Create Product Finder Page

Question

I want to create product finder page same as listing of products in catalog page. Here I have product listing page: In this page I have filter and products as per chosen category.

Now I want the page like here:

So I think I have to create duplicate listing page of catalog module and put only simple page where all sidebar data will display without any products.

Please suggest how to create Product Finder Page?

Answer 1

I have created one Module

On landing page it will show entire collection of your store then you can filter it like normal product list.

In Hpl_Productlist_Model_Layer protected function _getCollection()

$collection = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->getCollection();
return $collection;

You can set URL Key in Hpl_Productlist_Controller_Router

const NEW_PRODUCTS_URL_KEY = '<YOUR URL KEY>';

update controller

    public function indexAction()
    {
        $this->loadLayout();
        if(count($this->getRequest()->getParams()) >0)
        {
            $update = $this->getLayout()->getUpdate();
             $xml = "<reference name='content'><remove name='new_products_container'><block type='core/template' name='finder.page' template='finder/page.phtml'/></reference>";
            $update->addUpdate($xml);
        }
        $this->renderLayout();
    }

create template finder/page.phtml