Remove block from group

Question

How do I remove a block from a group?

In catalog.xml there are (around line 210) actions like:

<block type="catalog/product_view_description" name="product.description" as="description" template="catalog/product/view/description.phtml">
    <action method="addToParentGroup"><group>detailed_info</group></action>
</block>

So product.info gets a group called detailed_info with the blocks product.description and product.attributes.

As far as I know I can remove a whole block with

<action method="unsetChild"><name>NAME</name></action>

But that does not work for groups.

In app/code/core/Mage/Core/Block/Abstract.php there are the implementations for these actions. Methods like addToParentGroup() and addToChildGroup() as well as setChild() and unsetChild(). But there are no methods like removeFromParentGroup() or removeFromChildGroup().

How do I remove a block from such a group?

Ideas:

• Copy the whole catalog.xml to my theme and delete that line from it.
• Make a rewrite for app/code/core/Mage/Core/Block/Abstract.php in an own module to add methods to remove blocks from a group

The first idea is the least I would want to do and I would be reluctant to do the second.

Is there any standard magento way to do this?

Answer 1

You can do the following in your local.xml:

<reference name="product.info">
    <action method="unsetChild">
        <alias>description</alias>
    </action>
    <action method="insert">
        <block>product.description</block>
    </action>
</reference>

or for the product attributes respectively:

<reference name="product.info">
    <action method="unsetChild">
        <alias>additional</alias>
    </action>
    <action method="insert">
        <block>product.attributes</block>
    </action>
</reference>

When you do this, the block will not be rendered in the group, but you are able to render it elsewhere.

Answer 2

I found a workaround for that problem (which I actually needed, because of special product views).

The original Magento-Way of displaying the group is:

<?php foreach ($this->getChildGroup('detailed_info', 'getChildHtml') as $alias => $html):?>
    <div class="box-collateral <?php echo "box-{$alias}"?>">
        <?php if ($title = $this->getChildData($alias, 'title')):?>
        <h2><?php echo $this->escapeHtml($title); ?></h2>
        <?php endif;?>
        <?php echo $html; ?>
    </div>
<?php endforeach;?>

By adding a check to the alias of the child block the output can be omitted:

<?php foreach ($this->getChildGroup('detailed_info', 'getChildHtml') as $alias => $html):?>
    <?php if($alias != 'description'): ?>
        <div class="box-collateral <?php echo "box-{$alias}"?>">
            <?php if ($title = $this->getChildData($alias, 'title')):?>
                <h2><?php echo $this->escapeHtml($title); ?></h2>
            <?php endif;?>
            <?php echo $html; ?>
        </div>
    <?php endif; ?>
<?php endforeach;?> 

This workaround is useful if you have to use the description block in a normal way at another point. If not, be shure to check out the solution from Simon.