```Custom Module - How to Link to/access its Template Path File

Question

I have created and enabled a custom module in my magento store called 'Earnings' to allocate customers loyalty points. I declare the phtml file to use (template/earnings/earnings.phtml) in my earnings.xml as below

earnings.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<layout version="0.1.0">
    <earnings_index_index>
        <reference name="content">
            <block type="earnings/earnings" name="earnings" />
        </reference>
    </earnings_index_index>
</layout>

I want the page that uses this template file to be linked from the customer account navigation when they log in (same place as my addresses/my billing agreements/my orders etc). In my local.xml i use addLink as below:

local.xml

<customer_account>
    <reference name="sidebar">
        <action method="unsetChild"><name>reorder</name></action>
        <block type="customer/account_navigation" name="customer_account_navigation" before="-" template="customer/account/navigation.phtml">
            <action method="addLink" translate="label" module="earnings"><name>earnings</name><path>earnings/earnings/</path><label>Earnings</label></action>
        </block>
        <remove name="tags_popular"/>
    </reference>
</customer_account>

Now when i log into the customer account the link is there,it goes to the url http://www.example.com/earnings/earnings but this gives my a 404 page not found

I am very new to magento and this is my first go at creating custom modules. Am i missing something or doing something in the wrong way?

Answer 1

This is the path reference that you are provided in a layout file

<path>earnings/earnings/</path>

This will set your link to this path http://www.website.com/earnings/earnings. When Magento looks for this path, it cannot find a valid controller definition. That is why it throws 404 error. So set your path to

  <path>earnings/</path>
         or
   <path>earnings/index/</path>

will solve your issue. Now the link looks like http://www.website.com/earnings/index/. You have defined your block for this specific URL. Note you have used earning_index_index handle in your layout file. This handle will be processed by Magento only when http://www.website.com/earnings/index/ URL get requested.

Note: In order to work this URL perfectly, you should have an IndexController.php is defined for your module and this file should hold this method.

public function indexAction() {

   $this->loadLayout();
   $this->renderLayout();
}

If this method and this file are not defined for your module, Magento will throw 404 error again.