How To Change Default Layout Template as 2column-left.phtml

Question

I have just installed the Magento Bootstrap theme webcomm/magento-boilerplate

By default, Mangeto loads the 2column-right.phtml as the skeleton layout template. How do I ask it to load another template, say 2column-left.phtml, as the default template? I tried to added following XML to local.xml in the theme package but no avail:

    <default>
        <reference name="root">
            <action method="setTemplate"><template>page/2columns-left.phtml</template></action>
        </reference>
    </default>

So how to do it? I know that I can specifically target a product or category page to be rendered in certain skeleton template but what I want is to apply this layout by default, especially for home page, either by editing the XML files or doing it in the backend admin panel?

Answer 1

Default page template for product description page:

Add this to your <layout> in local.xml:

<catalog_category_default translate="label">
     <reference name="root">
         <action method="setTemplate"><template>page/2columns-left.phtml</template></action>
     </reference>
   </catalog_category_default>

For CMS pages this can be done from the backend.

From

Cms > Pages > Home > Design > Layout

Add the tag to the root of the page in the layout xml

<catalog_product_view>
    <reference name="root">
        <action method="setTemplate"><template>page/2columns-left.phtml</template></action>
    </reference>
</catalog_product_view>

For more info this LINK can be a help.

Answer 2

It seems that the highest priority of layout update is from setting in the admin panel. I simply go to CMS/Page to find the home url and update it to corresponding layout.

Answer 3

In your layout.xml, I can see a small mistake that every developers does. I am not sure whether you did it. You didnt use <layout /> wrapper in your layout file

ie

<layout>
    <default>
        <reference name="root">
            <action method="setTemplate"><template>page/2columns-left.phtml</template></action>
        </reference>
    </default>
</layout>

else you can try this code snippet for home page

<layout>
    <cms_index_index>
        <reference name="root">
            <action method="setTemplate"><template>page/2columns-left.phtml</template></action>
        </reference>
    </cms_index_index>
</layout>

Always clear your cache before make a try. Hope that helps

Answer 4

You definitely need to add an update handle inside your tags

<update handle="page_two_columns_left" />

like in this example:

<catalog_product_view translate="label">
        <label>Catalog Product View (Any)</label>
        <update handle="page_two_columns_left" />
        <!-- Mage_Catalog -->
        <reference name="root">
            <action method="setTemplate"><template>page/2columns-left.phtml</template></action>
        </reference>
        ...
 </catalog_product_view>

Answer 5

You don't have to programmatically set it.

Follow my approach here:

Open CMS -> Page from admin panel -> Select Home page (suppose you want to check template for home page) -> design tab -> select the layout you want.

I'm pretty sure you already know the answer as your question was posted 3 yrs back.