Comments on: Magento: Custom Page Templates in CMS Layout Dropdown

By: emp

emp — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 05:31:29 +0000

Surely the best way I found to add custom templates in CMS layout!
Thack you for the clear guidelines.

By: Brad

Brad — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:57:34 +0000

Nice tut…worked great. Thanks Josh.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:15:46 +0000

Worked a treat, thanks Josh.

By: Nicholas Livadas

Nicholas Livadas — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 03:44:16 +0000

Thank you for posting this tut, had no problems

By: Josh Pratt

Josh Pratt — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:21:10 +0000

Robert,

Yes, there are definitely a whole bunch of ways to do the same thing. There are certainly better ways than others – but finding the better/best way can be difficult, especially for someone who isn’t a complete PHP pro (like me). Just keep trying things and don’t be afraid to experiment. Forums and IRC are great resources if you get stuck.

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:07:31 +0000

Hi Josh, thanks for your comment reply.

Meanwhile, I’m figuring out what I can do with these XML layout files and phtml template and all the template functionality built into Magento. Maybe, the confusing thing is that you can do the same thing in many ways…

By: Josh Pratt

Josh Pratt — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:53:24 +0000

Robert,

Well, you can certainly create a page template (and use it for the home page only) and call the CMS blocks right in the code (or from within the Home Page CMS content in the admin. You don’t have to do anything complicated to do that.

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:39:49 +0000

@Terry did you make sure that your directory is named TERRYMODS as well? also the XML file in /app/etc/modules must be TERRYMODS_All.xml…

@josh Pratt thanks for this tutorial, quite useful. However, How would I go about creating a totally custom layout for the Home page. I’d like to keep the default layout in page.xml but I want to add another layout specific only to the home page where I specify some home page specific CMS blocks and code blocks in the left/right columns and above the footer… is there a chance you could write a tut about this? Thanks!

By: Josh Pratt

Josh Pratt — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:32:01 +0000

I’m assuming that the issue then was that you didn’t modify another occurance of “YOURMODS_CmsTemplates” maybe? I can’t be sure without having seen all of your code.

By: Josh Pratt

Josh Pratt — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:30:44 +0000

Terry,

It’s difficult to know what to suggest when I can’t see your code. There are so many variables. Make sure to triple-check that everything is correct, and in the correct place. So, in other words – welcome to custom modules in Magento

Just keep playing with it – try things. Put errors in the xml on purpose – make sure it’s reading the files.