Magento Override frontend template in custom module file

Question

I want to override the contact page frontend from my module file.

To override the frontend template of contact form, i have created module and in that module i have created layout file mymodule.xml in app/design/frontend/base/layout/mymodule/mymodule.xml in this file i have copied following code:

  <layout version="0.1.0">
      <contacts_index_index translate="label">
    <label>Contact Form</label>
       <reference name="head">
        <action method="setTitle" translate="title" module="contacts"><title>Contact You Us</title></action>
    </reference>
    <reference name="root">
        <action method="setTemplate">                
         <template>page/1column.phtml</template></action>
        <action method="setHeaderTitle" translate="title" module="contacts"><title>Contact Us</title></action>
     </reference>
     <update handle="cms_menu"/>
      <reference name="content">
        <block type="core/template" name="contactForm" template="mymodule/form.phtml"/>
    </reference>
    </contacts_index_index>
  </layout>

I did following code in my module's xml file but it doesn't loading from my module. What could be the issue?

Any help would be appreciated

Answer 1

You have to first add your "mymodule.xml" file in yourmodule/etc/config.xml file like below:-

       <layout>
            <updates>
                <contacts>
                    <file>mymodule.xml</file>
                </contacts>
            </updates>
        </layout>

After that you have to add your code in mymodule.xml file. You have to also create form.phtml file and put that file in app/design/frontend/base/template/mymodule/form.phtml. Hope it works.

Answer 2

Create "local.xml" under "app/design/frontend/themepackage/theme/layout".

Add below lines of code.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<layout version="0.1.0">
    <contacts_index_index translate="label">
        <reference name="content">
            <block type="core/template" name="contactForm" template="contacts/custom_contact.phtml"/>
        </reference>
    </contacts_index_index>
</layout>