
In your config file you would apply your new controller extension to Controller.
If you're using _config.php
Object::add_extension("MyControllerExtension", "MyControllerExtension")
If you're using YAML (recommended)
Controller:
extensions:
- 'MyControllerExtension'
You can learn more about extensions here: http://doc.silverstripe.org/framework/en/reference/dataextension
Also to let you know, you can create specific template file for the Security login pages by creating action sub-templates. Example is if you created a file in your theme called "Security_login.ss" you can call in variable, change the mark up etc.
Note the convention here is the filename is called the name of the class in this case "Security" then "_" followed by the name of the action to be rendered by your controller ("login" in this case).
As mentioned by micmania1, the golden rule for developing in SilverStripe is...
"Don't hack the core or modules!"
Instead as pointed out use extensions to decorate classes, or use subclasses if you have to.

New pages in CodeIgniter on a big website

I have a website with many scripts written in "pure" PHP, i.e. no specific framework has been used to write the files. Furthermore, all the URLs are custom using .htaccess and specific PHP scripts.
For a smooth transition, I would like to start using CodeIgniter for new pages without disrupting access to the old pages, but all the documentation I've seen on CodeIgniter gives the impression that the whole website (perhaps with a few exceptions) needs to be based on the framework.
Would it be possible to use the framework for single pages here and there while leaving old URLs and code intact?
Short answer, yes.
You could access the CI framework from a subfolder, for instance, leaving the existing site untouched.
i.e
www.site.com/my_new_app/controller/method/
where my_new_app is the renamed application folder.
I'm going to go on the assumption that you already have a basic template system in place, and are able to render full pages with your existing site. Since Codeigniter is really just a framework, there's nothing to stop you from using vanilla php, like include, or additional libraries and classes. So, one thing you can do is dump your site into a sub directory in your views folder, then create a "master" controller which does nothing but load full html pages.
class Master extends CI_Controller {
function __construct()
{
parent::__construct();
}
function index()
{
// We're expecting something like "registration/how-to-apply" here
// Whatever your URL is. The .php extension is optional
$args = func_get_args();
$path = 'path_to_my_old_site/'.explode('/', $args);
$this->load->view($path);
}
}
// Then use this in config/routes.php
$route['(:any)'] = 'master/index/$1';
This will route all pages through the master controller. So, yoursite.com/pages/faq will load the file application/views/old_site/pages/faq.php. You can apply different routes as you see fit.
This way, you can take your time migrating to use Codeigniter conventions, one page at a time.

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