Menu Rerouting Issue

Question

Why doesn't this:

<adminhtml_report_product_sold>
    <reference name="menu">
        <action method="setActive">
            <menupath>mymodulesmenupath</menupath>
        </action>
    </reference>
</adminhtml_report_product_sold>

make my module's menu active but instead the Reports menu remains active? For context, I have a menu item which redirects to the products ordered report but I want my modules menu to be active as if the user is still in my menu.

Answer 1

Magento's core code is calling _setActiveMenu after it loads the layout. So your setActive gets called, but then Magento calls setActive again, so Magento wins.

Details: To render a Magento layout, the author of a controller action method needs to call

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

When they call loadLayout, that's the method which goes through the layout update XML, instantiates the configured blocks, and calls any <action/> methods.

In the report controllers, the soldAction method looks like this

#File: app/code/core/Mage/Adminhtml/controllers/Report/ProductController.php
public function soldAction()
{
    $this->_title($this->__('Reports'))
         ->_title($this->__('Products'))
         ->_title($this->__('Products Ordered'));

    $this->_initAction()
        ->_setActiveMenu('report/product/sold')
        ->_addBreadcrumb(Mage::helper('reports')->__('Products Ordered'), Mage::helper('reports')->__('Products Ordered'))
        ->_addContent($this->getLayout()->createBlock('adminhtml/report_product_sold'))
        ->renderLayout();
}

So where's the call to loadLayout? Is happens in _initAction.

#File: app/code/core/Mage/Adminhtml/Controller/Report/Abstract.php
public function _initAction()
{
    $this->loadLayout()
        ->_addBreadcrumb(Mage::helper('reports')->__('Reports'), Mage::helper('reports')->__('Reports'));
    return $this;
}

So, since the report controller calls loadLayout first, and then sets the active menu, your layout update XML can never win.

One possible solution is an event observer for controller_action_layout_render_before, and if the listener set the active menu if you're on the correct page (otherwise just return early from the observer)