Change Product List Count and List Size Programmatically Via Layout Update XML

Question

I am trying to limit the products per page to six from the current twelve. Also trying to make the dropdown options 6, 12, 24 for different product displays. I currently have the file ../app/design/frontend/rwd/default/layout/catalog.xml where I made the following changes in this block:

<catalog_category_layered translate="label">
        <label>Catalog Category (Anchor)</label>

        <reference name="left_first">

            <block type="catalog/layer_view" name="catalog.leftnav" after="currency" template="catalog/layer/view.phtml">
                <block type="core/text_list" name="catalog.leftnav.state.renderers" as="state_renderers" />
            </block>
        </reference>
        <reference name="content">
            <block type="catalog/category_view" name="category.products" template="catalog/category/view.phtml">
                <block type="catalog/product_list" name="product_list" template="catalog/product/list.phtml">
                    <block type="core/text_list" name="product_list.name.after" as="name.after" />
                    <block type="core/text_list" name="product_list.after" as="after" />
                    <!-- <action method="addReviewSummaryTemplate"><type>default</type><template>review/helper/su.phtml</template></action> -->
                    <block type="catalog/product_list_toolbar" name="product_list_toolbar" template="catalog/product/list/toolbar.phtml">
                        <block type="page/html_pager" name="product_list_toolbar_pager"/>
                        <action method="setDefaultListPerPage"><limit>6</limit></action>
                        <action method="setDefaultGridPerPage"><limit>6</limit></action>
                        <action method="addPagerLimit"><mode>list</mode><limit>6</limit></action>
                        <action method="addPagerLimit"><mode>list</mode><limit>12</limit></action>
                        <action method="addPagerLimit"><mode>list</mode><limit>24</limit></action>
                        <!-- The following code shows how to set your own pager increments -->
                        <!--
                            <action method="setDefaultListPerPage"><limit>4</limit></action>
                            <action method="setDefaultGridPerPage"><limit>3</limit></action>
                            <action method="addPagerLimit"><mode>list</mode><limit>2</limit></action>
                            <action method="addPagerLimit"><mode>list</mode><limit>4</limit></action>
                            <action method="addPagerLimit"><mode>list</mode><limit>6</limit></action>
                            <action method="addPagerLimit"><mode>list</mode><limit>8</limit></action>
                            <action method="addPagerLimit" translate="label"><mode>list</mode><limit>all</limit><label>All</label></action>
                            <action method="addPagerLimit"><mode>grid</mode><limit>3</limit></action>
                            <action method="addPagerLimit"><mode>grid</mode><limit>6</limit></action>
                            <action method="addPagerLimit"><mode>grid</mode><limit>9</limit></action>
                            <action method="addPagerLimit" translate="label"><mode>grid</mode><limit>all</limit><label>All</label></action>
                        -->
                    </block>
                    <action method="addColumnCountLayoutDepend"><layout>empty</layout><count>6</count></action>
                    <action method="addColumnCountLayoutDepend"><layout>one_column</layout><count>5</count></action>
                    <action method="addColumnCountLayoutDepend"><layout>two_columns_left</layout><count>4</count></action>
                    <action method="addColumnCountLayoutDepend"><layout>two_columns_right</layout><count>4</count></action>
                    <action method="addColumnCountLayoutDepend"><layout>three_columns</layout><count>3</count></action>
                    <action method="setToolbarBlockName"><name>product_list_toolbar</name></action>
                    <!-- Since the addColumnCountLayoutDepend does not work, we are manually setting the max columns -->
                    <action method="setColumnCount"><count>4</count></action>
                </block>
            </block>
        </reference>
    </catalog_category_layered>

As you can see I have added

<block type="page/html_pager" name="product_list_toolbar_pager"/>
                        <action method="setDefaultListPerPage"><limit>6</limit></action>
                        <action method="setDefaultGridPerPage"><limit>6</limit></action>
                        <action method="addPagerLimit"><mode>list</mode><limit>6</limit></action>
                        <action method="addPagerLimit"><mode>list</mode><limit>12</limit></action>
                        <action method="addPagerLimit"><mode>list</mode><limit>24</limit></action>

to make these changes. I do not see any changes though. Not in products displayed nor in the dropdown where numbers can be selected. How come.

NB Themes now in /app/design/frontend are base, default and rdw (current package name).

NBB As shown in comments I can change dropdown values in backend config > catalog, but I somehow cannot change the no. of products shown that way by default. Twelve remain all the same.

Here is the full catalog list.phtml https://gist.github.com/jasperf/54815aeaa685a1b282675cf675dceb8a located at app/design/frontend/rwd/default/template/catalog/product/list.phtml

Answer 1

From your question I am not able to get if you have a default category view or a layered category view.
Update the same thing in <catalog_category_default> tag.
Also, update your code like below.

<block type="page/html_pager" name="product_list_toolbar_pager">
    <action method="setDefaultListPerPage"><limit>6</limit></action>
    <action method="setDefaultGridPerPage"><limit>6</limit></action>
    <action method="addPagerLimit"><mode>list</mode><limit>6</limit></action>
    <action method="addPagerLimit"><mode>list</mode><limit>12</limit></action>
    <action method="addPagerLimit"><mode>list</mode><limit>24</limit></action>
<block>

You need to set these values inside product_list_toolbar_pager block. More reference