Magento Unable to load my custom layout through controller

Question

I have created a module with controller and model. But I am now trying to load a custom view where I can stuff all my PHP,css,js code into that PHTML file.

Here is my Block of Code

app\code\local\Soumen\Testmodule\controllers\IndexController.php

IndexController file


          public function indexAction()
          {
              echo "This is default";
           }

          public function sayHelloAction()
          {
              Mage::log('im in Controller');

              $this->loadLayout();
              $this->renderLayout();
             Zend_Debug::dump($this->getLayout()->getUpdate()->getHandles());
          }


Config file

    app\code\local\Soumen\Testmodule\etc\config.xml

<config>


     <frontend>
        <routers>
              <Soumen_Testmodule>
                 <use>standard</use>
                 <args>
                      <module>Soumen_Testmodule</module>
                      <frontName>testmodule</frontName> 
                 </args>
              </Soumen_Testmodule>
        </routers>

        <layout>
            <updates>
                <testmodule>
                    <file>testmodule.xml</file>
                </testmodule>
            </updates>
      </layout>
     </frontend>
</config>



app\design\frontend\base\default\layout\testmodule.xml


<?xml version="1.0"?>
<layout version="0.1.0">
    <testmodule_index_index>
        <reference name="content">
            <block type="testmodule/test" name="test" template="testmodule/test.phtml" />
        </reference>
    </testmodule_index_index>
</layout>`

app\code\local\Soumen\Testmodule\Block\Test.php


class Soumen_Testmodule_Block_Test extends Mage_Core_Block_Template
    {
         public function getContent()
         {
             return "Hello World";
          }
     }

app\design\frontend\base\default\template\testmodule\test.phtml


<?php  echo $this->getContent();?>

Now when I call http://magento/testmodule... Then it displays the dufault page, but should show Hello World . Can Someone help me out , that what wrong I am doing

Answer 1

In your testmodule.xml file use this

<testmodule_index_sayHello>
   <reference name="content"> 
       <block type="modulename/block" name="testmodule" template="newpage/content.phtml"/> 
   </reference> 
</testmodule_index_sayHello> 

If you don't have block of your module then you can use core/template as block type

Answer 2

There are few changes to make to the existing config.xml file. Since now we are using layouts, we will create our own layout file for our module. Lets name our module’s layout file as test.xml. We will place it in our theme/layout folder.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
    <modules>
        <Excellence_Test>
            <version>0.1.0</version>
        </Excellence_Test>
    </modules>
    <frontend>
        <routers>
            <test>
                <use>standard</use>
                <args>
                    <module>Excellence_Test</module>
                    <frontName>test</frontName>
                </args>
            </test>
        </routers>
        <layout>  <!-- New Section Added -->
            <updates>
                <test>
                    <file>test.xml</file> <!-- This is name of the layout file for this module -->
                </test>
            </updates>
        </layout>
    </frontend>
    <global>
        <blocks>
            <test>
                <class>Excellence_Test_Block</class>
            </test>
        </blocks>
        <helpers>
            <test>
                <class>Excellence_Test_Helper</class>
            </test>
        </helpers>
    </global>
</config>

Now create the test.xml file in your theme layout folder. Like in my case its app/design/frontend/default/default/layout/test.xml or if you have create your own theme, put the layout file there. Here are the contents of the file.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<layout version="0.1.0">
    <test_index_index>
        <reference name="content">
            <block type="test/test" name="test" template="test/test.phtml" />
        </reference>
    </test_index_index>
</layout>

The explanation of this layout file is given previously here. So the block we used is “test/test” which equal class Excellence_Test_Block_Test and phtml file used is test/test.phtml So we will create a phtml file in location app/design/frontend/default/default/templates/test/test.phtml

<?php
    echo $this->getContent();
?>

In the file, we are calling a function getContent(); this function is to be declared in the block Test.php block file. As we have seen previous, the $this variable here is actually an object of our block class, which we define as ‘type’ in our layout.xml. Just to confirm you write below code in your phtml file.

<?php echo get_class($this); ?>

The output should be Excellence_Test_Block_Test. Now create the file Test.php at location app/code/local/Excellence/Test/Block/Test.php

<?php
class Excellence_Test_Block_Test extends Mage_Core_Block_Template
{
    public function getContent()
    {
        return "Hello World";
    }
}

Now, to call all these layouts we need to make some changes in the IndexController.php

<?php
class Excellence_Test_IndexController extends Mage_Core_Controller_Front_Action
{
    public function indexAction()
    {
        $this->loadLayout();  //This function read all layout files and loads them in memory
        $this->renderLayout(); //This function processes and displays all layout phtml and php files.
    }
}

Open the url www.your-magento.com/test/ again and it will again print ‘helloword’.