Magento 1.8 - Custom Block just on Homepage

Question

I am trying to add a custom block to just the homepage. All pages use the same template which is 1column.phtml

In this file I have added a customblock above the content:

<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('customblock') ?>
<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('content') ?>

In my layout.xml within here (I'm guessing this is the hompage?):

<cms_index_index translate="label">

I have added this:

<reference name="notsurethisshouldbe">
  <block type="core/template" name="customblock" template="homepage/customblock.phtml" />
</reference>

In template/homepage/customblock.phtml I have a simple page:

<?php
  echo "testing testing 123";
?>

However nothing is showing up. What have I done wrong?

Thanks

Answer 1

Not the correct way. As you mentioned Just on home page you need static block

Just put below any one line code in content of your home page inside Admin->CMS pages

{{block type="cms/block" block_id="home_page_identifier"}} /**Add your home page identifier here***/

or

{{block type="cms/block" block_id="4"}} /**Add your home page id here***/

or

Add below code in layout update XML in CMS page

<block type="cms/block" name="home_block_custom" before="-">
  <action method="setBlockId"><block_id>home_page_identifier</block_id>    </action>
</block> 

Answer 2

If you know your block needs to be at the top of the content you could add it to the content block, and as this is a structural block it will automatically render the template.

<reference name="content">
  <block type="core/template" name="customblock" template="homepage/customblock.phtml" />
</reference>

If it needs to be outside content then do the following:

<reference name="customblock">
  <block type="core/template" name="customblock" template="homepage/customblock.phtml" />
</reference>

Also to be consistent with Magento's naming method I recommend custom.block instead of customblock.