Block is rendered, but toHtml() function is not called

Question

Using Magento Commerce 2.3.5-p2.

I'm changing the template of the layered navigation from a custom module like this:

<referenceBlock name="catalog.navigation.renderer"
                                template="Vendor_Module::layer/filter.phtml"/>

This works correctly.

I am displaying images for some filters, and I want to have them lazy-loaded with Magefan_Lazyload.

The module has a plugin in frontend/di.xml:

<type name="Magento\Framework\View\Element\AbstractBlock">
        <plugin name="magefan_lazyload_lock"
                type="Magefan\LazyLoad\Plugin\BlockPlugin" sortOrder="1000"/>
    </type>

In my opinion, this should work for all blocks that extend Magento\Framework\View\Element\AbstractBlock, so for example for all Magento\Framework\View\Element\Template blocks.

It works for some Template-blocks, but it doesn't work for some other blocks, such as catalog.leftnav, or the one I am changing above.

I also added debug code to Magento\Framework\View\Element\AbstractBlock::toHtml(), and it seems that this method is never called for my block. Also, I don't think the toHtml() method is overwritten somewhere.

Any tips?

I am running in developer mode. Strange enough, it works different in production mode - catalog.leftnav is recognized, but still not catalog.navigation.renderer.

I also tried changing the plugin's sortOrder to 1, this didn't work either.

Answer 1

I recommend to check the Magento 2 Lazy Load extension documentation here.

The extension has an option to define images in what blocks need to be lazy-loaded - "Lazy Load Blocks" option where you need to define one of these:

1. block name in the layout
2. block class name, e.g.: MyCompany\MyModule\Block\Someblock\Interceptor
3. block .phtml template name, e.g.: MyCompany_MyModule::folder/template.phtml

You can check how it works here on github - "isEnabled" method.

If you want to enable lazy loading for some specific cms block or page, or other WYSIWYG content, you need to add this comment somewhere in the content:

<!-- MAGEFAN_LAZY_LOAD -->